Bike life expectancy - how long does yours last
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Well i confess I'd rather hope you'd fall into that trap as we re now talking about something different i.e. what quality of bike do you want to use (note the use of the term want) for commuting. Now suddenly we re talking about replacing a 1000 bike with a 300-500 bike or downgrading the componentry whereupon TGOTB's repair price list is about equal to buying a new one but also including your time/LBS time...We're in danger of confusing passion with incompetence
- @ddraver0 -
ugo.santalucia wrote:If you are anal about maintenance and don't buy aluminium frames, a bike can last for many decades. If you ride in the wet a lot and don't keep up the maintenance, a bike can last very little.
This bike is 33 years old, but it has seen the rain on a couple of occasions and it receives lots of attention
This will clearly not last that long...
Would you believe my current commuter is 22 years old and still going strong, despite being maintained by me all that time!
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I don't think so. If I were going to replace all those things on a bike in one go it would take about 3 hours, plus an hour each for the rims (I'm not the fastest wheel builder). This is pretty much exactly how long it took me to do all those jobs (bar the wheel rebuild) on my CX bike a few weeks ago (it has a tough life!) so I think I speak from a position of knowledge. Not only is my time not worth upwards of £100 an hour, but it'd probably take a good proportion of those three hours to take the bike to an LBS (if I can get to it when it's open) and to collect it again a week later.ddraver wrote:Well i confess I'd rather hope you'd fall into that trap as we re now talking about something different i.e. what quality of bike do you want to use (note the use of the term want) for commuting. Now suddenly we re talking about replacing a 1000 bike with a 300-500 bike or downgrading the componentry whereupon TGOTB's repair price list is about equal to buying a new one but also including your time/LBS time...
I acknowledge that wheel building probably isn't everyone's bag, so why don't we replace the £70 I quoted for quality rims with £100 for a set of factory-built wheels of the standard you'd actually get on a £100 bike and knock off the two hours. That gives you 3 hours labour and £330 vs £1000 for a new bike, with the added advantage that you do the maintenance when it needs doing rather than all at once, and therefore don't have to ride around on a deteriorating wreck.
Of course, if you prefer to pay RRP or above for all your components and replace the whole bike every couple of years, don't let me stop you; it keeps prices lower for the rest of us :-)Pannier, 120rpm.0 -
I ride 4 bikes on a pretty regular basis, but the one most frequently used for commuting duties is a Raleigh Randonneur that is nearly 30 years old. New she would have been about £850, but I bought her in a rather sorry state for £150. Not knowing much about bike maintenance in them days I paid my LBS nearly £200 for a thorough overall and ended up with a bike with much more character and a far nicer ride than if I had bought new. This is a working bike, so is not kept pristine, but I doubt I spend more than £100 a year on services and repairs for this bike and I've every reason to believe she will continue to serve for many more years to come.
A couple of years ago in summer I took a sly day off work and had a day out on my best bike. Stopped at a country pub for a spot of lunch an old retired fella rolls up on another Raleigh Randonneur. We are soon in conversation and he tells me that in the 25 years he had owned his bike he had ridden it at least 50 miles every day with just 3 exceptions. Obviously every part except the frame had been replaced many times, but if you have a decent bike and take a little trouble to maintain it then 20,000 miles a year, or several hundred thousand miles in a life-time is possible.
I've had other bikes which have not made me feel the same and I have been happy to find an an excuse to swap for something newer or shinier, but the old Raleigh is like one of the family.Nobody told me we had a communication problem0 -
ddraver wrote:it doesnt though does it - that's the point. It turns a 1000 bike into a 300 bike for 330
someone may chose to just buy a 300 bike - not I - but I'm not asking the question...
That's like that old quote about knowing the price of everything and the value of nothing!
Obviously, if the bike is a £300 Carrera, the economics are a bit different as it is hard to maintain those without upgrading by default but just because a bike has depreciated to £300 worth doesn't mean the riding experience and quality is the same as a £300 bike. The only way your argument makes finaincial (non) sense is if you spent £330 on it in order to sell it. Here the investment is (possibly!) £330 to make a £1000 bike ride like it did when new.
The bike may be worth £300 in resale but a £1000 bike that has done 25000 miles has only its owner to blame if it doesn't still ride like a new bike.
This is my 18,000 mile Ribble photographed a couple of weeks ago. I have no idea what it is worth now if I sold it but why would I? It cost £1200 in 2010. It was in a terrible state after winter but the renovation costs only amounted to some cables/outers and brake blocks and a new set of Cruds for £18. Plus some cleaning. As a treat to myself, I swapped the cable routing down the downtube for a cleaner look and better shifting. That and the cleanup makes it like a new bike for me - I love it!
Faster than a tent.......0 -
TGOTB wrote:
:roll:ddraver wrote:it doesnt though does it - that's the point. It turns a 1000 bike into a 300 bike for 330
someone may chose to just buy a 300 bike - not I - but I'm not asking the question...
No, your £330 gets you back to having a £1000 bike
:roll: :roll:
No, your 330 gets you back to a bike that used to cost 1000 but has since had the parts downgraded to that of a 300 pound bike. Make it more obvious - if you started with a 10 000 super frame with Zipp Super wheels and DuraAce groupset with a 150 wheelset and Sora - would you still say that it's worth 10 000?
I wouldnt...
What you re doing with your cheaper replacement parts is less severe obviously but the same...
Rolf - 18 000 miles is nt that long n time for you - and in fairness - it does nt sound like you use that one for commuting in all weathers as the OP needs to...We're in danger of confusing passion with incompetence
- @ddraver0 -
No, my prices were for like-for-like replacement on a £1000-ish bike (eg with Shimano 105 components). In fact, a lot of those prices were intentionally conservative; a £30 cable set would be an upgrade on most £1000 bikes, and a lot of £1000 bikes advertised as being 105-equipped will actually down-spec some of the less obviously badged components such as the cassette, so my cassette and chain prices may well get you an upgrade too. The original "replace your rims" figure assumed vastly superior rims to your average £1000 bikes, which is one reason I offered the alternative of a £100 replacement wheelset (which would still be an upgrade on a lot of £1000 bikes).ddraver wrote:TGOTB wrote:
:roll:ddraver wrote:it doesnt though does it - that's the point. It turns a 1000 bike into a 300 bike for 330
someone may chose to just buy a 300 bike - not I - but I'm not asking the question...
No, your £330 gets you back to having a £1000 bike
:roll: :roll:
No, your 330 gets you back to a bike that used to cost 1000 but has since had the parts downgraded to that of a 300 pound bike. Make it more obvious - if you started with a 10 000 super frame with Zipp Super wheels and DuraAce groupset with a 150 wheelset and Sora - would you still say that it's worth 10 000?
I wouldnt...
What you re doing with your cheaper replacement parts is less severe obviously but the same...Pannier, 120rpm.0 -
ddraver wrote:Rolf - 18 000 miles is nt that long n time for you - and in fairness - it does nt sound like you use that one for commuting in all weathers as the OP needs to...
I did 1400 miles on that in December alone and it is used 6-7 days a week. Part of the reason it needed new Cruds was that the amount of crap that it had picked up off the roads during that month wore the old ones away. I wore a set of pads down to the shoes and scored the rims because of it. The calipers and mechs were sticking due to all road grime. I rode it through a flood and came off it twice! Then I stripped it, cleaned it, reassembled it and photographed it! Since my Dawes was written off in February, it has done all my commuting this last year aside from a few trips to York that I've done on the Dawes replacement - a 1986 Raleigh Randonneur that I can't bear to give such a hard time to!
It doesn't have a soft life!Faster than a tent.......0 -
ddraver wrote:that's still only a month of grime rather than 6 years though...
I think you might be doing the OP a disservice to imply that he has never cleaned his bike! The point is I am riding the bike every day but I do have to clean it regularly - and I let things slip over December. Of course, you might say you don't have time to clean the bike but if that's the case, you probably don't have time to ride it either. Most days when the bike gets dirty, I give it a quick wipe down after I get in and it is bright and shiny for the next day in about 5 minutes.Faster than a tent.......0 -
will3 wrote:Rolf F wrote:Since my Dawes was written off in February,
pray tell,(for I missed it) how did the Dawes become unrepairable to someone such as yourself?
Somebody coming the other way right turned infront of me and I went into the side of his car at 20mph. The frame is repairable. It just needs a new top tube, head tube, down tube, head tube to top tube lug, pair of chainstays, new paintjob and it will be as good as new........
Forks are fine though!Faster than a tent.......0 -
Ah right I see I had a nearly identical accident about 6 years ago which also bggrd the frame, however, the bike wasn't written off as I simply sourced a new (ok pre-loved) frame and re-built it.
However, I also bought a new bike at the time, not because the old one was un-repairable, or because it would be cheaper, but because I wanted a new shiny bike to ride.
PS the whole car 20mph bit smarts a bit don't you find?0 -
Funnily enough, the car stopped me so quickly that I had little forward momentum when I hit the ground so I was hurt less than I might have been!
I've tried to source a replacement frame but bargain touring frames are thin on the ground. The one I did source turned out to have also had a head on crash - exactly the same damage but much less noticeable!
So I now have the Randonneur in nicely original condition and I might end up using some of the Dawes components on it to preserve the originals.Faster than a tent.......0
