Originally Posted by
beachball42
OP, just a thought but you say you are riding it to school. Is it possible that your bike is being damaged more by how it is being stored and not so much by the ride? People aren't always that gentle when putting their bike into a rack. Not necessarily you but I mean others around you. Is it possible people are hitting your bike when putting theirs into a rack and bumping things like your derailed and brakes?
Depending on where I am I ride on either the road, multi use path or sidewalk. I do find sidewalks to be a bit rougher but in sections where I ride I'm usually going pretty slow since I'm not out to break any speed records when I'm just doing a casual ride.
It is possible that others are hitting my bike, but I tie my bike to a fence, not a bike rack.
About speed though, I try to ride as fast as possible when I go to school, because I hate being late...
Originally Posted by
Oneder
I ride on the sidewalk most of the time, if I am not inside a housing tract or on a bike trail anyways. Jumping on and off is probably not the best for the bike and is the main worry/annoyance I have on the sidewalk, especially when some idiot has a dog on the sidewalk that they are not controlling. Or like today some other idiot put about 10 'open house' signs up all over the sidewalk near my housing tract. I jumped off the first time, after that I just kicked them all over because they had to place them EXACTLY in the middle of the sidewalk where it is absolutely impossible to get around them even if I slowed down to a crawl (which is a big annoyance).
It sounds more like you just have a jalopy used bike, though. Disc brakes are also a maintenance pit and I doubt they are useful for most riders especially if you are just going to school and back on the bike. The former owner probably got rid of it because it was starting to have lots of minor issues, and after not long those minor issues because serious problems.
That is why I would not get a used bike unless there is a huge discount. You will end up spending a lot of time and money on it in most cases.
My bike was not used, it was new and purchased during a sale. And yes, I sometimes have to get off the sidewalk and ride on the grass for a bit if I am passing a pedestrian.