1 Year on a Department Store Bike

Here you go:

http://www.humbletown.org/budgetbike/1year.htm

The executive summary:

# 5,938km
# 136 round-trip commutes
# 3 one-way commutes
# 15 broken spokes (all in the rear wheel)
# 13 punctures (all in the rear tyre)
# 4 worn-out tyres
# 2 worn-out chains
# 2 sets worn-out brake pads
# 1 worn-out freewheel
# $497.00 saved Vs riding the bus (depending on how you measure it.)


BTH

BT Humble wrote:
Here you go:

http://www.humbletown.org/budgetbike/1year.htm

The executive summary:

# 5,938km
# 136 round-trip commutes
# 3 one-way commutes
# 15 broken spokes (all in the rear wheel)
# 13 punctures (all in the rear tyre)
# 4 worn-out tyres
# 2 worn-out chains
# 2 sets worn-out brake pads
# 1 worn-out freewheel
# $497.00 saved Vs riding the bus (depending on how you measure it.)


BTH

And the last time you put petrol in the Van Was????? (at 0.65c/ltr =
Ill have some of that)

r

Rob wrote:
And the last time you put petrol in the Van Was????? (at 0.65c/ltr =
Ill have some of that)

2004, when I had it converted to LPG.


BTH

BT Humble wrote:

Here you go:

http://www.humbletown.org/budgetbike/1year.htm

The executive summary:

# 5,938km
# 136 round-trip commutes
# 3 one-way commutes
# 15 broken spokes (all in the rear wheel)
# 13 punctures (all in the rear tyre)
# 4 worn-out tyres
# 2 worn-out chains
# 2 sets worn-out brake pads
# 1 worn-out freewheel
# $497.00 saved Vs riding the bus (depending on how you measure it.)

BTH

I have to ask sensitive question.

How much do you weigh?

It might explain the broken spokes and short life of brake pads.

I'm doing 10,000 km per anum and weigh 78kg with normal
gear on.
But I am running Mavic CX33 aero rims, 32 double butted spokes,
and I built the wheels like I always have.
Its a year since I built the wheels to replace the ancient
36 spoke wheels I made in 1989.
I have one frame 531, and another in 753R both built in 1988.
You can get long life from a steel bike frame.

My brakes seem to last much longer than 12 mths,
and if I stick to using Vittoria Randoneer 28mm x 700C tyres at $45 each
i'd maybe use 2 or 3 max for the 10,000km, and maybe get 3 puntures,
usually
at the end of the tyres life when red rubber begins to show through the
black.

Lots of broken spokes indicate very poor spoke tension adjustment.
Its possible that although the wheels are aligned for true side to side,
perhaps they were not trued for hills and dales and pairs of spokes each
side of the wheels were
more highly tensioned than those nearby.
The over tensioned spokes break more easily.
I can understand cheap chain and freewheel wear.
Poor chinese kwality?
But they fairly cheap to replace, no?
Cheaper than up-market cassettes and fancy chains for race bikes.

Cheap budget wheels can also have a peice of hub flange break away
and bearings can wear out too soon, especially if you
ride in the wet, and water gets into the bearings.
Try to apply silicone seal where the seat post pokes into the frame.
Search for where water can get in, and seal it up.
But make sure holes in the frame to let water out are clean.
Water runs in there and rusts the inside of tubes and gets into the
centre
bracket bearing. I'm assuming you have a steel frame,
but water inside any frame does no good.

Chain and cog wear is far worse if regularly wetted
and road grime builds up to be like lots of applied grinding paste.

I use a paint brush and kerosene to clean all the parts below, then blow
it clean
with compressed air.
Makes a mess, this, but old carpet isn't a bad soaker.
Tie the seat to a tree branch with a rope to lift the rear of the bike
off the ground
while you turn the wheels.

Don't forget to clean the brake pads and wheels which get spattered much
muck during a clean up.
An old towel is good.

But I don't ride in the wet.
I read weather forecasts.





Well done though!

Good luck on the next 5,938 kms.

Patrick Turner.

On Sun, 29 Jun 2008 13:09:02 +0000, Patrick Turner wrote:


But I am running Mavic CX33 aero rims, 32 double butted spokes,
and I built the wheels like I always have.

Could you factor that all into the calculations for a comparison?

Aka, BTH is reporting on an el-cheapo bicycle he purchased and how it
performed as a value for money test.

BT Humble wrote:
Rob wrote:
And the last time you put petrol in the Van Was????? (at 0.65c/ltr =
Ill have some of that)

2004, when I had it converted to LPG.


BTH

Fair enough - in actual fact the figure will be much higher if petrol
was used, plus another $1000. Still a pretty fair saving.

I use my bike to commute shorter distances, longer on trains, have cut
down on the car usage considerably in the first six months of this year
only covering 4000kms. Was averaging 15000km/yr.

How does the government intend balancing the books, no excise, no GST.

r

I have to ask sensitive question.

How much do you weigh?

It might explain the broken spokes and short life of brake pads.

In my experience with bikes of this quality spokes break because the
ideal spoke tension is calculated using a RNG rather then the more
common engineering techniques, often on a per spoke basis too.

You occasionally see a great combo of mild steel hubs, low grade
stainless spokes and mild steel nipples(!!) which leads to galvanic
action and the stainless spokes pop in the middle.

Cheers

Joel

Joel Mayes wrote:
I have to ask sensitive question.

How much do you weigh?

It might explain the broken spokes and short life of brake pads.

In my experience with bikes of this quality spokes break because the
ideal spoke tension is calculated using a RNG rather then the more
common engineering techniques, often on a per spoke basis too.

You occasionally see a great combo of mild steel hubs, low grade
stainless spokes and mild steel nipples(!!) which leads to galvanic
action and the stainless spokes pop in the middle.

On this particular wheel the problem seems to be mainly poor quality
spokes, the heads of them in particular are quite weak (that being the
point at which *all* the breakages have happened). My current 85kg
mass probably isn't helping, either. I've got a much sturdier double-
walled rim and a better hub in my spare parts collection, but I'm just
not sure if replacing the entire rear wheel is really in the spirit of
the experiment. ;-)

And for what it's worth, I thought that 5,500km from a set of brake
pads was pretty good, considering that the overwhelming majority of
that was clocked up while commuting, with lots of stopping and
starting.


BTH