About a year ago, I had my beloved Yeti stolen and I was able to replace it with a nearly NOS 1990 Fuji Ace. (thread here if interested). I have upgraded a few bits on the Fuji over the last year:
Miche Performance brakes, Jagwire cables, Tektro Levers to improve stopping (very nice setup by the way!).
New Wheels: 105 hubs laced to Open Sports, 32 spokes.

Recently, the no-name BB came loose and felt really gritty. First I tried adjusting/tightening it to where the BB spindle stopped wiggling and then tried giving it a spin. It barely moved! I pulled it apart and found that the grease had turned to a tar-like substance and was very sticky. Since it was a generic no-name BB, I just ordered a brand new Shimano UN55 and thought I'd be done with it.

I couldn't bear to just toss the old BB so after scraping off as much of the bad grease as I could, I dropped the whole thing into a solution of Simple Green and let it sit overnight. Then I went to work with a toothbrush. When I was done it looked like new: almost no scoring on the races or bearing surfaces, the balls were smooth and round. So I put it all back together and she spins like new. Smooth!

Now what am I going to do with that new-fangled BB when it arrives?

Spares bin, can NEVER have enough bits in the Spares Bin! You never know when a BB will self destruct! (that is usually caused by years of neglect, or hard use, or both) the headache of sending back and restocking may not be worth it, so start hunting for N+1 that may need a new BB! ;-)

+1

+1.

The simple solution is that you need a new bike that needs that BB to build up...

completely rebuildable. I remember when...

My wife and I were just talking about this last night- but about vacuum cleaners.

A good vacuum cleaner is hard to find these days.

Honest to goodness advertisement from the 50's "Nothing sucks like an electrolux!"

Maybe a long time ago, servicable components made some sense, but when the progress of technology accelerated from the 60's and later, people would rather just "retire" the worn out component and move on to the next newest, hopefully better thing to either stay competitive as a racer or to just satisfy that inner techy gearhead geekness that many of us have to some degree.
For example, I really doubt if any significant percentage of all the Mavic 851 SSC and 810 RDs made were ever overhauled by their owners with replacement parts to keep them going. And that would most likely be similar to other "rebuildable" RDs and FDs. from other makers. Like everything else, things are now mostly plug and play.....then throw away..........or sell to some desperate C&Ver guy at eBay.....
JMOs

Chombi

I don't see myself rebuilding bike chains even if the replacement parts were virtually FREE! TOO MUCH WORK!!! Some parts are indeed, use up and replace. Of course, good maintenance of moving parts can lengthen their lives considerably, and ignoring/maltreatment can shorten their lives in NO TIME.

Bought a $600 Miele in 1995 and it still works (and looks) as new today. When you open it up to remove the multiple redundant layers of air filtration disposables: bags, membranes, HEPA unit, etc, the guts and ductwork of the machine look brand new. Sure, the disposable bags are expensive, but worth every penny. Last I checked, Miele will provide you with replacement parts (e.g, motor) if they go bad.

That's good review info Southpaw...thanks...not to derail this thread too much....but my wife and I are looking to upgrade from our Oreck, which basically....sucks.

Check out Riccar vacuums. We've had ours for years and they work great.

I had a base fridge about 3 years ago, that had a broken drawer support. I priced out replacement parts to the tune of 85 dollars. A new fridge was 200.

So, we're into vacuum cleaners now? Great! There are lots of family ties between bikes and vacuum cleaners. This is a C&V Batavus:

You should have replaced the bearing balls.

What a coincidence! I was thinking about it on Tuesday.

What's wrong with your Oreck? I have an Oreck XL and two Kirby Heritage IIs. The Oreck gets about much use as the Kirbys do. It's not built as stout, but that's kind of the point since it's an ultralight. These three vacuums have outlasted more than a dozen Hoovers, Eurekas, and Dirt Devils.

I would really like to get a Windsor Versamatic one of these days.

Balls are fine. The problem was that the grease was dried out. The bike sat in a garage for 20 years and then I put just about a year of use into them. So the balls only had about a year of use.

Now that everything is put back together, it is smooth as new

I'm sure some here have already seen this. It has been around a long time:
Being a Mac head, I've been saying this for years.

You can't tell they're fine by looking at them with the naked eye. Balls are cheap. I never reuse them.

I think I've worked on just as many vacuum cleaners as I have bikes, with the amount of pets we have they take a beating around here. I can't tell you how many upright vacuums we have had in the last 20 years that we killed but our 1977 Hoover Celebrity keeps on going strong only had to replace the power broom once in the 25+ years that I have owned it. I won't buy another new vacuum again, I have better luck with ones I find in the trash and fixing them then using them until there dead and start all over again ( we always need two Vacs on hand). We have one of these with the power broom on it,https://www.ebay.com/itm/Orange-Hoove...item53ebab8551

As much as I like a good upright vacuum, back when I did electrical, we got a lot of business installing central vac systems and boy were they sweet. When I build a new home, that's going to be a must for me.

What I find a bit disturbing is how fast parts/groups are obsolete and you can't get replacments without going to fleabay or having some luck. You can get parts for older cars no problem, but try getting 9 speed ultegra replacements

Ugh, our summer home was built in the late 80s when that was the Next Big Thing in home design, and has a central vac system (NuTone). I don't seem to get what all the hype was about-- most of the hose outlets are behind furniture, the hose you have to lug around is heavy and needs to get coiled up when you're done, and at the and of the day, it's just easier to go grab a regular vacuum to do the same job.