Originally Posted by plain.jim
I've just returned to riding after a hiatus of thirty years (most of the staff in the LBS's I visit weren't born at the time I stopped riding!). I'm lovin' my Giant OCR2, but I read that I'll get a few years out of this aluminum frame, and then metal fatigue will set in and I should plan on buying another bike.
Well, that doesn't sound right to me. Not the metal fatigue part - I'm willing to believe that - but the part about having to buy a bike every few years. After all, the limiting factor on the performance of any bike I'm likely to ride isn't going to be in the bike's components, but in the weaknesses and laziness of the rider. (Ahem.) So is it possible that I'll be able to get one frame that will last me the next twenty-five years or so, and is worth keeping, and on which it's worth replacing the wear parts? If not, OK, then, but if so, what would that frame be made of? What should I look for? And (at the risk of igniting a flame war) who are likely manufacturers?
Cost, of course, is an issue, so if the only way to do this is to take out a loan against my retirement plan, I'll pass... but I hate to think of adding a bunch more bike frames to my local landfill if there's another way.
(In other news, I can't believe I went so long without getting on a bicycle. In less than three months, I've lost 18 lbs., and I'm in better shape than any time since the Carter Administration. What the &%$# was I thinking of?)
Here's something to think about
: I am a great fan of steel and have a bike with a U-brake on it. Some old bikes have frame spacings that are hard to find new hubs for. As some bikes get older styles change and today's cantilever brake may give way to disc brakes, to the point where cantilever brakes may not even be available in the future.
That said, I am all for keeping your bike as long as you can but sometimes they really do go obsolete, although if you look long enough you can still get parts, at least NOS, if not new manufactured stuff.
That said, I have a friend who has a Raleigh steel road bike that is 35 years old and has a Campy Record gruppo on it. He has replaced/repaired a few parts but the lesson for you is to buy the best gruppo you can afford because it will be your component group that will probably obsolete your bike barring any frame failure.
Then again, you could do what I did: buy the bike and wreck it the following week, and none of that matters!
I second the previous post, though: steel would probably be your best choice for longevity, but I have two aluminum bikes, aged 9 and 12 years that I plan on riding until they break.