djb

It's too bad my MIA comments are gone, but re flats, I ride usually about 5000km per season on two bikes and usually get one of two per season. I see a big part of flats is keeping an eye on the road for debris and or holes and not riding into our over them.
There is of course bad luck. I've twice on new marathons, regular and supreme , had goofy nails flipped up from front wheel and going into the rear. Flukes.

jefnvk

Apart from the cable screw on my rear derailleur magically unscrewing itself on a bike rack one day and turning the bike into a SS, I have yet to have the fun of trailside failure. Granted, I have at best 1300miles of riding since I really started again last summer, so it is a rather small sample size.

RedandBlack

"When was your last failure?"

Pours a tall glass of bourbon, "Let me tell you something about my life..."



Oh, bike failure. Never mind. Never have had a flat. Maybe a warped rim that rubbed a bit on the front brakes that was annoying.

gerryl

This is an excellent topic. Some of my no name low cost stuff has lasted decades, headset, brake levers, seat post,stem, brakes. I still have old Rigida rims that I bought new for $15 that I still use in the snowy winter months.
I'm feeling pretty good about not wasting money on stuff that doesn't fail, no matter how little I spent.

djb

I agree, my experience with medium quality stuff, derailleurs, wheels, this that and the other, with proper maintenance and a bit of common sense has stuff lasting for ages and ages and ages.

Keeping stuff clean and lubricated, and not being a bull in a China shop with your riding or how you generally treat things gives outstanding life usually.

Spoonrobot 

Over the past four years and about 33,000 miles I’ve had the following mechanical failures while riding.

2011: 2,062
2012: 7,091
2013: 9,153
2014: 7,848
2015: 8,587

Fall 2011: Broken rear axle (road bike)
Spring 2012: Broken spoke (fixed gear)
Summer 2012: Broken spoke (fixed gear)
Fall 2012: Broken spoke (fixed gear)
Fall 2012: Broke frame (fixed gear)
Summer 2013: Broken spoke (road bike)
Summer 2013: Destroyed rear wheel (road bike)
Spring 2014: Broken quick link (mountain bike)
Fall 2014: Broken frame (fixed gear)
Spring 2015: Broken spoke (road bike)
Summer 2015: Broken frame (road bike)
Fall 2015: Broken chain (single speed)
Fall 2015: Broken front derailleur (allroad bike)
Winter 2015: Broken frame (allroad bike)

pamaguahiker 

Just to chime in....not many failures since returning to touring last year after 6 months off. The major failure being, I was unable to gain control of my bike in October 2014 resulting in a failed humerus, failed shoulder and collarbone and scapula. Failed rotator cuff and failed medial meniscus, failed to wear a helmet that day resulting in a failed brain function before the ride, resulting in brain injury from the fall.

Regarding parts and pieces.
I had put on just shy of 5000 miles after returning to the bike after May 2015 after surgery. I had a broken chain on a 11 speed fat bike that I was actually using for an overnight backwoods trip.

On my VO touring bike, I had a failed 10 speed link. Fixed with quick link and running strong for another 3k since.

I've had spokes in the long ago past but in the last 5 years...all chain links. All of the chains have been 10 or higher speeds.

gauvins

Wow! Do I really read 3 broken frames in less than 35 000 miles? Could you provide some context?

gauvins

(they should add a "like" button )

corrado33

Screw through my tire ~1000 miles ago. Last flat tire before that was... I don't remember.

I broke a chain on my road bike ~1.5 years ago. It was due to me not knowing how to reassemble a chain correctly after I had broken it apart.

Spoonrobot 

It's actually four frames; 1 lugged steel road(ds bb shell), 1 welded alu road (dschainstay/seattube juncture), 1 welded alu fixed gear (ds bb weld) and 1 welded alu cyclocross (ds chainstay). I think the issue is that the first 10,000 miles I rode as an adult were on a fixed gear so as a habit I pedal over bumps and often pedal very hard over bumps as on a fixed gear that helps take up some of the discomfort since you can't coast and absorb the shock the same.

str

Spring 2016, broken elbow.

gauvins

like.... just now?

str

3 weeks ago ;) getting better already. no surgery.

shibbyman23

Rear bar end shifter cable snapped after only 6000km, I thought they lasted at least 25000km or more, so wasn't too happy about that.

robow

Spoonrobot,
may I be so bold as to ask what you weigh ? I'm just curious because that's a lot of cracked frames in this day and age.
Btw, Trek and their lifetime frame warranties would never want you as a customer.

Doug64

Just a few items wearing out or breaking during the last 10 years:
-2 snapped chains (failures)One chain breaking caused the derailleur hanger to break, sending the RD into the spokes, ruining the derailleur. Bad day!
-3 broken spokes (damaged),
-1 bottom bracket (wear),
- several Look cleats, either cracked or broken.
-2 frames, 1 Aluminum-crack in the headtube, 1 steel-crack in top tube@seat tube. Neither were catastrophic.



I don't consider the wearing out of consumables as failures. My wife and I have had as many as 13 flats on a 3700 mile tour. Our last tour this summer we did not have any on a 2000 mile tour; the first tour in about 16,000 miles of touring that we have not had a flat. We have also trashed 2 tires during that time, which could be considered failures. A lot depends on the area. On my commuter bike, I had 5 flats tires in 5 days.

We often go through a set of brake pads on long tours. A lot depends on the weather and riding conditions. I try to start with new brake pads, tires, bar tape, and change any suspect cables before any long tour.

We have had bikes damaged several times when shipping them to the start or back home from tours. Even though the damaged caused some "failures", I don't believe this type of damage counts as a true failure.

Just out of curiosity I just went out to my shop and counted those small retaining nuts that come with presta valve tubes. I'm not sure when I started throwing them in a tool box tray, but there were 47 of them, and I didn't keep all the ones I had. That is a lot of tubes, and my roll-away tool box is only about 9 years old. I do patch my tubes, some many times.

I'm not sure when this picture was taken, but there were 47 of them today.

Spoonrobot 

I was between 160-170 for the first 2 and between 170-185 for the second 2. I'm hoping the combo or steel and 650b will last a little longer

DropBarFan

A Jagwire compressionless brake cable housing broke near the end where it goes into the ferrule, after about 2,000 km. Maybe I used the wrong ferrule but anyway that never happened with previous housings, even the cheaper kind.

northerntier

I hate those things. Only seem to encounter them in the southeast US, for some reason.

djb

I have read of these tire belt wires for years, but in all my years of riding have never personally experienced them. Last summer however, my wife and I were driving across a wide bridge in upstate New York and shortly afterwards while waiting at the Can-US border, her tire was flat. Sure enough, it was one of those little wires, but I did recall that on that bridge, with a shoulder the size of at least a full car lane, my wife had been riding right near the full length cement barriers where all the debris was. I figure that the full barriers meant that even with lots of rain, the road debris would not get flushed off the edge of the lane, and collect there against the cement wall flush with the road surface.
So that is probably where it got picked up in her tire and took a while to work its way in to the tube.

I can see that having a really small set of pliers or even tweezers would be handy on a tour, as I borrowed some pliers to pull it out easier than by hand, it was short and rather imbedded in the tire.

Doug64

I consider this a failure.

I was working on a friend's bike last weekend, and had it on the work stand. I'd just gone into the house from the garage for a cup of coffee when I heard a loud noise. I couldn't figure out the source and forgot about it. My wife came out to see how it was going (working on a 1972 Peugeot UO8—Ughh!), and picked up something from the floor. She asked me what the object was.

The Schrader valve core had blown completely off the tube. That was a first for me. Heck, from the condition of the bike, it may be the original 1972 tube

djb

Doug, I had an immediate flashback to the 60's Batman show and these sort of things popping onto the tv screen!

thats a good one.

suburbanbeat

Rear, drive-side spoke broke on me. Worst possible spoke that could have broken, seeing as I needed to remove the cassette to get to and replace the spoke. To do that would have required a chain whip and cassette lockring tool, neither of which which I brought with me (this was a cross-country tour of the USA). By some miracle a guy in the town we were staying in that night had a small shop set up in his garage, and he was able to make the repair for me.

Save for bringing a chain whip and lockring tool, which some might see as overkill, this might have been prevented by regularly checking and adjusting my spoke tension.