Old bike question

They creak when you pedal, that's why I'm losing interest on biking on my 2002 Giant TCR Aero 2. OMG it's 7 years old!

garage sale GT said:

Besides spoke elbows, what fatigues on a bike? Skewers, maybe? They are stretched a great deal.

Besides obvious things like bearings, what in your experience will fail on a high mile bike? Anything that will dump you at 20mph?

Skewers are never stretched out of their elastic range, so I wouldn't worry about those. As for everything else, if it's properly maintained--lubes, bearing service, and etc.-- it'll continue to work fine. Old bikes don't creak unless you don't know how to do proper maintenance.

GT has raised an interesting question.
Now I'm curious about the long-term durability of aluminium components such as rims, seatposts and forks. I'm also wondering about steel derailleur springs...do they eventually lose some of their "spring".
I know "spring" isn't the correct technical term...Alienator will know it though. 🙂

It is my experience that the cam surfaces of a quick release can wear in time and come loose under heavy load. I've never had this happen with a front release, but have had it happen with a rear. The older Campy type with the internal cam (under the cap where you can't see it) surface was involved in my case(an Ofmega knock off). When I would start up from a dead stop by standing on the pedal and mounting the seat the back wheel would pull loose and slip in the dropout, no matter how much I tightened the release. Replacement of the quick release eliminated the problem. I don't know about the more modern type with the large visable cam surface doing this.

Rims and spokes will metal fatigue in time causing spoke failure and cracking of the rim around spoke holes. Rider weight, strength, and mileage are of course significant.

p38lightning said:

Rims and spokes will metal fatigue in time causing spoke failure and cracking of the rim around spoke holes. Rider weight, strength, and mileage are of course significant.

Have you ever seen a hub flange crack? Spoke flanges are cyclically loaded every time the wheel goes around.

I recall a pretty scary picture of one in which several adjacent holes had suddenly failed but it was due to radial spoking a rim which wasn't designed for it. How about in a normal situation?

I am refurbishing a wheelset on an old bike with new axles and cones. It caused me to wonder what could fail. I am probabaly a bit heavier than most riders.

How about the wear on the rim where the brakes contact? Has this been mentioned yet? I know its kinda obvious to most of us but just trying to keep all bases covered.

garage sale GT said:

Have you ever seen a hub flange crack? Spoke flanges are cyclically loaded every time the wheel goes around.

I recall a pretty scary picture of one in which several adjacent holes had suddenly failed but it was due to radial spoking a rim which wasn't designed for it. How about in a normal situation?

I am refurbishing a wheelset on an old bike with new axles and cones. It caused me to wonder what could fail. I am probabaly a bit heavier than most riders.

Allow me to introduce you to my new best friends..."ebay" and "NOS".
🙂
I'll confidently assume that you're using a 36 spoke wheel and components that are at the upper end of the market, whether new or used, and that the bike will be well maintained and ridden with care.That being the case, I don't think you have much to worry about.
What sort of rims and hubs are you using?

stevebaby said:

What sort of rims and hubs are you using?

Well maintained, cups-and-cones bearings will last indefinitely, as will spindles and axles. Cartridge bearings will wear out and require replacement. The braking surfaces on alloy rims will wear down. Without wear indicators, you can tell if a rim's had it when the sides start becoming concave. Spokes are done when they start breaking--if two or three break on a single wheel, it's time for a rebuild.

I regularly ride two bikes that are almost 30 years old. Most of their parts--cranks, pedals, bars, stems, seat posts, hubs, and bottom brackets--are original or at least 20 years old. So I've only replaced cables, rims and spokes, freewheels, rubber, bar tape, and lubricant.

Ride more and ponder less.

oldbobcat said:

Well maintained, cups-and-cones bearings will last indefinitely, as will spindles and axles. Cartridge bearings will wear out and require replacement. The braking surfaces on alloy rims will wear down. Without wear indicators, you can tell if a rim's had it when the sides start becoming concave. Spokes are done when they start breaking--if two or three break on a single wheel, it's time for a rebuild.

I regularly ride two bikes that are almost 30 years old. Most of their parts--cranks, pedals, bars, stems, seat posts, hubs, and bottom brackets--are original or at least 20 years old. So I've only replaced cables, rims and spokes, freewheels, rubber, bar tape, and lubricant.

Ride more and ponder less.

In addition to the effects of wear and fatigue, don't forget about corrosion which is at work whether the bike is ridden or not. Steel rusts of course, but it can be a problem for aluminum parts under constant tensile loads like hubs and stems.

I had a stem fail on an old Peugeot mixte recently while the bike was in storage. It snapped straight across the clamp, which is under constant hoop stress tension from the handlebar. The bike only had about 500 miles on it since new in 1975, and had never been in an accident. The cast stem probably wasn't the highest quality in the first place, but it was surprising to find it popped from JSA...just sitting around 🙂

Thanks for all the replies, guys.

The current project is a fairly ordinary bike with Sansin hubs and Araya rims. I'd say it's Tiagra level stuff. The front has about three quarters of the wear left.

The rear cups and cones were fine but I will put in new bearing balls anyway. The front may have gone south because I failed to repack often enough; it is an unsealed hub. I was surprised they went in only a few thousand miles. A few months ago I picked up a pair of NOS Normandy tubular rims from Ebay & will build them up with modern hubs for strength's sake. That will be a second wheelset.

I wanted to ask for future reference too, because as my name implies I like to drop in on garage sales during rides. I have seen a few nice bikes here & there but always with a deal breaker like wrong size.

How about brake parts? Ever seen a part like a fixing bolt fail?

I have only seen return springs get weaker, but this was probably due to a corrosion problem as much as anything. I did have a cable binder break spontaneously but I think that it had been loosened and tightened too many times(it was 40 years old and had been on 12 different bikes).

garage sale GT said:

Thanks for all the replies, guys.

The current project is a fairly ordinary bike with Sansin hubs and Araya rims. I'd say it's Tiagra level stuff. The front has about three quarters of the wear left.

The rear cups and cones were fine but I will put in new bearing balls anyway. The front may have gone south because I failed to repack often enough; it is an unsealed hub. I was surprised they went in only a few thousand miles. A few months ago I picked up a pair of NOS Normandy tubular rims from Ebay & will build them up with modern hubs for strength's sake. That will be a second wheelset.

I wanted to ask for future reference too, because as my name implies I like to drop in on garage sales during rides. I have seen a few nice bikes here & there but always with a deal breaker like wrong size.

How about brake parts? Ever seen a part like a fixing bolt fail?

Arayas have a pretty good reputation. Wouldn't worry about them at all.
I've just had a NOS pair of Shimano 600AX hubs laced to a pair of Velocity Synergy rims With Schwalbe Marathon Plus tyres.I don't think they'll float away in the breeze, and I don't think they'll break.