I'm trying to retrofit my wet-weather commuter into the most reliable, repairable, zero-downtime bike possible. It's a steel road frame with carbon fork, currently outfitted with a full Campy Xenon group, and some very cheap wheels that got bought as emergency replacements when the last set failed out. Recently the bottom bracket needed replacing, and I ended up paying the LBS to do it on the spot so I could keep rolling; now I can feel the (Ahead) headset getting crunchy, so it's probably not long for this world either. All that is fine, but since it seems like I'm coming up to a fairly major service interval in this bike's life, and I'll end up having to spend some money to keep it road-worthy anyway, I'd like to buy strategically to ensure that the components I choose can be easily serviced and maintained for the foreseeable future. I have the time, inclination and equipment to do all the actual wrench work myself, so:

What components would you buy for a wet-weather commuter that's taking 200km a week of punishment all winter long? Weight is mostly unimportant in this equation, aesthetics are completely unimportant, and cost - within reason - is not specifically an object. The key focus for me is repairability and reliability: if I take care to learn what maintenance is necessary for each component and perform it faithfully - cleaning, repacking bearings, replacing wear parts, etc - I want these components to last as long as possible without major, commute-preventing downtime. I'm particularly interested in rims, hubs, bottom brackets and headsets, but all advice is good advice. What say ye, o wise and mighty?

Coaster brake.

Fixing and maintaining is so old school. Think disposable. Get a new GMC Denali every 6 months and donate the old one.

Unfortunately, is durability and serviceability are your top priorities, shop for stuff made in the last millennium. Modern stuff is made to the same philosophy as computers and cell phones. It's built to deliver plenty of features for the short haul, then to be replaced rather than repaired because it's already obsolete.

Sturmey Archer 3 speed with a drum brake ,drum brake front hub, too.

It will be left in your Will, to your heirs.



I have a drum brake freewheel rear hub + a 7 speed freewheel .. 25 years of service..

could rebuild the rear, IGH are dishless wheels , derailleur wheels are not.

Old school parts is the way to go , cups and bearings BB , headsets ,hubs (or wheels sets ) . yes it can be a pain to overhaul these parts every 6 or 12 months to keep the bike rolling but in the end you have what you are looking for . and I f you do it just a few dollars for new bearing and grease compare to new parts .

Your headset would be fine, and your drivetrain better, with full fenders.

full fenders and preventive maintenance. do the overhauls before they are crunchy. when it is crunchy it is too late

Consensus seems to be "buy old-school", which is fine with me - next question of course is whether you've got any great suggestions on where to actually do that buying, preferably online? The local shops are mostly factory brand affiliated and carry only new stock from those brands - even to the point where trying to get hold of internal parts for my very common Mavic freehub was a chore far beyond my expectations. Should I just find a refurb seller on eBay and stock up?

you can buy on line like biketoolsetc,com or you can have your LBS order parts from QPB witch most LBS have a account with .

Cripes, but that is depressing. But oh so true.

As for components, I am partial to N. Record. I have pretty much any part I need to completely rebuild any of it. Including derailleurs if need be. Thing is though, they never seem to need it.

It's good that you have the repair parts because Campy isn't supporting them any more and is not even supporting their current components with anything like their former completeness.

- Full fenders (though this is obvious on a rain bike)
- Loose ball headset
- Shimano loose ball hubs
- 7 or 8 speed downtube shifters. Only 1 piece of housing to worry about.
- I'm partial to Shimano cartridge square taper BBs though. They last several years, even in winter abuse, and are so cheap and easy to replace I'd rather do that than rebuild a loose ball BB every season.

Properly maintained these parts (except the cartridge BB) will last forever. The key words are properly maintained. If you let your headset go until it got crunchy, you waited too long.

I'm curious why you recommend loose-ball over cartridge for the hubs and headset? I'd been given to understand that the cartridge bearings handled environmental abuse better. And yes, I know I broke that headset, and most of the other parts that have failed on this bike. The idea of a bike as a repairable machine is a relatively new one for me, and in the first years of my owning this bike, I just rode it and rode it and never did any maintenance at all. Predictably, things started to fall apart, and looking at the cost of shop work for all this stuff gave me a serious wake up call; at about the same time my dad-in-law, who's a very accomplished mechanic for almost everything besides bikes, moved into our house and brought his extensive collection of tools and equipment. I made a resolution then that since I now knew better and had the tools and a mentor, I'd learn what it took to properly maintain the vehicle that's my primary form of transport. Over the last year we've replaced and repaired many parts of the bike, and the of the others in the collection, and I've had a great time picking up a new skill. I've still got a lot to learn, but I'm not afraid of pulling the bike apart anymore, and that's a big upgrade all by itself. Having the forum here to get solid advice on the more bike-specific technical aspects of the work is also hugely valuable. Thanks to everyone who's helped me out!

Always opt for proven components, especially for commuting where reliability is a must (Commuter bikes shouldn't be considered second rate or low end) - To start with get a King headset and Phil hubs and you won't have to service them (And next time you need a bottom bracket do a Phil Wood unit there too). And use Panaracer/Soma tires. The up-front cost is offset by years of trouble free use.

Or if you just like working on your commuter get components (Headset, bottom bracket, hubs, pedals, etc) with loose balls and do a complete overhaul every so often (You'll be able to feel it when service is needed) - a small tub of quality grease, a few inexpensive component specific hand-tools, a selection of easily obtainable ball bearings, and a few hours labor a year will keep you on the road.

Most importantly, keeping your bike clean will extend the service intervals.

Mostly because that's what I use and it works well for me. There are too many poorly designed or cheaply made cartridge bearing hubs (even some really expensive ones from the big names) that I avoid them completely. Shimano loose ball cassette freehubs hubs are pretty cheap, bombproof, and easily rebuilt. Phil Wood makes great cartridge bearings but they're seriously expensive.

Contradicting my previous advice, a cartridge bearing headset is fine as long as the bearings are easily replaced. And as long as the bearings are a standard size that you can obtain. The cartridge bearings in a headset should last a several years, so throwing out the bearings and replacing them for a few bucks is not a big deal.

Cartridge stuff tends to have better seals, but once a cartridge BB or headset wears out, there's no servicing it. It comes down to how much you want to maintain and adjust versus replacing parts, and I have to admit that I'm agnostic on bottom brackets these days. After one particular loose-ball BB kept having the telltale sound of a piece of grit after repacking it (despite my best efforts to keep everything clean), it was quite the relief to replace it with a cartridge unit.

Many Cartridge headsets will happily take new bearings.

I've had very good luck with Cane creek s-3 headsets, which seem to have been replaced by the 40 series. These last a good long time with little maintenance, and replacement bearings are available (haven't had to switch yet, though.).. . that being said, I've also had good luck with various looseball headsets. I tend to run fenders on most of my bikes, and I just repack the headsets periodically, after a lot of mucky riding, or if i'm just feeling ambitious.

Most serviceable and least maintenance are usually at opposite ends of the spectrum.

Most serviceable means adjustable, which means they will need adjustment eventually or frequently. Loose/caged ball bearing setups come to mind.

Least maintenance to me means cartridge bearings. Basically non-user serviceable; replace rather than adjust, and when replacing, could be that special removal/install tools are either extremely helpful or needed.

For a commuter bike, I'd go with least maintenance because I know realistically that's what it will get.

Right, and at the absolute worst, if you can't find replacement bearings, you can buy another identical complete headset and just use it's bearings in the old cups and crown race. That saves most of the repair work and requires no specialized tools.

I've had mixed results with loose ball headsets. Some last very well and others seem vulnerable but, in either case, when they are done, they are completely done.

Mavic made derailleurs that were meant to be serviced and re assembled easily. , but then quit.

and so then they only look like you could rebuild them, but, now you cant find the Bits.

That rebuildability myth persists with Campy components too. At one time they offered parts to rebuild nearly anything they made but that hasn't been true for many years.

Have the Catalog from one of those dealer based small parts in a drawer, Campag Displays..

[I used to work in those old shops]


Topic answer FTW! Most serviceable component .. The Sturmey Archer AW3 hub

Well, LBS agreed that loose-bearing was the way to go for the headset replacement - they're cheap, the bearings are cheap, and you can just replace the bearings wholesale every time you open the thing up. The old headset was a cartridge system which must have lasted ten years, but the bottom cartridge was just destroyed by moisture; that coupled with the advice in this thread has me installing fenders this weekend. The headset replacement was a bit of an adventure, but now I can add another part of the bike to the list of pieces I know how to disassemble, overhaul and replace. When I pull the bottom bracket apart myself, I'll have covered basically everything! Thanks everybody for the good advice.

So the bearing lasted ONLY 10 years, and you made changes to improve on that? Not faulting the fenders if you want them, but I hope that it wasn't because 10 year bearing life was the driving force.