John E

During more than 100k mi of cycling in just under 50 years, I have broken three rear axles, three left cranks, one pedal, one front hub flange, three frames, one front derailleur, and numerous spokes, cables, etc. The only time a component failure caused injury was when I broke a first-generation Sugino crank at the pedal eye during an out-of-saddle climb up a moderate grade. Ever since I have been very cautious about pushing the equipment too hard. I have also replaced a couple of stems and cranksets as preventive maintenance.

TugaDude

I mash, yes! Only had one problem with all of the bikes that I've ridden and it was a stupid oversight. I had a Raleigh Technium (sold it darned it) and it was a real pleasure to ride. It was an '86 Technium 460 and was very smooth. Anyways, I had the freewheel replaced and didn't double-check the tightness of the skewer. I took it out for a spin and when i stood up to climb a very steep hill it pulled the wheel forward on me. Didn't fall or anything, just scared the "you-know-what" out of me! Last time I make that mistake.

pumpguy

Yep!

rekmeyata

Dang, I use to race at cat3 level and never had that kind of problems. The worse I ever had happen was a front brake cable broke on a mountain race...kind of needed that for slowing on decents, but I kept racing! I had a seat post bolt bend but not break, didn't know about till after the race and was going over the bike; I broke a spoke once on a training ride but just wrapped it around another spoke and rode home; I had a front derailleur band snap but did so after a race while just sitting. And that's been the extent of break downs. And that all happened on the one bike I have the 150,000 miles on since 1984. The aluminum Klien cracked but not sure how or why nor knew it had till I was cleaning it.

doOde

i totally love jammin hard on the old lightweight steel. toasted a few parts and broken a few spokes here and there, including nondrive side rear on my open 20 a few days back. i do feel the old stuff is more fragile than my newer fancy 853 bike and do wish my commuter would feel as solid out of saddle.

rat fink

Though I am for the most part pretty fluid, I am by no means easy on any bike I ride. I really tweak them during accelerations and sprints, both uphill and down. I descend with reckless abandon, and regularly go off-road, and on cyclocross type terrain. I jump over things often, etc. But, when I build a bike, I make absolutely sure that it is mechanically, functionally and ergonomically excellent. Also, I ride light, and float over things as much as possible, so I rarely find that my bike get very beat up. I maintain them meticulously.

As for breakage, I've only broken a seat post, saddle (in a crash), chain, some spokes for the most part. Spokes only break when the wheel is poorly built.


...and for the record, I feel that equivalent quality new stuff just as strong, if not stronger, than the good old stuff.

Captain Blight

How the heck do you break a saddle?

I imagine this is in the same vein as people who ask me, "How do you lose a boot on the lift line at Aspen?" Really, what I'm after is the story. Not trying to point the finger, brother, I bet it smarted like crazy at the time!!

eric_the_poor

I mash everyday up the hills home on my UO-8. I can swear I see my fork flexing out...in a good way though, hopefully. Never broke anything on it.

Italuminium

I forgot to tighten the bolts properly on the straddle bit of my MAFAC competitions and discovered doing so while bombing down on a dune descent. Luckily, it was on my fixie so I made it home.

craggen

Yup! Every hill I come across

rekmeyata

Actually your right, the key for long bike life is smoothness of the rider. I too knew guys that are very non fluid and destroy both old bikes in the old days and new bikes today. Yet I know a guy who is a racer in town who is very fluid rarely has parts break and his chains and gears last a long time even with Campy TI cogs and
lightweight racing chains, and those TI gears typically only last about 3 to 4k miles when used for racing and training yet he gets over 10k miles.

I still very positive that older stuff was more durable then newer stuff though. Todays newer stuff with their brifters fail a lot more frequently then the old school stuff. Newer thinner chains last far less then half as long as the older wider chains. Parts break today you have to buy a complete assembly instead of just a small part. There's more dinking around to make sure the index shifting works properly. CF parts break all the time and their not any lighter the old school aluminum, heck the lightest rear derailleur ever made was a Huret drilled Jubilee that weighed just 135 grams...compare that to your CF derailleurs, and that was made in the 70's without a hint of TI or CF! The only one that comes close today is the Dura Ace RD7900 at 166 advertised grams. But that Huret was not a very good shifting derailleur. Enter my oldest active derailleur, a 83 Suntour Superbe Pro that weighs 174 grms and was the best friction shifting derailleur ever made, and still below the weight company of top of line Campy and Shimano offerings without any fragile ti or cf parts and still working after 150,000 plus miles, in fact all the Superbe components (complete bike is Superbe) on that bike still work after all those miles try doing that with the new stuff! Geez look at even the crappy stuff like the 60's and 70's era Schwinn Varsity's and the such still on the road today, you won't find a Walmart bike lasting that long or even a expensive modern al or cf road bike!

No, I still think that the old school stuff was more stout and designed to last a long time. Todays new school stuff philosophy is just like the cars made today is to break so you can reinvest back into the economy more frequently. Sure there's more science in todays stuff but it's not doing us a lot of favors. There were racing bikes back in the early 80's that got down into the sub 17 pound range, why do you thing the USI rules limit the weight of bike to 14.999 pounds? Because there were racers that could get bikes below that back then! and the concern for safety arose.

Kingofbeers

"Pillow fighting" is pretty accurate for me too. It's like my bikes and I have aged along with each other. Although I think they've kept more of their original strength.

So, I still stand and pillow fight at will - the bikes can take it.

zandoval 

John E - I have talked to many about equipment failures on their bikes but all in all it seems crank failures were the worst...

Ratzinger

I am hard on my bikes. I like to ride them that way. I need to get around.

I could make them last longer and look prettier, but I have to live my life too!

b dub 

It's the only way I can ride them! I'm not much of a leisurely rider regardless of the form of transportation...

ColonelJLloyd 

I'm a masher and I hammer. I've disassembled, cleaned, inspected and reinstalled all of my bikes so I trust they'll treat me well. However, hammering up a hill on a 63cm 531 DB frame is when I can see the sense in stiffer materials. Still, as of now, all of my bikes are steel.

ricohman

Use and abuse for my vintage rides.

craggen

I feel the same way! I like to push myself constantly when riding.

Bikedued

The old skewers aren't the ones I've had trouble with. It's the cheesy alloy nutted ones on modern bikes that will not create enough clamping force. They've been designed for vertical drops, so when the retro steel thing started up a few years
ago... You guessed it. Instant slip on slotted drops. I test rode a Raleigh Clubman a year or two ago, which couldn't be made to not slip, even when the lever was nearly impossible to close.,,,,BD

And, since the vintage stuff I ride usually has low mileage at least on the components, yes I stand on occasion. Mostly though, I spin on the saddle. The wind around here is ridiculous.

JohnDThompson 

I broke an Arius saddle (uncovered plastic shell, like the Unicanitor) by riding it in sub-zero weather which made the plastic extremely brittle.

rat fink

The worst way I've done it, was accelerating (hard) out of the saddle over a very rough surface, my foot pulled out of the pedal and I went down hard, first on the saddle with my inner thigh, then on the top tube. The saddle folded and one rail broke loose.

sillygolem

Generally, unless the bike is built specifically for racing or weight weenies, it will have no problem at all with a sub-300lb. rider. CF is usually on the weenie end, but there are plenty of clydes around your weight riding CF with no problems. There really isn't an "x material fails at x weight" because geometry, tube thickness, and joining all have an effect on strength. Heck, look at some of the downhill bikes being built now: They're CF and can survive multi-story jumps.

Spokes and wheels seem to be the biggest problem: On the low end you can get away with a new 24 spoke rim, but at around 300lbs. or mountain biking you need 36 spoke. Older wheels aren't nearly as high quality as they are now (barring some time with a good wheel builder) and use thinner spokes.

canopus 

I fell off the rollers

JohnnyBee

Sounds like what I have experienced. I've been at this for over 55 years and have seen all types of failures
( mainly aluminum ) it's not pretty when it happens.

Be careful, and inspect your bike before a ride.



Johnnybee.

rumrunn6

broke an old rusty chain last summer while showing off for my kids with a 3rd try at a short sandy climb. that bike should be fine w/ a new chain.