Road bike components. (lifespan)

[Nebulous]

I have a spesh Allez Elite and have done somewhere over 4000 miles in 18 months.

I've replaced - front mech, rear mech, 2 chains, bottom bracket, brake pads, cables and just replaced the wheels. I really need a new rear brake caliper, but haven't pulled the trigger yet.I bought the 30mm R501 wheels from Merlin at just over £100 with a free set of Michelin prorace 3 tyres.

I also have a hardtail mtb (Carrera Vulcan) that I use for my commute. Its about 8 years old, I don't know how many miles its done in total as I didn't record it, but relatively light use initially then over 1000 in the last year. I inspected it at the weekend and decided it wasn't safe to use, so I've temporarily retired it. It needs:- rear wheel, bottom bracket, headset and cables. The rear wheel is due to rim wear, the indicators have almost totally disappeared.

 

[fossyant]

I've been commuting the last three years in town/city traffic on a lightweight fixed road bike.

Replaced parts - 3 chains (the last chain has been on a year with no stretch)

2-3 Sprockets - not worn (gear ratio changes)
1 Chain ring - again gear ratio changes

1 x Bars (crash)

4 x pairs tyres

1 x set brake cables

5 x brake pad sets (approx)

3rd set of rims - wore out 1 front, 2 x rears and on a 3rd set now.

Road bike wise I'd expect cassettes to wear (worth buying the cheaper cassettes for commuting - heavier but more heard wearing), new gear cables.

Pads, Chain, cassettes, and rims go most. Rims will last much longer on rural commutes, and the underlying make up of the crap that's on the roads - it's a sandstone area where I live, so the crap on the roads is very much a grinding paste, although we don't suffer 'flints' line in other areas.

 

[fossyant]

I have a spesh Allez Elite and have done somewhere over 4000 miles in 18 months.

I've replaced - front mech, rear mech, 2 chains, bottom bracket, brake pads, cables and just replaced the wheels.

Woo - Front and Rear Mechs and a rear calliper - how have you worn them out ? - lack of maintenance and squirts of WD40 on the pivots ? - Do you use guards ?

 

[numbnuts]

I got 10,000 miles out of my rear rim, the front has done 27,000 + miles and still in use, but it all depends if your braking a lot of times, most of my riding in on country lanes without much traffic

 

[gambatte]

I've been in a similar frame of mind. I've got 2 roadies. Both B'Twin, ones the commuter the other my new 'sunday best'.
I've had the commuter about 5 years, but there's been extended periods when its not been used.
When I got the commuter I knew nothing about wear indicator lines etc. In the few months before I got the new one I realised the rim had this label indicating a wear line... which wasn't apparant. Made me wonder how thin the rims were? Especially as it's still on the original front tyre (3rd rear) and the original brake blocks (surely the rims last longer than the brakes??)
When I got the new bike the comments I got were "Nice bike, best upgrade will be the wheels". It was true. Carbon forks, seat post, semi carbon frame..... budget wheels.
So I started a thread on here, asking for advice.
It eventually worked out the way I'd envisaged. Rather than get new wheels for the commuter, I got new wheels for the best bike. A nice new shiny PlanetX AL30 wheelset in white. Those new budget wheels got passed down to the commuter. It required swapping the cassettes (8 & 9 speed)
I've now got the original commuter wheels on one side. When the rim gauge arrives, I'll know if I've got a spare set of 'emergency' wheels. Hopefully I'll have a rear for winter turbo training.

 

[Nebulous]

Woo - Front and Rear Mechs and a rear calliper - how have you worn them out ? - lack of maintenance and squirts of WD40 on the pivots ? - Do you use guards ?

No I don't use guards - but to be honest I damaged the mechs more than wore them out. It's a leisure bike, not a commuter. The bike came with Tiagra. I think the front mech must have moved up slightly as I caught the chain and bent the cage of the mech. I bent it back, but it was never the same, so I swopped it for a 105 one. The rear mech had taken some damage from my initial experiences with clipless pedals. I picked up a new one for less than a tenner - but kept nursing the old one along. Eventually when I replaced the wheels I found it was going to foul my spokes so I swopped it out as well.

The rear caliper is wear and tear though. The spring has gone and struggles to open up the pads far enough. If I'm careful with set-up it largely works - though it's getting to be such a faff every time that I take the wheel off that I'd be better swopping it as well.

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

As far as chainsets are concerned, I think it was Lulubel who wrote in a recent thread that she had used (or planned to use because the bike got written off) 3 chains, running each for a 1000 miles or so. The theory being that once they'd all done 1000, your teeth would be slightly worn but not slipping. So after the 3000 miles, you replace the 3rd chain with the used 1st one, and so on. I'm not organised enough to manage to do that, but I like the logic. As long as the chain isn't slipping, it doesn't actually matter how chewed up the teeth are.

 

[BentMikey]

Just get a bike with 3 chains.

I think I get around 6,000 miles out of my chain, and I've done around 15,000 on my rear disc wheel which now needs a new freehub.

 

[fossyant]

The rear caliper is wear and tear though. The spring has gone and struggles to open up the pads far enough. If I'm careful with set-up it largely works - though it's getting to be such a faff every time that I take the wheel off that I'd be better swopping it as well.

Ah - should have said crash damage to the mechs.

With the calliper, I'd be very surprised if the spring's gone - I've got 26 year old Shimano 600's that work perfectly, and 22 year old Dura Ace. I'd remove the calliper and service it, I recon you've got seized/corroded pivots - pull it to bits, clean up, grease, re-assemble.