As my mileage has ramped up from about 3000 miles the first year I started back riding seriously (5 years ago) to 10,000 plus for the last few, I've been stunned by the number of tires, chains, cassettes and brake pads that I have consumed. My wife, who gets the credit card statements and pays the bills, is more than stunned, more like wondering if I'm secretly keeping a mistress with the cooperation of bikes shops from here to Wisconsin.

My 1972 Atala Record Pro is on its third chain in 37 years, fourth or fifth set of tires, third brake pads, and the cassette is still running three of the five gears that came on the bike when I bought it in 1978. The two new gears are concessions to some really steep hills I encountered in Ithaca where a 39-19 did not work when the panniers were loaded. Of course, back in the day, I did my own wrenching with the help of two armed friends.

For those of you who rode continuously over the same span, am I doing something wrong, or have we entered a new era where keeping bike on the road takes a bigger pocket book than it used to take?

With more gears, everything became smaller and lighter. Chains are about half the width they used to be and cassettes not only are thinner but wear quicker due to whstever they are made of. Brake pads are less durable as well but stop much better.

Modern components may wear a bit faster than the old ones, but the big difference is the mileage. Did you put 10K miles/year on the Atala?

I don't think that's the entire story. Those old Sedis chains were amazing. One could ride 25,000 miles on one without toasting the freewheel cogs. Most of us only changed chains when we didn't want to clean up the one that was on the bike but needed a clean chain for some reason. It was also a lot cheaper to replace a cog or two on a freewheel than it is to replace the entire cassette, which is what we usually have to do these days.

On the up-side, bearings are a lot less trouble on modern bikes than they were back in the day. It was annoying to have to repack the bottom bracket after every-other stormy ride.

I wouldnt want to go back to those heavy, sluggish 27x1.25 gumwalls of the 70's. But then, I never did get a flat or wear one out. Same with brake pads. Bar tape, oh yes.

Got a picture of the mistress?

You must not be running a BB30...

Just make sure your wife sees you come in covered with grease every time you change the chain, cassette, etc.

You might see if you could find some less expensive replacement chains. Modern bushingless chains don't last like the old ones, unfortunately.

I don't mind better performing consumables and I like to change out cables, tires and chains well before they are worn.

A well worn tire will flat more easily. A flat tire is not only inconvenient, it can cause a tumble if the rider has a sudden flat at speed. A worn chain can prematurely wear cassettes and chainrings. Changing these parts well before the are absolutely worn makes sense to me.

Earlier this month I asked my local bike shop to replace my shifter cables, they had about 4000 miles on them.

When I picked up the bike, the mechanic insisted that they were not in need of replacement. Within 500 miles the rear shifter cable snapped. I had to finish a long ride with the chain stranded on the 11 cog. I had a an interesting follow up conversation with the mechanic, who apologized.

I think you are doing about right on your consumption of parts. I do about the same mileage each year as you do. I bought my Colnago new in Jan, 2012, and have replaced the entire drive train, all the cables and have quit counting the number of chains but I know there are at least 17 chains that I've gone through. I'm due for another chain, since they only last me about 2,000-3,000 miles, and my cassette looks as if it's going to need replacing after this next chain wares out. I've been really lucky on tires. I ride Continental Gatorskins and I can get a full years worth out of a pair. They get changed every January.

About 10 yrs ago, when bike stuff was noticeably cheaper I figured it cost between $0.05 and 0.10/ mile to ride a bike. Intangibles being tires ridden to bald spots with carcass showing versus tire failure by large hole in sidewall from rock, tube valve failure versus tossing after 6th-8th hole patched using bulk patches. This did not include depreciation which would be ~35-50% of bike new cost
over the first 2-3 yrs. With the popularity of disk brakes that adds another $0.01 per mile cost for pads which don't seem to last as long as rim pads, but OTOH the rims last longer without rim braking
wearing out the braking surface. Tires are a big part of this, and if you insist on $45-70/tire, you are at $0.01-0.025/mile for tires alone.

Tires are much less expensive than that if someone looks. I use Conti GP in the most current version for the last ten years. $35 is the most I've ever paid

Back when I was doing the bulk of my riding in the late '70s, I was wearing out two rear tires for every front. I'd get around 2000 miles on a rear tire, 4000 on a front. I never bothered to rotate them, but replaced them pretty much 2:1. I still buy my tires in multiples of three for that very reason.

200 miles per week, 50 weeks per year is a lot of miles. Your consumables probably are not out of line. How much riding is done in the rain or on wet roads? Grinding a 39/19 gear up steep hills with loaded panniers probably isn't ideal on the drivetrain components.

Could it be a case of now having the means to easily replace things that we stretched out when we were kids, or young newlyweds, and not as flush as we now tend to be. True that chains, cassette cogc and chain rings are now being made thinner to accommodate the 9,10 and 11 speed drive trains, but the precision of the machining and the alloys have improved greatly. I don't recall needing to replace the old "10-speed", 5- rear cogs, chains or gear cluster, when I was a kid, we rode things into the ground then. Now, we have more disposable income, and the knowledge(?) about the wrenching side, so we replace the consumables.

I am getting about 4,000-5,000 miles on a pair of Gatorskins, and the SRAM 1070 chains are good for about 7,000, or so miles, for me. The cassette and chain rings are fine, so other than possibly regearing the cassette for some planned climbing out of our coastal area, my drive line is fine, still. Cables aren't a big problem, I've replaced the complete set 1 time, and that was preventative, last spring. I think a lot of how often we replace depends on the quality of what you choose to purchase, too.

Bill

Bikes are no different than any other mechanical equipment.The more it's used the more it wares down and the more expensive it is to keep operational. Much of the cost of replacement parts also depends on where and how you ride. Riding off road will cost more than riding on road just because of the extra abuse the bikes and components go through. Even riding on road, different types of rides and road conditions will determine component wear. Someone on a road bike who seldom goes faster than 15 mph will keep a chain and drive components longer than someone who normally rides in the 18-20+ range; simply because of the added stress placed on the components at the faster speed. The same goes for tires. Those that normally ride on smooth blacktop roads will keep a tire longer than someone who rides on rough road surfaces.

Yes, but buying tires because they only cost $15-$20 each will not be any different. In my experience, you will replace cheap tires more often than a better made tire. I ride with several retired guys who buy the cheapest tires they can find. Many of them will go through 3-4 sets of tires to my one.

I'm running a BB30 and have over 10,000 miles on it without any problems. Are BB30's known to be troublesome?

Rick / OCRR

I think stuff wears out quicker than it used to.

Downtube shifter cables used to last forever, and if they broke, no worries. Brifters bend the cable at a much greater angle, and if the cable breaks in there, you could be in for a lot of grief. Result: You have to replace them much more often. I ride along the beach and find that I have to change out cable housings more than I used to. Indexed shifting means that friction is more critical than it used to be.

Chains are thinner I think they wear out and break easier than they used to. Older chainrings were often steel, and they didn't wear much. Newer ones are almost all aluminum, and wear quicker.

I think tire wear is about the same or might have even improved.

But I'll also say this: I think it depends on how and where you ride.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I wear out everything ... tires, cables, chains, cassettes, and chain rings ... a lot faster on the bikes I ride in the mountains than I do on the bikes I us on my relatively flat commute. that makes sense to me. The cables are used more often; the tires used on rougher surfaces, and at higher speeds on the downhills; the cassettes, chains and chainrings subject to more force when climbing ... particularly when standing up.

Either way, it's still a hell of a lot cheaper than driving. With a few dollars here and there for maintenance, you can ride the same bike for years and years without replacing it. You can't say that about automobiles.

It is inevitable that a chain with narrower endplates and run over compact chainrings and cogs will wear out faster than an old school chain run over a 52-47 ringset. Also, today's ramped and pinned chainrings and index shift invite power shifting, which none of us old school guys ever did. Instead, we always backed off on the crank torque when changing gears, and we downshifted early on climbs.

My BB30 is running well. The bearing are larger than external bearings like the Hollowtech II and they are better protected from moisture and dust.

But BB30 can produce a creaking sound on some Carbon bikes.

The problem generally is caused from improper installation. You or the mechanic needs to know what they are doing. If that happens, problems are few or non-existent.

Today's bicycle is built from lighter weight alloys and tuned to tighter specs that are less forgiving than my bicycle from 1970. The parts do wear faster.

I think another thing that happening is sticker-shock with mid-level bicycles and parts costing 10x-20x what a similar mid-levels cost back in the day.

And the price of top end stuff is just out of the question. I mean really, does anyone actually buy Campy cassettes? SS and fixie are looking to be great options in the future.

Using a BB30 on my CAAD 10/4, no issues from it, what so ever. As said above, its usually an installation fail that is causing the noisy ones, and the noisy folks that post so often about theirs.

Another factor in the use of consumables, we are older and wiser (hopefully, I probably lose that one without even starting) about keeping things in working order. We don't tend to run out, jump on the bicycle and have at, now we tend to look things over, do maintenance and keep the critical points in line. Admittedly, I am an engineer, and wired that way (or "weird, that way",) so I get into doing the maintenance, and just looking things over for analysis of what is going on with the machinery aspect of my bicycle. Simple Elegance is a term I heard back in the late 70s, and it applies to bicycles so well and so much.

I used to take my 74 Raleigh International apart down to the frame set, even the Campy NR components got field stripped, and clean everything, lubricate each part that required that, and carefully reassemble it, in a night's bit of work. I learned so much about how, and why, things are designed the way they are, and what worked better, or best. My wife knew she was in for a long hard slog of putting up with me.

End of poor attempt at thoughtful musings.

Bill

Don't forget the additional food you ate from all those calories you've burned. If you burn 500 cal to go 15 miles, what does that cost? It aint free.