Originally Posted by
vinfix
There's been a spate of threads here, in General, & Road, about the possible perils of damaged carbon, fatigued aluminum, & such.
Some have responded that even the older high-performance steel race frames had their share of problems, too. Let's set aside crash damage, whatever the cause, or rust caused by neglect over the years. Sure, welds can fail, lugs can crack, (though I've never seen it personally), but really, weren't the bikes of 20-30+ years ago more durable and reliable than the seemingly planned obsolescence ones of today? Or are the specimens we have now just the survivors?
Old steel racing bikes very rarely failed due to normal use. Practically speaking, they were pretty much good for as long as you cared to ride them. Occasionally issues came up of course. I was a mechanic for many years so I think I have a pretty good view of the reliability rate. Probably the most common failure I used to see would be a broken rear dropout. Main tube failure was pretty damn rare, and usually the result of crash damage.
Rear axles did break. Campy stuff was stupid reliable other than that. Spokes broke from time to time. Unless you were a racer doing training type mileage (say 15,000/year), you might never have a problem with any components including axles, spokes, etc.