slimyfrog

Just a curiosity question more than anything else. As I am starting to replace some of my original equipment purchases I'm realizing I enjoy the process quite a bit. It gives me the excuse to try different things and find what I prefer. Also I bore easily and I wouldn't necessarily want a piece of equipment to last forever.
I was wondering how other felt about it. I can see benefits to both sides.

JohnDThompson 

I bought quality bikes and equipment more than 30 years ago with the expectation that it would last. I'm still riding them.

Maelochs

might as well acknowledge that you would replace that equipment if it were worn out or not. That way you can buy great, long-lasting equipment and Ebay or trade it, or put the old stuff on the next bike you are building.

Darth Lefty 

I get bored with the bike I've got sometimes. I don't feel like that's a good reason for it to be shoddy. I didn't always know what I know now, and I didn't always have the money, but buying today, I'd stick with Deore/Tiagra or above.

indyfabz

Uh...Yes, with the exception being Viagra. I don't want that to last longer than 4 hrs.

bmthom.gis

I prefer to spend a little more to buy something once, or a lot less often then spend a little and have to buy a bunch of replacements. As for bikes themselves...I have 2 I do not see myself getting rid of. The rest are all fair game if the right deal comes along.

slimyfrog

Hmm no, I don't think that's the case. I replaced gloves that had holes in them, a 6 years old helmet, chainrings and cassette that were missing a couple of teeth. They are not gratuitous replacements. But I enjoy having the opportunity to replace things.

Doctor Morbius

I tend to fall in love with my bikes the longer I've had them so I want to keep them going as long as I can. My bikes are nothing special, but they've grown on me.

avidone1

Yes, I like to buy quality equipment that will last.
Yes, I like to change things up just for the hell of it.

shelbyfv

I rarely wear out equipment, other than chains and saddles. However, I like to try different stuff and reconfigure my bikes pretty often. I keep the older stuff for "future use" or pass it on to friends.

Gresp15C

In my view it's very hard to design a mechanical system to last for one year, without designing it to last for thirty years. So called "planned obsolescence" actually requires fairly extensive statistical data that would be hard to obtain for bikes. Making old things obsolete by coming up with shiny new things is a lot easier. Of course exceptions are things like tires, and chains, where the wear mechanisms are fairly precisely understood.

Conversely, WalMart BSO's don't last for thirty years because they're not designed to last one year.

OldsCOOL

My newest bike is 27 years old. The oldest one is 38. Though I bought them slighty used, they are in primo condition. I want hardware to last and I expect soft goods to wear out.

StanSeven

I keep most of my bikes for a long, long time. But I get bored with my favorite and newest relatively quickly. There are new things coming out all the time that gets my interest. So my favorite new bike lasts three years or do before I want something else.

a1penguin

Yes, I generally want to purchase items that are well made and will not have a lot of break downs and will last a long time. Yesterday was no biking because Lowes delivered my new Whirlpool Refrigerator which replaced a GE that was built in October 1991 (probably older than a lot of folks on this forum :-) I replaced the older fridge because it spends quite a bit of time running and I feared it might be nearing it's end of life. As I have space restrictions, the fridge selection was very limited and I had to wait a couple of weeks for delivery. Under these conditions, I felt it prudent to not wait until the old fridge died. Replacing working things (appliances, cars, phones) is not part of my character. Oh, my microwave is a Sears Kenmore from 1987 and I drive a 1995 Honda! The microwave must weigh 60 pounds, at least.

As my bikes are not on the low end of the price range, I expect them to last a long time too.

Darth Lefty 

You should also be cautious and look out for whether the newest thing is actually new. I have been doing a little timeline of Cannondale cyclocross bikes and I've found that the same frame gets sold for multiple years under different names, and even when it changes, the changes can be subtle indeed. For the basic aluminum canti model, the frame had a steady evolution from 1998 introduction to the 2010 end of US production, but in that time it had half a dozen names and wore many different groupsets. Sometimes the decal on the bike didn't even match the ad copy.

CliffordK

Yeah, I would expect my bike and bike part purchases to last a good long time.

However, one, rather unfortunate thing I noticed is that sometimes replacement subcomponents are more expensive than the whole. For example, for standard non-brifter brake levers, the hoods are often as expensive as buying whole new brake levers with new hoods.

My tires on the the Colnago are getting mighty bald... and I'm just thinking... would you wear out so I can try out something new. I don't want to run another summer on those same old tires when I drag it out next spring.

I've been running an internal debate about chains. I was using some HG73 chains. My idea is that if I can get them for half the price of other chains, then I'd have to expect twice the wear to justify using more expensive chains. But, I let one get a little bit long this spring, and it took out my cassette and wore on the chainrings. So, now I'm thinking I either need to be more on top of chainging out chains, or get something slightly better next time. Maybe I should do different chains on my winter vs summer bikes.

I wish there was some good comparisons for wear of parts such as cassettes and chainrings, but unfortunately real data is hard to find.

Homebrew01

I was only glad when that ugly brown tread tire wore out.

sail

Absolutely, whether I use it or not. Too much disposable crap out there.

Moe Zhoost

Are you married? Don't let your wife read this post.

Tony Marley

I buy good quality products and want them to last a long time. I may replace something from time to time because I want to, but I do not expect items to be shoddy or wear out quickly. Some of my excellent bikes are 15+ years old.

slimyfrog

I did not purchase my wife. This post does not apply. She's safe.

Looigi

If something lasts long, it will still have value and I might be able to sell it, hand it down or donate it when I tire of it. If it doesn't last long, it's just trash. Where's the upside to that?

Rollfast

I buy many broken things to fix, but most of them say Pioneer and play cassettes.

spoiledrotten

Anything more than 10 mins. is a nuisance, anyway.

RonH

My 2001 Litespeed is just over 14-½ years old. No thoughts of replacing it. It's still my favorite.
Buy quality and it will last a LONG time.