How long does your gear last?

I have some old friction shift gear from the 1970's. The most ridden is a Shimano DA gruppo (Crane RD) that has over 40,000 miles and has not worn out yet. Well, I did have to replace the idler and jockey pullies, chain, freewheel, brake pads, and chainrings. Also the bearings in the BB, headset, wheels, and pedals.

I have not worn out any of my index gear which is Shimano and Suntour. The Shimano 105 group has over 10,000 miles with a change of only a chain and cassette so far. Used a SRAM chain and cassette and it shifts sweeter now than it did with the Shimano cassette and chain, or maybe it's because I am better at adjusting them now🙄.

The 600 group only has around 3,000 miles on it and is still pristine.

The 500 EX has 25,000 - 30,000 and has had at least one new freewheel, three chains, and new brake hood covers (this bike was out of my possession for a number of years so I don't really know the full story of its upkeep and mileage).
The Suntour group is mostly new-old stock Radius gear with Cyclone brakes and a GPX crankset. I have just built this bike up and it has no miles yet, but just wait until warmer weather arrives:p.

Scott2468 said:

...What mileage are you getting from your gear? Please, no BS. Be fair dinkum!

I've worn through a lot of chains, a few freewheels and cogsets and even a couple of chainrings over the years but have never "worn out" shifters, brakes, levers and such on a road bike. I've broken some components in crashes but usually retire stuff to upgrade not because they stopped working correctly.

Mountain bikes are different and I've gone through some derailleurs and shifters that just got too sloppy or sticky but again most component changes were the result of upgrades or crash damage not wear and tear from normal operation.

I've retired wheels when sidewalls got too worn from braking and that's after many seasons of use or when they took a big hit and I couldn't true them up with even spoke tension.

Basically this stuff doesn't just "wear out" all that fast with the exception of chains and if you're not dilligent about chains then cassettes or at least individual cogs. My 8 speed STI shifters ended up on a friend's bike when I went to 10 speed and AFAIK they're still operating just fine. I have some very old Shimano 600 (pre ultegra) brakes that still work fine and occasionally bolt my very old Campy NeuvoRecord front brake on my track bike for road use, they're not the best brakes out there, but they still work fine.

As far as chains go, I go through about one 10 speed chain per year so that's about 12,000 km or so. I don't wait for the chain to be noticeably worn, I just like starting each year with a clean and crisp shifting chain.

-Dave

I just retired my Vitus carbon 3 because my 3 year old tipped it over and broke the rear derailur hanger off. I upgraded everything one by one from my 6 speed super record friction shift equiptment except my modolo brakes. worried about going over the bars in an emergency - I ride in los angeles so it happens alot.
Couple chains and home laced wheels, cables and housings. 22 years I think. I tried the shimano stuff but the campy is so much easier to keep functional. Now I have equiptment envy and want to upgrade my tandem from the shimano stuff that I removed from my road bike.

Scott2468 said:

In another thread........!

10,000km is pretty good from a chain and cassette.

I guess what you really wanna know is how long the more expensive parts last, such as levers, cranks and maybe brakes, because replacing chains, cassettes, chainrings and rear derailleur jockey wheels isn't such a big deal, money wise.

My first set of 8-speed Shimano levers (early '90s) did about 50,000km before the smaller lever started occasionally missing. I gave them to a friend who still uses them on his wet day bike, and says they still work 'most of the time.'

I've been using 4 sets of 9-speed Dura-Ace levers on my 4 main bikes for about 5 years, and they haven't shown any signs of wearing at all. I'd guess the set which have had the most work have done roughly 20,000 to 25,000km, which I guess isn't a whole lot yet.

Derailleurs (apart from the jockey wheels) last for years and years and years, as do brake calipers. Before I upgraded to Dura-Ace brakes, all my bikes had very old Campag Monoplaner calipers which I could wreck, no matter how hard I tried. I eventually gave them away.