Wear, tear and maintenance questions

rollingscone

Heyyyy everybaaaaady,

I've had my boringly practical hybrid (impending wedding has scuppered my dreams of a change for now) for about six months and have put about 2500km on it between my 100km a week commuting and the occasional 40km spin.

I try to keep my rpm up and my resistance down as I'm all out of good knees and I usually work to keep my average speed about 25kph.

I also clean and oil the gears at least once every ten days.

So I was dismayed the other day when my LBS told me that my block (I'm stupid and new but I'm assuming he meant my chain and gears) is wearing out.
When I asked a more bike savvy friend if the LBS was just trying to sell casettes he felt that 2500km was a fair amount of mileage and then pointed out that my wheels would need replacement too...and that I should get a service.

Is this a normal sort of timeframe for needing to replace parts? Am I killing my bike by way of bad technique?

I really don't want to find that all the money I'm saving on LUAS fares is being sucked into maintenance.

seamus

Wheels would need replacement? No, no, your tyres maybe. It would depend on the type and quality of the tyres. I would expect to get about 5,000km out of a good set of road tyres, possibly more. But softer tyres may only last half that, and offroad tyres half that again if you use them primarily on tarmac.

It would be impossible obviously for anyone here to say that your cassette is or isn't wearing out. It may very well be, or the LBS could be trying to drum up some business. There are obviously lots of variables.

By far the best way to minimise your maintenance costs is to find out how to examine and service the bike yourself. At least then you can be sure that a shop hasn't decided to just replace something because they feel like it.

All you can do for your chain and cassette is to clean and oil it. They will wear out eventually. What are you using to oil it?

Anecdotally most people seem to manage to get around 5,000km out of a chain when they look after it, and they manage to get a block to last for 2 or 3 chains, again if they look after it meticulously.
The main problem is that if the chain gets too worn, the block will get damaged and it needs replacing too. So inadequate looking after of the chain and cassette could have you replacing both of them every 3,000km.

But a chain which is cleaned and oiled every ten days sounds like its being looked after.

There will always be a variable maintenance cost in running a bike, and if you're doing it right it should always work out cheaper than public transport. However when you're doing relatively big mileage like yourself, there is a sweet spot between buying cheap parts and replacing them every two months and buying expensive parts and replacing them once a year. Middle-of-the-road parts, properly looked after, should last almost as long as the more expensive stuff but without breaking the bank.

rollingscone

Thanks Seamus,

They're slick, hardcase tyres and have been bombproof so far.

My friend was referring to the rims...

I was using a 2 in 1 spray job but after that went missing I switched to a standard lubricating oil.

Mycroft H

rollingscone wrote: »

I was using a 2 in 1 spray job but after that went missing I switched to a standard lubricating oil.

The type of oil doesn't matter hugely as you cleaning it and oiling it frequently. Just avoid the WD40 oils as they evaporate too quickly.

Just remember, any oil is better then no oil. Chains don't really care what lubricates them as long as there is something there. Cheep and cheerful does the job for me, 3 in 1 oil at 76c a go in tescos.

petethedrummer

rollingscone wrote: »

My friend was referring to the rims...

There is a wear indicator on most rims. Usually a line the whole way around the rim or a couple of dots.

You can prolong your rims by checking for aluminium flecks in your brake pads. Little bits of aluminium from the rim itself embed in the pad and then wear down the rim.

victorcarrera

If there really is some wear there you might get away with just changing the chain this time and next time the chain wears out change the rear (block) as well. The best way to extend the life of drive train components is to fit full mudguards, front mud flap and chain guard.

cdaly_

petethedrummer wrote: »

There is a wear indicator on most rims. Usually a line the whole way around the rim or a couple of dots.

You can prolong your rims by checking for aluminium flecks in your brake pads. Little bits of aluminium from the rim itself embed in the pad and then wear down the rim.

Also a 100k / week commute is going to involve a fair bit of braking which will increase the wear on the rims.

rollingscone

Was talking to someone today who suggested my 100kg bodyweight would also increase wear....

Icyseanfitz

get one of these, great way to keep an eye on the drive-train

seamus

cdaly_ wrote: »

Also a 100k / week commute is going to involve a fair bit of braking which will increase the wear on the rims.

Agreed, though 2,500km seems a bit small. I got 10,000km out of the fairly standard rims on my road bike that I was using for commuting.

rollingscone wrote: »

Was talking to someone today who suggested my 100kg bodyweight would also increase wear....

Yes, but not to any major degree on the drivetrain. Tyres and brakes, definitely, drive train only a little more. Wear on the drive train would be largely dependent on how strong you are and how you change gears.
But in any case I don't think it's a "twice as fast" problem, maybe 10 or 20% faster than someone who's 20kg lighter.

Tonyandthewhale

I would be very surprised if your rims needed replacing after only 2500km, not saying it couldn't happen but mine usually last several times that.