On Mon, 05 Aug 2019 13:55:13 -0700, Joerg
wrote:

On 2019-08-05 13:36, Tom Kunich wrote:
On Monday, August 5, 2019 at 1:03:30 PM UTC-7, jbeattie wrote:

Yes and no. I've broken steel pedal spindles catastrophically.
Spokes go all at once. Steel fasteners snap -- axles, too. Lots of
steel things will snap, including bars after enough high energy
fatigue cycles.

-- Jay Beattie.


Cast steel will fail suddenly but with any kind of pipe structure that's
rare.


I broke a Look steel pedal spindle on a couple of occasions. Had
steel saddle rails break off and steel spokes break in one swell
foop. I have seen steel bicycle frames fail suddenly and steel bars
suddenly bend upon hitting a pothole.


A pothole can be like an accident, like hitting an object.


Nothing is permanent in this world so I got used to it.


However, one should seek the more permanent stuff versus the less than
permanent stuff. It's like with cars. Japanese ones are among the best
but even they break down. My wife's Toyota developed a steering rack
leak afer 23 years. Unbelievable. Only 23 years. $940 later it's all
fixed. At least it didn't fail on the road, just very gradually. My
Mitsubishi is 22 years and, nada. Not even a dome light has had the
audacity to burn out. I sure wish bicycle manufacturers would learn
about that level of quality.

I see a 2020 Mitsubishi Eclipse, weighing in the neighborhood of 3500
lbs.and costing US$ 24,085. I suggest that anyone selling bicycles
built to those standards probably make a "live for ever" bicycle.
--

Cheers,

John B.