Can you ride your retro bike forever?

[John74]

Hi All

I know that everytime you ride your steel/ aluminium bike, the frame is stressed at many points.

Every frame has a finite life and will fail once serious fatique sets in or breaking point is finally exceeded etc.

What I wanna know is that if you 'retire' your 25-year-old old Mountain bike and just use it as a commuter/ road bike with no jumping or trashing stresses applied to it anymore, will the frame and bike components last longer...perhaps your entire lifetime?

Cheers.

 

[legrandefromage]

Hello and welcome!

There are bikes from 70+ years ago that are still in daily use or raced.

'Clunker' bikes are based on frames from the 1930's (many are repaired along the way).

Commuting places as much stress on bike as anything else. I used to thrash the arse off my bikes to get to work or get home from work as quick as possible with little or no maintenance. Many used commuter frames end up in worse condition than a weekend MTB. I know of a Concorde titanium track bike that was used as a single speed commuter come rain or shine. At barely 3 years old, it was cracked at the headtube and bottom bracket.

Quality counts and many 'old' steel frames can be repaired without too much outlay.

Many relatively new bikes fail miserably after only a few months. One manufacturer had the whole of a 2010 production fail at the rear shock mount.

If it was all as bad as some like to make out, planes would fall from the sky, trains would derail, cars would fail etc etc

 

[mikee]

i know many people that have modern bikes that fail very early in life
i tend to ride the easily replaceable ones in a normal way
but the fragile /scarce ones get treated with some respect

 

[FST4RD]

My 93' DB Apex died last year at the tender age of 17 :cry:
Although it got years and years of abuse at the tracks.
I guess it depends on where you ride, how you ride etc. If your riding in wet muddy conditions a steel frame will not live as long as a frame that only gets ridden in dry conditions I would assume.

 

[legrandefromage]

My18 year old Zaskar frame has seen some 40,000 miles at least. Its been in the sea, underwater, jumped, crashed, stolen and it still carries on regardless.

 

[spike3]

Still blasting my mostly original Raleigh Mtrax that was abandoned outside for many years before I bought it a few months ago.

I get some funny looks as I overtake some modern machines and the looks at the tops of the climbs I get from other riders on Cannock chase is ammusing.

Stayed on a mates tail most of the way around the Monkey last weeekend despite him having the latest high end alu specialised front sus thing.

 

[mikee]

My18 year old Zaskar frame has seen some 40,000 miles at least. Its been in the sea, underwater, jumped, crashed, stolen and it still carries on regardless.

yeah but thats a GT mark and a zaskar at that , built like a brick shithouse ,yet delicate and full of finesse

 

[MADJEZ]

Since I now have several GTs to choose from;

A: Each bike won't get a huge mileage/stress as it'll be split between them.

B: They are engineered to last a lot longer than the unfit bloke riding them !

 

[John74]

thnaks for the most excellent answers and opinions!

I ride a Marin team issue - the one with the Tange Prestige tubes and triple-butted afterburner seat stays. The top tube is so thin you can 'ping' it at high pitch when you tap the tube with yer nails...

Guess mine is considered the high-end (more thin and fragile) steel frames.

I love the 'whip' (flex) of the rear when I ride, gives me the spring on the corner rebound and that extra (expected) rear push now and then that makes the ride damn entertaining....

However, i could be parnanoid and the rear seems to be getting softer these days... could it be that steel (abet lightweight performance ones) tend to get softer with age and use?

If cracks appear can I just weld them back? I know steel is easy to repair, but with thin Tange tubes is it still as easy and reliable for re-welding?

Just preparing for the eventual worst ahah

Cheers

 

[biglev]

a quality steel frame like that will go on for year. make sure you protech the inside fo the frame. then just ride the ass off it. If for any reason you do brake it or have a accendent steel is very comonly repaired to the same level as when it was built.

My steel frames do flex more than they did back in the day but that because I am 28lbs heavier now!! must ride more and eat less!

So ride it until you brake it and then fix it and ride it some more.