Originally Posted by CigTech
Yes, The Huffys and Next can and, and do last for years with a average rider. But I did kill a huffy this year in 30 days. I put 748 miles of hard ridding on it before it bent the head tub out of shape. I am 175 LBS. so I don't think it was the weight that casued the head tube to bell out out the top and bottom. I rode that bike with a average speed of 17 MPH. My top speed on it was 37 mph. So you can say that I just road the crap out of it. I paid $25.00 for it, it was a 1989 frame with stock parts.
Then got the Peugeot for $10.00 and have put 3600 miles on it from the 1st of April to now. I killed the back rim. It has two cracks in the rim. I ride it with a average speed of 18 mph and a top speed of 38 mph. I have made it to work in 41 min. on the Peugeot for the 17.2 miles commute (one way). My Average ride to work was 55 min.
So on the average I was doing a 18.76 mph average speed.
You seem to go through a lot of inexpensive bikes. I am wondering do you work at maitaining them or just toss them when they stop working? The Peugeot with a bad rear wheel sounds like an easy enough fix so why did you get rid of it? Also as are you leaving late or just really phsyced to get to work? Why ride so fast too work? I can understand coming home fast but is there a reason to be so concerned with time/speed? If you went a little slower do you think it might have less of a destructive effect on the bikes you ride?