[bikeqld] Bikeshop... "you've flogged it"

[Peter Whittle]

Cables and housings simply work better when they are new and they wear
fairly quickly and have more friction. They still work, sort of, better with
oil than without. Thus it ever was. It's up to you. Do you care how well
your bike works, or not?

As to chain width, I wish for the power to snap chains.

P

-----Original Message-----
From: bikeqld-bounces at bikeqld.org.au [mailto:bikeqld-bounces at bikeqld.org.au]
On Behalf Of Ian Lister
Sent: Friday, 6 February 2009 11:37 AM
To: bikeqld at bikeqld.org.au
Subject: RE: [bikeqld] Bikeshop... "you've flogged it"

On Wed, 4 Feb 2009, Peter Whittle wrote:
> If the frame is fine, you can make it a decent bike again, and even
upgrade
> to better brakes, better gears, or whatever is stuffed. What exactly is
> stuffed? Chances are it's brake pads, cables and housing, chain, cassette
> and the middle ring only, and these are inexpensive on lower/mid range
> bikes, if you shop well - and they are consumables that you should be
> counting on replacing periodically anyway (along with oil).
[snip]

I was surprised to hear yesterday from my LBS that I should replace 
my cables and housing every six months. No doubt that's at the more 
frequent end of the scale, but I had always thought of them as lasting 
many years.

Is component life generally getting shorter, or am I just becoming a 
better consumer? Has the continuous reduction in weight and size (e.g. 
chain width) caused this, is it a case of designing components to be 
consumable rather than long-lasting, or has it always been this way? Am I 
just a cheap old b.stard for not wanting to replace a signficant portion 
of the parts on my bike every six months?

Ian

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