[Closed] Have you even worn a bike out?

I had a headtube come off, if that's what you mean. That was a literal 'rode into the ground' moment, albeit slowly as the downtube weld failed first, the fork then chopped out and then the headtube came clean off the top tube too.

Everything on it had been replaced before too, so it owed me nothing when the frame finally failed.

That certainly qualifies - good work!

Bikes don't really work like that though. You can replace everything on them except a catastrophically-broken frame and even then you can replace the frame if you really want to. It's not like you ride along and kill the wheels, then the pedals - I've worn through the body of a set of SPDs - then the forks etc. Stuff wears out and breaks, you just replace it. It stops being rideable long before it becomes 'metal filings and grease' unless you start using it as something other than a bike I guess.

If you replace the frame, is it even the same bike? Or just the original components on a new frame? I've cracked a few frames, but that's just a broken frame, not a 'worn-out bike'.

Was going to say not close - but then I remembered that my 2004 Trek Madone did crack on the down tube after 12 years (although my brother in law is still riding it - bit lighter than me). Does that count?

My old Yeti 575 became unusable because the frame wore out - the main pivot hole wore so that the back end became all waggy. People say they were like that already 😉  But, no, you could grab the swing arm and move it side to side. A new pivot pin didn't sort it, it was just a loose fit in the hole. 10 years use was pretty good though.

Swapped all the bits to a newer 575 frame.

the first MTB I had I wore out just about everything that could wear.  Rims wore thru, all bearings, jockey wheels were just smooth discs with no teeth, drivertrain completely shagged.  thats about as close as you can get

I’ve broken loads of frames just by riding along....ie no crash damage. Well into double figures and all frame materials, steel, aluminum, titanium, carbon. I’m famous in my LBS for being hard on bikes.

I can't think of a single part of a bicycle I have not had fail at some point through wear/fatigue albeit sometimes exacerbated by impact.

My commuter single speed had a knackered front wheel and the tyres and drivetrain were looking shot , as I was checking everything I noticed that the downtube weld at the head tube was goosed so the chainset, fork and rear wheel were rescued and the rest was binned (the forks are coppi ones and too nice to just chuck away).

BwDog is right though, my current fixed commuter is like triggers track bike 🙂

what TJ said  though it was a road bike

It sti worked as such its just that the cost of repairing increasingly obsolete parts v new bike meant it was not worth fixing it. I suspect it had done 20-30 K km by then on original parts

I totally wore my Hemlock out, fatigue-lifed the main triangle out, it just pretty much disintegrated. So Cy gave me another one 🙂

My 90s carrera is still in my mum's attic, was going strong til I bent a wheel and couldn't be bothered to fix it.

Yeah. back in the day when I worked in a bike shop but couldn't actually afford more than one bike.

Also that was when MTBs came in two flavours - hardtail or full sus, so there was no dithering about whether I had found the correct sub-niche or not.

I had an aluminium Bianchi Asset hardtail with a Deore groupset (literally, the whole groupset, came in a big box with everything except hubs). It morphed into a Charge Duster, one of the original steel ones, XC angles but quite heavy and stiff, even for a steel frame. They were ahead of the game on tyre clearances though, could fit 2.4s in there, earned it the nickname of the 'cross country BMX'.

Wore the groupset into the ground, wore rims out, wore stanchion on forks out (and wore a good 1-2mm groove into the crown of some Rebas through cable rub...) and when I finally passed it on the frame had a suspicion of a hairline crack around the seat-tube, plus an actual hole in the chainstay where I'd attempted to hacksaw off a redundant cable guide.

Saw me through my best years of mountainbiking, have never settled on a bike since although my commuter (another Charge, a Plug) is fast becoming the one bike I'll ever need, even though it's worth about a quarter of the next cheapest in my garage...

Heckler, the frame was a death trap by the end, nearly went through the swing arm, 3 missive flat spots from cable rub nearly through tubes on major parts of the bike, BB threads stripped. Had no issues lobbing that in the skip

My first MTB (Carrera Fury from back in the rebadged Merrida days). Everything had been replaced except the seat post and stem, and eventually got retired as my heels had created some worrying flat spots on the rear triangle.

I don't think many others have actually died.

My most killed parts are dampers, both forks and shocks for some reason. Rarely break actual metal parts though.  Since going back to single speed hardtails (with 4" tyres) I hardly break anything.

Mate had a turner 5!spot Horst link. Ride it a lot 2/3 times a week in the lakes all weathers. Pivots were always wearing out but managed to keep on top of things usually.

One day he got a puncture, turner it upside down to get the wheel out to discover th down tube cracked wide open

that was the end of that one.

My old K2 Razorback (remember them?). Left side rear dropout weld failed a couple of years after putting disc brakes on. K2 replaced the swing arm. Another few years later, after an alpine trip, the weld at the seat/top tube started to come apart. K2 replaced the whole frame at that point. It’s still in my Dad’s shed somewhere.

My first mtb that I bought in 1992..used it on and off until around 1997 then put it in parents shed. Took it out a few years ago to use as a commuter and literally nothing worked*, not because it had been in storage but because it had not had one part replaced in all the time it was in use.

Even the saddle rails were bent.. It went in the bin

* other than the square taper BB, which was fully original

No I am not brave enough yet. Just indoors with the curtains closed and lights in dim. Of course the wife and daughter are away at the Mum in laws ... oh the shame ... but the partial freedom for me to be the true me ..... my true identity .... to not suppress it ... let it out embrace it ... then Sunday afternoon pack it all away ... back to the grey cardi and black slacks and m & s slippers.......

Genius post sir.

Oh ... I just read the other posts ... er no I haven’t just sell or upgrade ... ahem er what time is Countryfile on tonight......... anyone.....