Retiring a Bicycle
 

When do y'all decide your bike has had enough; time to let it loose in on the great road in the sky?
Do you wait until the frame cracks or folds, or do you come to a point where you don't trust it any more?
Do you ride your bike until it's a pile of dust and moldering parts, or get bored with it first and replace it with something newer and nicer?

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I usually wait until something cracks. The good bits will get stripped and put into the parts bin. If I feed the bin well enough a new bike will grow.

I love my bikes. I replace parts as needed. Some of my bikes are like the old axe that's had the handle replaced 3 times and the head replaced 5 times, but its still the same old axe. If your bike is run over by a bus and every single component is destroyed you simply replace every component, it may look like a new bike but its not, its the same old bike.

till it drops, or you get bored
 

Last spring, I decided my 1993 Living-X mtn bike needed a retirement ride. So I rode the kokopelli trail with it. 150 miles of dirt.

I should have hung it on the wall right there.
1 week later, commuting to work on it on pavement, the frame snapped.
(pretty lucky 'eh? could have been a LONG walk on some parts of that trail!)

I have retired one bike. It was my 1970's Raleigh Grand Prix from my junior high years. I would still be riding it, but alas it has always been to big for me. The steel wheel was bent in my last move and I just couldn't see fixing a bike that doesn't fit me. I have salvaged all the usable parts off of it for use in future projects.

I've just retired my American Eagle/Nishiki. For retirement, it got a brand new Brooks Saddle,one new rim so far and another soon, and its getting fresh cables.

It won't mold in the garage, rather, I'll use it for ceremonial rides like the Ride of Silence, go on short fun rides, ride it in parades. I'm proud of the 35 years of service its given. I'd continue to commute on it, but its alpine gearing just isn't up to service on Arkansas's hilly rough roads. But it's still fun, its straight and true and now its a rare bike. I kind of treat it like an old 57 Chevy. :p

My last commuter/weekender (they're all commuter/weekenders for me) cracked. It was an AL frame, so that's pretty much it for it. I can't bear to get rid of it, so the frame now resides on my garage wall and gives advice to the new bike (built-up frame with some of the old components) at night, when no one's looking. It hasn't retired. It's just become a consultant.

I've retired 2...one due to a bent frame (long story) and one recently due a cracked headtube (aluminum fatigue and a lot of abuse). But only the frames are retired and become wall art in my garage...the parts live on through new builds/replacements.

Allen, tell me it wasn't the Salsa La Raza.:eek: :eek:

No, thank god. The XtraLite vs truck was what spawned this thread.

The only ones I've ever retired were cheap K-Mart bikes. The components would get messed up enough that I couldn't ride, and I didn't know how to fix them back then. I couldn't seem to keep them more than a year or two, but didn't feel too bad since they were inexpensive. I still have the first LBS bike I purchased over 10 years ago and just changed out the drive train components last year. I'll ride it until the thing falls apart.

bikes never retire willingly.....
makes me very sad to spot the occasional nice old bike mouldering in a suburbanite garage... those are the bikes that need rescuing!

I have retired two this year, and several in the past. My favorite way to retire them is to give them to someone they'll be good for. If I can't find anyone, goodwill wins. If a bike is not operational, I will fix it as cheaply as possible before giving it away.

I was going to retire my trusty commuter, but I just couldn't bear to part with it so it is on a trainer now.

I'm faced with the same decision, but I think the bike will sit around, maybe eventually get fixed up. My Gary Fisher MTB has a frozen seatpost (the bolt on the seat adjustment is probably frozen too, I recall supergluing it in place once!), the pedals are shot, chain is stretched (and snapped once on a trail), gears are worn (chainrings and cassette), and the RD shifter is not downshifting too well. I think the head bearings are loose, and the bottom bracket may be loosening up. One of the shifter cables is cracked pretty badly. Not too bad, for a 12 year old bike that spent its first 2 years outside all the time (in Maine), and has had one tuneup in maybe 1,500 miles (did get a chain/cassette replaced at the 1k mark).

But I don't think I could ever give it up or part it out--it was my commuter in college. Fond memories. Maybe I'll start shopping for parts on the cheap, and fix it up. But I think for now, I'll dig around for a lighter bike to get back into the hobby with. So, it'll sit in the shed.