Bicycles, life cycle and beyond economic repair.

[Ming the Merciless]

You also need to put it in perspective . You’ll spend just as much annually on insurance, MOT for a car as you would on a bike every few years. That’s without a car even moving.

It’s actually quite a few thousand miles to wear out a bike drive train, as long as you don’t let the chain get too worn, the other components don’t need replacing at same time. Chains are relatively cheap whilst the other components not only cost more but take much longer to replace..

 

[youngoldbloke]

Our bikes get reasonable maintenance at home, clean, degrease, lube, tweeking where needed. Nothing top difficult but no idea how much that costs. Then you still get wear and tear expenses in our mtb case a hit of a few things at once. I think £50 a year on regular maintenance won't stop the need for new chain, chainring and cassette at some point in its life, certainly not if used regularly.

With my recumbent I degreased and lubed the chain once but it really only got a spring and summer use so perhaps that's not as bad as it sounds. Actually that's what I did but the bike shop did a bit when I first got it. Two routine maintenance hits in 6 months. Still has worn parts which might get by for a bit longer but with a chain change you're best doing those other components at the same time.

The mtb is a solid lump of alloy. Small frame and over engineered it looks like to me as in made stronger than needed. Certainly a bit heavy for an alloy bike despite reasonable spec. Whether that reduces risk I don't know but the bike mechanic did say he wasn't worry about the frame falling due to fatigue. The frame could take replacement components needed but his point was whether it's wise considering a new, modern bike would give more trouble free cycling for not much more than the repair costs. Better suited too considering this is a heavy mtb used for the road with slice tyres.

"I degreased and lubed the chain once" ONCE? I'd regard lubing and cleaning the chain as regular DIY maintenance, as I would replacing a chain, cassette and chainrings. If you are not confident to do such work maybe bike maintenance classes would be worth consideration, could save you a lot of money.

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

As someone who always aims to do my cycling as cheaply as possible, ideally at near-zero cost per mile ridden, I say just keep your eyes peeled for an abandoned 26'er off the street or out of a skip you can grab as a parts donor. I've got multiple spare wheelsets, chainsets, saddles, rear and front mechs, shifters, brake mechs and levers etc as a result.
Most of it is fairly low-end spec, but functional all the same.
Secondhand salvage budget parts wont have the same service life as high quality new stuff, but if it's free I don't care as there's no labour cost if you go DIY.
I keep well away from alloy frames as riding bikes, but I will have them for donors since I'm going to bin the donor frame anyway once I've harvested every useful mechanical.
part. There's no way I'm going to spend anything close to £50 in one year in maintenance on running a bike, unless I was to have a pair of Schwalbes both need replacement at the same time and I haven't got any salvaged ones left to use.

 

[Time Waster]

"I degreased and lubed the chain once" ONCE? I'd regard lubing and cleaning the chain as regular DIY maintenance, as I would replacing a chain, cassette and chainrings. If you are not confident to do such work maybe bike maintenance classes would be worth consideration, could save you a lot of money.

A couple of 14 mile round trips to work a week for 3 months then a two week tour without a high overall mileage. Got it in recently cleaned and lubed state, did the same before the tour then it got stored in the loft where it's dry. That's hardly lack of maintenance. It never went out when wet even on the tour it was dry.

Maintain when needed not because its the scheduled date of doing xyz. I have 4 bikes, 6 if you include the family, 7 if you include the lad's scooter. I also have other activities that take up time too. It's about efficiency and doing what's needed.

 

[Reynard]

I bought a pair of wheels for a general purpose/touring bike build from Taylor Wheels. Excellent quality and value. But I thought they had done a Rose and stopped shipping to Brits?

Mind, I only bought my wheelset from them a year ago, but yeah, good point... I haven't checked recently.

Taylor Wheels was the only place I could get a 24" MTB wheelset with QR skewers without absurdly long waiting times last year. At the time, most places that actually stocked 24" wheels only did either fronts or rears. As you say, excellent quality, value and service.

 

[Time Waster]

It seems to me that there's a few on here who do maintenance as a hobby. Not my thing. It's about keeping it ready for using. You don't need to degrease to schedule but to need.

i've met people who wash and polish their car every week and sometimes more. A bit of muck and they're getting it off. Weekends spending a significant part of the day on the car cleaning process only to end up with a dirty car after one day driving on the industrial estate at work, but it's clean again the next day. Pointless IMHO just as it is to clean your bike after every ride. Personally I find our bikes are not wearing more quickly than typical life cycles of the drive trains. They're getting average or longer than average life out of components. Hardly lacking in maintenance if they're doing that.

As to maintenence stopping big bills. Let's see what that means. Do you use new chains with old cassettes near the end of their life? Same with chainrings? Or do you look at the wear and change with a chain change? Afterall a new chain doesn't run well on old, worn chainrings and cassettes. Then cables stretch, brake pads wear, braking surfaces on wheels wear. All those things are better to spread out but sometimes you have to do things at once. Chain, cassette and chainrings for example. Wheels lasting 10 years is pretty good but you'd expect new wheels on a rim braking bike.

Sometimes you can spread out, we've replaced chains on their own and with just the cassette. This time it's unfortunate there's a few things wearing out or close enough to that point to warrant replacement with the other work. I doubt it matters much if we had replaced the wheels 6 months earlier or later the spend is the same for this year. Spreading it out, if you can, only masks the annual spend. It would have worked out the same, things simply need replacing if they're consumables which chains, etc effectively are.

 

[youngoldbloke]

Maintaining your bike/s by yourself as and when needed stops big bills from the bike shop. Bike components are not very expensive, labour costs are. I clean and lube my bikes as when it's needed, not to schedule. I check the chains with a checker, replace as necessary, rarely need to change cassettes, or chain rings. If a bike is wet after a ride I'll dry it, and lubricate the chain, if not I will leave it until the miles mount up. If it's filthy I'll wash it - that's all, no schedule.

 

[Reynard]

As to maintenence stopping big bills. Let's see what that means. Do you use new chains with old cassettes near the end of their life? Same with chainrings? Or do you look at the wear and change with a chain change? Afterall a new chain doesn't run well on old, worn chainrings and cassettes. Then cables stretch, brake pads wear, braking surfaces on wheels wear. All those things are better to spread out but sometimes you have to do things at once. Chain, cassette and chainrings for example. Wheels lasting 10 years is pretty good but you'd expect new wheels on a rim braking bike.

Proper maintenance (cleaning & lubrication) as and when needed actually reduces mechanical wear. (Got my engineer's hat on here) I'm not talking about religiously after every ride (although it's a good idea after after a wet, muddy ride or a dry dusty one), but it becomes habit, just like keeping atop your tyre pressures and making sure everything is on good and tight.

Keeping a drivetrain clean and lubricated minimizes the gooey amalgam of abrasive dirt particles wearing stuff down. Keeping the rim of your wheels dirt and brake-pad-goo free makes sure everything stops as it should. Of course, rim-braked wheels will eventually wear, likewise all the other components on a bicycle - that's the nature of the beast. But by keeping an eye on things generally, not only do components last longer, it's easier to spot a small problem before it becomes and even bigger problem.

It's not as if keeping things clean and dry is a terribly onerous task...

 

[Fredo76]

In ten years of road cycling in the '70s I never heard of anyone replacing their rims due to worn braking surfaces. Rims were not considered consumable. Chains lasted any rider a year or more, and never broke except maybe in distant lore. Chainrings were not considered consumable, either. Light wheels were as light then as light wheels are today, and considered more important back then. Any nobody had social media to share and nurture obsessive-compulsive behavior, nor to propagate misinformation as shared wisdom.

Have I stirred the pot enough?

 

[Ming the Merciless]

A couple of 14 mile round trips to work a week for 3 months then a two week tour without a high overall mileage. Got it in recently cleaned and lubed state, did the same before the tour then it got stored in the loft where it's dry. That's hardly lack of maintenance. It never went out when wet even on the tour it was dry.

I am confused by this. Why on earth would the drive train need replacing after so little mileage / demands? Presumably drive train must have been in poor shape when you bought your recumbent?

 

[IanSmithCSE]

Good afternoon,

Have I stirred the pot enough?

I am afraid not.

I have scruffy bit of paper in front of me, it tells me that the wheels on

• My 1990s steel bike with Shimano Exage hubs and Mavic rims along with tires, tubes and 8 speed cassette weighed 3kg.
• The Shimano RS10s on my carbon fibre framed bike weigh 2.77kg with two more sprockets.

That is a difference of 0.23kg, if you look at the ASDA web site, https://groceries.asda.com/product/snacking/snacksters-big-stack/1000314748632 you will see that the homage to the Big Mac is 204g.

Surely you can see how significant this is.

More seriously, I used to commute to school on Wolber Junior tubular tyres, and spent pretty much every other night unsewing, fixing punctures and resewing them. They punctured so often that I didn't even bother gluing them back on!

At the same time I probably did less than a 300 miles a month. A few years back, not that many months, I was doing close to 800 miles a month.

In the 1970s people that did 10k miles per year were weird not normal, I was a member of a cycling club and looking back on it the mileages most members were doing really was quite low.

Bye

Ian

 

[Time Waster]

Despite any maintenance you can still get to the point things need replacing at the same time. That's what happened here. It's not happened due to lack of maintenance but things wearing at the same time.

 

[harlechjoe]

I've always held the view a cycle frame is the most important part of the bike as all other components can and usually are replaced. My thoughts are to repair the bike you like.

 

[Time Waster]

I am confused by this. Why on earth would the drive train need replacing after so little mileage / demands? Presumably drive train must have been in poor shape when you bought your recumbent?

Of course I have no idea how many miles it did in that chain when I bought it secondhand. I didn't go with a chain gauge or calipers to check. I went with gut feeling that the guy looked after it. It looked clean and as far as I could test ride it, no gear change I was hanging on for dear life, it seemed to ride well. Took me a bit to get the hang at home but it changed gears OK.

The recumbent chain was close to needing replacement but i needed it lengthening which the mechanic didn't think was wise with wear being close to replacement levels. The chainring and cassette were OK with the chain that wore with it but new chain with nearly worn out chainring and cassette isn't a good idea.

 

[simongt]

As with pretty much any bike, as long as the frame is good, everything else is replaceable at a cost. Only the owner / rider can decide what this cost cutoff point is relative to the original cost of the bike and the personal / aesthetic / sentimental value of said bike. I had a GT Outpost which I rode for over twenty years and in that time spent far more than the original cost on servicing, upgrades and replacement parts. But it always did the job I asked of it without fail until part of the frame had corroded to a non return point.