Deciding between two bikes
- Thread starter mikepope
- Start date
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froze
Über Member
- Location
- Fort Wayne, Indiana
Without knowing the years of them, the Gary Fisher has a better aluminum fame than Trek has, but Trek has better components, personally I would just stay with the Wingra and save your money, so you'll have money to do upgrades to the Wingra as needed. The Wingra came with Acera derailleurs, those derailleurs are not a long term component, so at some point you can upgrade to the Deore, or to the SLX, or maybe to XT.
The one thing to note if you decide to go the upgrade route is that the top of the line XTR shifters are fantastic, but that's the only thing I would buy from the Deore high end XTR line, if those shifters are too expensive then go with the XT shifters; then jumping down the XT the only thing I would buy from that group is the rear derailleur due to the derailleur using bearings instead of bushings; the rest I would just use the SLX stuff has being the sweet spot to be between price, long life and weight; then I would stick with the basic Deore cassette it's made of steel instead of aluminum and will last a lot longer than the more expensive upgraded cassettes will last, and also Deore chain will last longer than the others will. Make sure you use good cable housing, the Shimano sp41 cable housing can make a world of difference as to how your components will feel, in fact if your bike is having some shifting issues, try those cable housings first before buying new stuff and see what happens.
A word of warning about XT shifters, as of 2 years ago? they had a problem with a spring breaking causing complete shifting failure, I am not sure if that situation has been addressed yet, but I would hope so by now, but maybe someone here has a better answer for that.
The Shimano Deore hierarchy from low to high end is Deore, SLX, XT, and XTR, but other than the shifters there's not need to splurge on XTR, or even XT.
The other thing about bikes is that you need to get an approximation of how many miles have these bikes seen, aluminum fatigues with miles and weight which means a bike ridden 10,000 miles by a 135 pound person vs the same bike ridden 10,000 miles with a 225 pound rider, that bike with the heavier person could already have aluminum that is already tired out. Of course if the bike was ridden 50,000 miles with a 135 pound rider the frame could be tired out as well. Stupid things to consider before buying a newer bike.
If I were you, I would just keep the Fisher and slowly upgrade it as needed.
The one thing to note if you decide to go the upgrade route is that the top of the line XTR shifters are fantastic, but that's the only thing I would buy from the Deore high end XTR line, if those shifters are too expensive then go with the XT shifters; then jumping down the XT the only thing I would buy from that group is the rear derailleur due to the derailleur using bearings instead of bushings; the rest I would just use the SLX stuff has being the sweet spot to be between price, long life and weight; then I would stick with the basic Deore cassette it's made of steel instead of aluminum and will last a lot longer than the more expensive upgraded cassettes will last, and also Deore chain will last longer than the others will. Make sure you use good cable housing, the Shimano sp41 cable housing can make a world of difference as to how your components will feel, in fact if your bike is having some shifting issues, try those cable housings first before buying new stuff and see what happens.
A word of warning about XT shifters, as of 2 years ago? they had a problem with a spring breaking causing complete shifting failure, I am not sure if that situation has been addressed yet, but I would hope so by now, but maybe someone here has a better answer for that.
The Shimano Deore hierarchy from low to high end is Deore, SLX, XT, and XTR, but other than the shifters there's not need to splurge on XTR, or even XT.
The other thing about bikes is that you need to get an approximation of how many miles have these bikes seen, aluminum fatigues with miles and weight which means a bike ridden 10,000 miles by a 135 pound person vs the same bike ridden 10,000 miles with a 225 pound rider, that bike with the heavier person could already have aluminum that is already tired out. Of course if the bike was ridden 50,000 miles with a 135 pound rider the frame could be tired out as well. Stupid things to consider before buying a newer bike.
If I were you, I would just keep the Fisher and slowly upgrade it as needed.
biggs682
Itching to get back on my bike's
- Location
- Northamptonshire
Buy both simples
BigSid
Guru
- Location
- Hungerford
Beat me to it!
ColinJ
Puzzle game procrastinator!
- Location
- Todmorden - Yorks/Lancs border
My lightweight aluminium Cannondale CAAD5 (the red bike in my avatar, above left) is still going strong after well over 20 years, tens of thousands of kms/miles ridden, with me varying in weight from 80 to 115+ kg (175 to 250+ lb).
I may now have jinxed the bike but no sign of tiring with age yet.
The bike frame that is... I am totally worn out with age!!
Bristolian
Über Member
- Location
- Bristol, UK
I'm loathe to say that is rubbish so I'll settle on misinformed. Aluminium, and metals in general, only demonstrate signs of fatigue if they are continuously stressed beyond their elastic limit. The only part of a bicycle frame that might get even occasionally stressed in that way would be the front forks and even then it's highly unlikely to cause a material failure during the lifetime of a bike (assuming a lifetime of something in excess of 50 years).
froze
Über Member
- Location
- Fort Wayne, Indiana
And every expert will disagree with you. All you have to do is google this: "how long will an aluminum bike frame last" then read all the hits.
Here is three of the many hits: https://bikeoracle.com/how-long-do-aluminum-bike-frames-last/
https://hobbybiker.com/how-long-bike-frames-last/
https://metalprofy.com/aluminum/how-long-do-aluminum-bike-frames-last/
PedallingNowhereSlowly
Über Member
I'm in the keep both camp.
In time you might want to customise them in different ways, like adding mudguards and luggage to one. And bikes to have a tendancy of breaking from time to time. There's nothing worse than not been able to ride on a nice sunny day when you happen to have time on your hands, because your bike is at the shop awaiting repair or you are waiting for parts to be delivered.
In time you might want to customise them in different ways, like adding mudguards and luggage to one. And bikes to have a tendancy of breaking from time to time. There's nothing worse than not been able to ride on a nice sunny day when you happen to have time on your hands, because your bike is at the shop awaiting repair or you are waiting for parts to be delivered.
Bristolian
Über Member
- Location
- Bristol, UK
Let's not get into an argument over this; life's too short. Not every expert will disagree with me at all.
There is some good information in those links but having skimmed through them I failed to spot any specific evidence to back up their claims*. They all suggest that an aluminium frame is good for 5-10 years (or thereabouts) but I bet there are plenty of people on this site that have bikes much older than that. My Specialized Allez is 15 years old with absolutely no signs of fatigue, despite me being over 100kg and riding 2500+ miles per year. I will concede, however, that poor maintenance can reduce the lifetime of a frame but that is true no matter what the frame is made from.
All materials have a breaking point. The long grain structure of metals makes then more pliable and elastic than synthetic materials (such as carbon fibre) and consequently more resilient. Bike frame design has the effect of putting the majority of stresses predominantly into the tubes in compression, where metals are especially strong.
* My comments are based on 18 years in the metals industry where I undertook thousands of stress tests on many different materials.
