Originally Posted by Brian Ratliff

The point is the answer is trivial. Everyone replaces parts on their bike. The bike is designed for that. This is the point I was making.

My car, on the other hand, is completely stock 7 years after I bought it, because that was how it was designed. A serious rider who changed nothing on their bike for seven years yet rode it every day is a fair rarity in the world of cycling. In the world of cars, stock cars that stay stock over their lifetime are the norm and customization is the rarity.

Most of these questions (and they pop up a lot on this forum) are asked for reasons along the lines of answering the question: "...is it okay to customize my bike?" The answer is a trivial "yes" because the bike is designed with change and customization in mind. Because this question pops up so much, I thought I might as well answer it with something other than a "me too" type answer, otherwise this forum would be a very boring place indeed.