Is there a bike for life?
Is it reasonable to buy one?
Would/did you buy one? What would it be?
I'll be 30 soon and I want to get myself finally a nice bike, something like pic related, to serve me till I'm 60. Of course you have to change the parts that wear out but frame and multiple other parts have no reason to go bad even over the span of years. My body proportions will not change anymore too. I do light touring and commuting mostly.
I might be missing out on new advances over the years, but on the other hand some advances are not worth it and the basic principle behind the bike will not change dramatically. Retrofits are also a thing and will be in the future. The precedent is here, even 100 year old bikes work and are serviceable today.
Thoughts?
If i could have only one bike, i'd go for CX or gravel bike.
If you built a bike for life 20 years ago, you'd be stuck with a 1 inch steerer and rim brakes, who knows what the industry will come up with in the next decade or two? Graphene frames might be right around the corner.
>>974368
>CX or gravel bike
which means get an steel MTB and put drop bars on it
Have a frame built, that one's for life
>>974366
Just buy something that fits you and suits your needs NOW.
You will have a different approach and attitude in 2, 5, 10, 15 years. The way I rode at 15 is different to how I rode at 30. And where and how I ride now at over 40 is vastly different. (If anything I ride faster and harder now than I did as a kid. Mostly road as offroad is bullshit. See, attitude change.)
>>974383
>you'd be stuck with a 1 inch steerer and rim brakes,
And it would still be a perfectly fine bike 10 years from now, as long as they don't stop making the brake pads because
>fuck you, you dirty pinko. you need to buy all new bike. for glorious consumerism!"
>>974388
Kind of. There are subtle differences. And i'd like an aluminium frame, because i'm paranoid of corrosion.
>>974416
Yeah just like my hi-ten OTS from 1972 is perfectly fine. It rolls forward when I pedal, what more could I ask for?
I'm slowly collecting every 56cm 1989-1994 steel Miyata road bike that I come across so that I'll have an endless supply of frames that fit me perfectly until I die or can't ride anymore.
>>974430
Do you store them submerged in mineral oil?
>>974431
I was just gonna use frame saver but you've got me thinking...
>>974366
As long as you take care of it and can still find things like brake pads just about anything can last that long. If I was to attempt just getting a single bike for a long time, I'd probably get something along the lines of a custom frame rigid steel MTB.
>>974425
I'm assuming this is sarcasm, but yes: if it was a quality bicycle is in '72 and you've kept up with maintenance it should still be perfectly fine to ride today.
>>974366
>Schwalbe durano
Excellent tires for life
Theyll last you untill the Ti welds crack,which is around 5000Km
>>974366
My dad has been riding the same Peugeot PX-10 since something like 1971. He toured across the country at least a half dozen times on it.
I'd call that a bike for life.
T I T A N I U M
>>974501
Galvanic corrosion supposedly causes some maintenance annoyances with ti frames. Over a lifetime, that shit would get annoying.
>>974416
don't do aluminum. it has a short fatigue life. If you weigle a steel frame, it will outlive you.
I can't recommend Waterford enough. They will do a ground-up custom that fits you perfectly, suits your intended uses, rides perfectly, and is beautifully finished. IMO there's nothing else like it on the market.
>>974505
dis guy is dum
>>974479
tires are a wear item. use tires appropriate to your weight, road/trail surface, riding style, and season/weather. I wear out a pair of 28c GP4000s every year, but it's worth the upkeep cost because I ride fast on good roads. When I tour, I swap tires for my schwalbe marathon xrs which I've been using on and off since 2004.
>>974505
you are a legitimate retard
http://www.sheldonbrown.com/rinard/frame_fatigue_test.htm
if you buy your bike new, I can tell you that you will never even come close to bringing a well-made bike of any material even vaguely close to the limit of its fatigue life
>>974507
What the fuck did you just fucking say about me, you little bitch? I’ll have you know I graduated top of my class in structural engineering at MIT and I’ve been involved in numerous secret designs at Specialized and Trek and I have over 300 confirmed parents. I am trained in finite element analysis and I’m the top engineering consultant in the entire US bicycle industry. You are nothing to me but just another parameter. I will model your stress regions with precision the likes of which has never been seen before on this Earth, mark my fucking words. You think you can get away with saying that shit to me over the Internet? Think again, fucker. As we speak I am contacting my secret network of spies across /n/ and your bicycle's serial number is being traced right now so you better prepare for the storm, maggot. The storm that wipes out the pathetic little thing you call your nerd cred. You're a fucking jock, kid. I can calculate anything, anytime, and I can numerically approximate fracture indexes in uner seven hundred milliseconds, and that’s just with my bare hands. Not only am I extensively trained in lagrangian stress analysis, but I have access to the entire computing power of the Lawrence Livermore structural computing center and I will use it to its full extent to show you every fucking tensor on the miserable face of your aluminum bike, you little shit. If only you could have known what unholy stable solutions your little “clever” comment was about to bring down upon you, maybe you would have held your fucking tongue. But you couldn’t, you didn’t, and now you’re paying the price, you goddamn idiot. I will shit physics all over you and you will drown in it. You’re fucking dum, kiddo.
>>974510
you're a fucking inbred retard, you worthless nigger
those fucking krauts can spend all day jerking off in a lab but I'm a fucking mechanic and every aluminum frame older than 10 years that has ever come into my shop has had hairline cracks at the DT/HT joint.
>>974511
>and I have over 300 confirmed parents
I bought the awol comp with this in mind. Why no one post sweet bisikle?
>>974368
This this this this this
>>974511
Well memed, good sir. Well memed.
The bike for life would be a steel touring frame. Something you could commute on, ride on gravel trails, or tour with.
Made by a professional, not a random Soma/Surly/whatever.
It wouldn't be too fancy, so you could lock it up in public. Nothing to attract thieves
IF you want a bike that will last forever as well as the components
Parts:
>* There would be special attention to the wheels. Very strong ones with a high spoke count. I have A719 on XT hubs
>* Downtube shifters or bar-end or retroshift style. Something that will outlast an STI lever
>* modern crankset/bb... XT?
>* heavy duty headset. FSA Pig DH pro is a gigantic steel mofo headset... to consider
>* racks, or a very nice custom framebag, or both.
>* marathon mondial tires if offroading. supremes if road riding. marathon touring or whatever the heavy ones for actual touring
>* Salsa cowbell 3 bars, because good for road but swept drops helps for dirt/gravel
>* full fenders to protect bike and components from road grit
>* Strong derailleur in the rear. Maybe vintage Deore XT before they looked all space-age shit
>* Threadless, because
>* locking skewers and seatpost clamp for theft protection
>* pinned flat pedals because fuck special shoes. Clips also acceptable
>* leather saddle... selle anatomica or brooks
>* tubus rack or something comparable
>* Mechanical Disc or V-brakes. Avid Single Digit 7s or TRP Syprsypsosrsos
>* TRP brake levers? I dunno. normal-tier tektros are nice but feel flimsy
Is that it? I don't know. A bike like that will need little maintenance and last a long time
Basically pic related
>>974512
I'm a mechanic too and if you legitimately believe that aluminum frames just cracks by itself after 10 years (especially because none of the freds coming into your performance location actually ride their bikes), you're not only retarded but you have a fundamental misunderstanding of how material fatigue works
to answer OP's question, really any well-made bike today, if properly taken care of, could reasonably last the lifetime of its owner. in terms of materials:
carbon: theoretically the longest-wearing of these four materials, no cyclist could feasibly hope to pedal through a good carbon frame. unfortunately, carbon fails catastrophically and with little warning. this doesn't mean it's dangerous, but it does mean that if anything ever happens to it, it has to be thrown away. you can repair carbon fiber, but generally large repairs are prohibitively difficult and expensive, if at all possible. if you're riding the same bike your whole life, it's inevitable that at some point you'll crash or be hit by a car or it'll fall off your roof rack and if this happens to a carbon frame, you could very well end up having to throw it away.
steel: the first material used for bikes, you'll find no shortage of evidence that steel is real in both vintage bikes that have been in use for decades and hipsters telling you about their conversions at the local coffee shop. steel can be dented fairly easily and isn't as stiff as the others, but it's also very easily worked with and can almost always be repaired, from welding in an entirely new tube to spot setting parts of the frame. all steel is also vulnerable to corrosion, and while proper treatment of the bike will avoid this, rust that is left untreated can destroy a frame in just a few months of use (or disuse)
>>974533
Oh yeah and the tubing / building / etc would be the big thing to pay attention to if you want it to never ever fail. I don't know enough about bike building to say what is best, but I assume lugs and heavy non-butted tubing but that kinda sounds like crap when you are paying $$$$$
>>974534
aluminum: a space-age metal compared to steel, it's stiff and durable enough that it's very difficult to damage. however, like carbon, it tends to fail beyond repair -- a bent or dented aluminum frame can not be repaired without loss of integrity. a skilled metalworker could repair any aluminum frame with enough time, effort and metal, but due to the nature of the material, it can't be fixed so elegantly as steel and an aluminum frame is generally discarded rather than repaired
titanium: it's expensive for a reason. like aluminum, it's very difficult to work with. but a new titanium frame is more or less indestructible and its fatigue resistance is such that you'll never even have to worry about it.
I forgot to add that carbon often fails not in the weave itself but in the lacquer. bare carbon is precariously vulnerable to chemical destruction and it is weak to UV light; this is why all carbon frames have some sort of coating. the coating can fail for various reasons and if it is not replaced quickly, the underlying carbon can become damaged. a carbon frame bought today would almost certainly need to be re-lacquered several times throughout the lifetime of an owner, but this is arguably no different than having to keep a steel frame painted to avoid it corroding.
>>974533
>Soma/Surly/whatever.
They're all made by Maxway.
>>974526
>take an overbuilt long distance bike
>put a heavy duty rack on it
>proceed to carry 1 (one) water bottle and a sack that would fit in a handlebar bag
Everything besides the frame and saddle is a wear item IMO. Metal parts no mater how well maintained wear down with use. Rubber wears down with use and dry rots over time. Plastics hold up well to the elements, but are not immune to wear.
Buy something you like and can afford today and ride it until it major issues come up. If you can repair/replace parts for less than the cost of a comparable bike do it. Otherwise buy a new or new to you bike.
Personally I can't live without integrated shifters. I love those little mechanical marvels. They are pricey and fragile. When they die I will gladly shell out a few hundred dollars for replacements.
>>974588
>Everything besides the frame and saddle is a wear item IMO
And forks, cranks, brakes, hubs, rims if disc brakes, stem, bars, levers and shifters, seatpost. All of those parts should outlast you, a few may require bearing or bushing replacements.
If anything a saddle is more likely to wear out before most of those parts unless it's unpadded carbon.
>>974366
>Is there a bike for life? yes
>Is it reasonable to buy one? yes
>Would/did you buy one? What would it be? it IS a Bridgestone Comp MB-2...bought it in 1989, still riding it everyday. i expect it to outlive me
>>974595
I remember you from the other thread.
Your bike hasn't been ridden every day or even every year.
>>974592
>a few may require bearing or bushing replacements
I will give you this. Bushing and bearings are the one part I need to buy in person. I need to hold the old one up to the new one to make sure the dimensions match. Finding a shop that can get odd sized bearings and bushings is hard to come by. Bike shops are clueless for these parts in my experience.
>>974416
>preferring aluminum over steel
>thinking aluminum will last longer than steel
get rekt kiddo
>>974601
Get yourself a caliper and you can measure them yourself (a ruler may work but I don't know how varied bearing sizes can be, and it would be useless for loose balls).
>>974575
>When you aren't crossing entire countries fully loaded with gear, you have to hang up your touring bike and not ride it.
no.
>>974383
if they can make graphene nanoflake coated steel work for bikes and components, it would be fucking awesome. Expensive as fuck, but awesome.
Everyone arguing about fatigue limits are looking at the wrong qualities of the frame. As another anon pointed out, the fatigue damage over time is probably not what you have to worry about.
Same with any argument on repair after a crash since who knows how damaged the human body will be much less the bike.
The argument on lifetime use should be affect on human body and minimizing that with or without additional components. OP remember the way your body broke down from 20 to 25, and from 25 to 30 and think about more 5 year increments. If you keep cycling your general leg and core strength will remain but your joints are going to continue to take a beating. Steel and titanium will both absorb more road vibrations with less need for special extras (dampening inserts or special seats or seatposts). I don't know if the zertz are replaceable but if they aren't then I would expect them to loss function as you need them more.
>>974543
The slanted geometry seems to put most peole off. I bought it with practicality in mind and it is comfortable af.
>>974575
You mad bro? In fact I bought it because it had all the memes and I use it for commuting the vast majority of time.
>tfw steel is reel
>tfw hyrdaulic discs
>tfw 29er
>tfw 1x
Did I also mention that it was really expensive? Stay mad poorfags.
>>974741
Frame material means jack shit. Frame design and geometry makes all the difference, particularly with respect to accommodating wider tires. Going from 25 to 32 makes a world of difference, and 42mm is the shit.
>>974746
>Frame material means jack shit
>I've never ridden anything but alu
>>974775
I have alu, steel, and carbon bikes, and have had Ti in the past. The material isn't what makes a bike stiff. It's the diameter of the tubing that really matters.
Aluminium became associated with uncomfortably stiff bikes because at the time the material started becoming popular, bike manufacturers were pushing a stiffness meme with their Fred sleds, and were building bikes out of excessively oversized (often straight-gauge) tubing. They were doing the same with steel, albeit with butted tubing. The result was bikes that were overly stiff for their application (especially for lighter riders), and it gave alu a bad rep. But now you have Cdale making the CAAD12 with smaller diameter butted tubing (and 25mm stock tires with clearance for 28mm) and everyone is praising it for its ride.
The biggest problem with alu as a framebuilding material is that you don't want it undergoing significant elastic deformation with heavy loads, else it'll quickly exceed its cycle limit and fail. It's why nobody uses the material for springs. This is where the ability of the frame designer comes into play, as the trick is make the tubing a large enough diameter to prevent failure, but not so large as to make the bike a tooth rattler. Too many designers (or legal departments) simply went the easy route of making the tubing fuckoff huge so that it would never ever fail catastrophically and cause a lawsuit.
>>974800
>The biggest problem with alu as a framebuilding material is that you don't want it undergoing significant elastic deformation with heavy loads, else it'll quickly exceed its cycle limit and fail. It's why nobody uses the material for springs. This is where the ability of the frame designer comes into play, as the trick is make the tubing a large enough diameter to prevent failure, but not so large as to make the bike a tooth rattler. Too many designers (or legal departments) simply went the easy route of making the tubing fuckoff huge so that it would never ever fail catastrophically and cause a lawsuit.
I've taken the unfortunate path of building up an aluminum nashbar touring frame. The tubing seems very thick, not particularly in diameter but in wall thickness. The aluminum failure thing worries me a bit, but with 35c tires at low inflation the stiffness of the frame does not matter, there is zero discomfort on century rides
Should I be worried about the frame breaking on me?
>>974744
>Did I also mention that it was really expensive? Stay mad poorfags.
Yeah but your bike has the drops set so high, and weighs so much, you mine as well have put swept back bars and a front disc on a rigid 90s mtb and you'd have the same bike. imho? period
>>974741
>. If you keep cycling your general leg and core strength will remain but your joints are going to continue to take a beating. Steel and titanium will both absorb more road vibrations with less need for special extras (dampening inserts or special seats or seatposts)
You can eat gelatin / offal / fatty meat to preserve your joints. for your knees... spin the pedals instead of mashing, and follow the triathlon guys and get a 165mm or smaller crank
Regardless of material or tubing diameter fat tires + low pressure compensates for even the stiffest frames.
>>974806
With everything on, it still comes under 13kg so no.
>>974366
sure there are bikes for life.
but I think if you are into bikes to a certain degree, one bike wont be enough.
you'll wnat something different now and again and try out new stuff.
if you don't have experience , I'd get some cheap that was once decent.
if you allready have experience and the means , get somehting that will keep some value and treat it well.
then once you feel like you really need that 32" grave grinder with 6x4 shifting, sell the old one and buy the new one.
>>974366
Titanium is beautiful.
>>974508
FYI the XR's were discontinued,but are now back as the " Marathon Mondial "
