livedarklions and
ClydeClydeson have it right, 'consumables' is just a fancy way to say "wear items"; the stuff that typically gets replaced due to wear or age. Things like tires and grips/bar tape and even chains have always been there; cables too, especially on bikes that have seen many seasons; although modern STI cable routing and the the more demanding nature of 10/11+ -sp drivetrains require 'fresh' cables more often
Bike forums also has a high concentration of high-mileage all-conditions users, and spreadsheet-and-logbook 'maintenace obsessives' (who also probably ride a lot more than me) who replace components like BBs, cassettes and wheel rims far more often than a typical cyclist.
It's just that there's more of them here, so you hear about it a lot more.
Originally Posted by
genejockey
But also, aluminum bars, like aluminum frames, have finite fatigue strength (I think that's the term) and may eventually fail, and the lighter they're built, the more likely that is.
The lighter you build anything, the more likely it is to break, that's the trade-off.
Aluminum bars have been common on light weight bicycles since the 1970s, I think the real reason you're seeing more broken handlebars now is that trainers are more common/popular than, say 15 years ago, and they're a lot harder on the bike than being on the road, and add the sweat/corrosion issues in on top of that.
So far, since I learned to ride a bike in the early 1980s, I've had two handlebars fail, one was a crash on an ultralight 140g Scott bar; but the one that failed JRA, was steel (it bent during a fast slalom -turn)