[Closed] Is there an easy way to record component lifespan ?

I asume you have a bike computer of some sort. Take a note of the mileage any time you change a component. This may be too simple.

W...T...F...?

Just note distances in an Excel spreadsheet if you fancy being that anal!

this a joke right?

Maybe just record riding time rather than mileage?

Write it down in a little book.

There are a variety of small books available, and a goodly number of pens, some in different colours, which would allow a coding system to be developed for different components.

I suggest a high street stationers, although it may be more satisfying to look at the range of both books and writing implements and the myriad arrays of colours on the internet.

Pencil is an option, but I would suggest some form of indelible ink based system to ensure accurate and long lasting storage.

If you're gonna get anal, it's gotta be a big excell spreadsheet. Record everything that way.

if you want to monitor stuff to that level of detail you need to do two things:

1 raise your right hand and slap yourself in the face
2. repeat stage 1 until you stop being such an anal geek

😀

I wore out a £7 SRAM chain in less than 100km, £40 Rohloff chains last me a few months.
I was getting through £25 Race Face bottom brackets in less than two months, the current £80 Hope one has been in there about at least 6 months I think.
Why is it so unusual that I might want to workout whether more expensive components are worth the money ?

If you know all that already, why do you need to record it?

if you are getting through kit that quickly I would suggest that sir has all the mechanical sympathy of a chimpanzee on PCP 😀

[i]I wore out a £7 SRAM chain in less than 100km, £40 Rohloff chains last me a few months.
I was getting through £25 Race Face bottom brackets in less than two months, the current £80 Hope one has been in there about at least 6 months I think.[/i]

You seem to be working towards the hypothesis that dearer stuff is better than cheaper stuff.

I suggest a small clip for your top pocket which will enable you to store a number of pens, yet allow easy access to them all.

Google (structural) health monitoring.

It'll give you an insight if you wana be REALLY geeky about it!

Don't forget to factor the time replacing components at whatever hourly rate you value your time at into your spreadsheet 😉

**** me!

I have a little table I made up for this sort of thing. I record when I service/replace stuff and what it was like condition wise.

But then I've been experimenting with different cleaning and servicing regimes for years - Now I can track which techniques make the most difference, whereas before I was trying different stuff and then forgetting. 😳

[i]I have a little table I made up for this sort of thing.[/i]

I bet your approach to pens is a sight to behold...

[i]I was trying different stuff and then forgetting[/i]

I adopt the same approach to trail obstacles.

There's bits of singletrack I've ridden for years and never the same route twice.

I've tried giving myself a slap, but I just fall off the bike.

Back on track and not wanting to comment on your desires for doing this - Sports Tracks will do it for you and can also track miles, rides, GPS routes etc should you want to.

There is a feature in SportTracks 3 that gives you this feature. I wouldn't admit to using it on this thread though. Sounds like you might enjoy the logging potential of the software especially if you have a gps. Much better than Excel or a note pad.

I bet your approach to pens is a sight to behold...

😀

Its not what you think though. With a seven and four year old in the house there are about 60 pens and pencils stuffed in a 'Fifi and the flower tots' childs bucket. The pencils are all broken and the pens all have their points stuffed back inside the pen. Oh, and theres four or five paint brushes too... 😉

To be fair, it is a printed table, with big spaces for my spiderlike scrawl, and it stays in the garage with my product manuals. I don't rush back into the house to type it up or anything...

[url= http://www.endomondo.com/challenges/748821 ]Last month's STW Endomondo challenge[/url] 3rd
[url= http://www.endomondo.com/challenges/826553?o=0 ]This month's Endomondo challenge[/url] Curretly 2nd.

I weigh 95kg. By the time I get to work tomorrow, I'll have done 1000km this year. I wear stuff out. I would like to know which stuff wears out at the most economical rate.

I was really hopeful up to this point [i]with my product manuals[/i] then it all went wrong.

Bit like vampires; apparently the way to really upset them is to hide single socks; they hate that.

With my wifes penchant for wearing my socks in seemingly random combinations, I would have died from stress or buried her under the patio years ago if it was a big deal. 😯

Truth is, knowing about my kit saves me money and mechanicals out on the trail.

Fetcheveryone allows you to specify which shoes you were wearing on a run.
You can then go back and see how many miles you have run in a particular pair of shoes.
They even did an article a while ago which compiled everyone's data and produced tables showing the average lifespan of various makes and models of shoes.

There is a feature in SportTracks 3 that gives you this feature. I wouldn't admit to using it on this thread though.

From the Sports Tracks site...

Equipment (shoe) mileage and use tracking

Edit;
I just clicked on the next page and...

Track more than two pieces of equipment
Track your athlete history for more than 90 days...$35

vampires hate it when you hide their socks?

I had heard that. 😛

MTG good idea and well worth it, whenever you read "lasts longer" "more durable" "longer life" written on here or by any journo you know that its utterly subjective (and hence meaningless pap) unless they have recorded it properly. I haven't got the time or energy to actually do it, but I support your quest.

I salute you !!- I do similar high mileage mostly on REAL muddy / gritty all day rides - touring off road ( 6-10hrs )vs 2 - 3hr blasts round trail centres - and I burn through a lot of chains / middle chainrings and cassettes and bbs in a year - plus tyres. Not that many brake pads / rotors though!

I am light and ride 'carefully' and I just dont break stuff - it just wears out and it is getting to me - financially and also from a ' wtf ' perspective.. I do lube and I rebuild my bike a lot... I have gone back to steel chainrings to eke more life out of them and I use octalink / square taper bbs vs external etc...

I would love to see documentated realistic lifespan tests done in the mags!

oh well but thats dull and wouldnt sell a mag vs the latest designed widget...

maybe I am expecting too much....

MidlandTrailquestsGraham - get it, you won't look back. If you use a GPS or HRM it can also log this data.

snowpaul, like you I was going through huge amounts of spares, and wanted to ascertain best value for money products to handle type of riding I do - that's why I ride an Alfine now!!!

I wore out a £7 SRAM chain in less than 100km, £40 Rohloff chains last me a few months.
I was getting through £25 Race Face bottom brackets in less than two months, the current £80 Hope one has been in there about at least 6 months I think.

Sounds like you got better at installing things and stopped installing cheap pish. Get 4 cheap chains, swap them once a week, they will last longer than a few months. Stop obsessing and accept that some things wear out.

Graham and the other thing to bare in mind with SportTracks is that you'll probably end up purchasing one or two add-ins to make it more specific (weather lookups, training load etc). So you'll need to budget more than the $35 if you start using it for all your logging.

Not worth it just for tracking equipment usage but I'd say if you've done 1,000km already this year, you'll get plenty out of it.

By the time I get to work tomorrow, I'll have done 1000km this year

Asking for advice related to riding a bike so often that you start wearing parts out within a couple of months is not.

Less than 100 miles a week? That's not really big mileage is it? I'm sure there are a lot of people on here doing more.

Doing it with shoes (or a single bike) is easy, it's one variable. Where you are complicating it is wanting to note 50 variables, it would be a daft programme that could keep track of it all.

I don't see why you don't just make notes in any of the tracking programmes (or do it in Excel), just note "new BB" next to a certain ride, colour code it if you want, then when you replace go back and check mileage.

Don't get it at all, there's too many variables IMO, but maybe I just don't ride enough to benefit from it!

I'm not going to mock anybody - each to their own and all that - but Scienceofficer please post a picture of your little table for us all!

I'm genuinely interested.

🙂

To be at all meaningful, you'll also need to record the weather conditions for each ride, eg, wet, muddy etc, since some things wear quicker if covered in grinding paste mud.

Get one cycle computer per component. Job done.

If want to measure the life of your cycle computers you'd need to get more cycle computers.

I weigh 95kg. By the time I get to work tomorrow, I'll have done 1000km this year

Face it; we're all nerds and love this stuff, someone just needs to develop a smartphone app that has a list of component and the milage for each bike.
I never know how many hours my forks have been ridden on my fleet so tend to over-maintain.

You do realise that for a component like a pedal, distance and time are worthless measurements? The only way you'll ever get useful data is using proper instrumentation - a cadence sensor to measure how many revs it's done, strain guages to measure how much force in each pedal push, and also a sensor to count the number of times you clip in and out. All connected to an app on you iPhone of course.

I can do. I'll take a picture tonight if I must. I suspect you're going to be underwhelmed.

You do realise that for a component like a pedal, distance and time are worthless measurements?

i'm not so sure. you will have useful averaged data. whilst maybe not enough to a R&D dept - it is good enough for an end user.

for the OP you will need to devise your own spreadsheet. but more importantly if you were to use shimano spds this wouldn't be an issue.

HTH

Maybe what's wrong with the bike industry is they don't have tons of testers racking up huge mileage in everything from deserts to frozen lakes, as the motor industry does? Or if they do durability testing they use the wrong (or no?) mud!

Geeked out STW member's bike spotted last week whilst on a run to the shops
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Uploaded with [URL= http://imageshack.us ]ImageShack.us[/URL]

Don't you all think it's ironic that while people were pooh poohing* my idea of recording component lifespan last night, two other people started threads asking for advice on which chain to use.
None of the magazines are interested in doing proper product testing when it's easier to just reprint the manufacturers press releases, so isn't what I'm suggesting at least a step up from anecdotal evidence ?
So how do you advise someone on which chain to buy ?

*I've been waiting for an opportunity to use this phrase for a long time.

[img] [/img]

This is not meant to be inflamatory and I'm not questioning your perception that some chains wear out quicker than others. However, I do wonder what makes the difference in wear rate between cheap and expensive chains? The basic components are all made from steel and are basically the same shape and size.

Discuss (or not)...

Kinda pointless, other than for your own interest. Maybe the reason a mag doesn't publish data like this as it can never be compared accurately.

What if someone puts their bike away after a wet Thursday ride and doesn't lube the chain for a week? Will that affect life when compared to someone who lubes after every ride?

How much lube constitutes an adequate amount? (!)

Like I say, interesting from your own point of view but pretty pointless to anyone else - too many variables.

However I agree completely about magazines - bought MBR last week for the first time in years - 120 pages - 48 adverts + 3 more pages of ads advertising subscriptions to the mag. Other articles - are £2k 120mm full sussers better value than £2.5k 140mm full sussers? erm, duh?

The only interesting article was the Killer Loop with the Hope guys and they summed up my feelings exactly - the bike industry is taking the piss out of consumers.

It could be argued that the foreign riding article was ok if you are into going abroad but even then, despite running to 3 or 4 pages, there was actually very little substance at all in it - just padded out with phots and a paragraph on each destination/event. Not worth a f*ck - same with the ride pullouts. Two or three paragraphs on each ride (ok, the killer loop got a full description in the Hope article) but the 21 mile Loch Laggan circular basically consisted of "head out along the side of the Loch, come back again on the other side. Maybe go to Wolftrax, they are nearby and quite good."

I paid £4.25 for this pish.

The last time I got this mag the route pullout section used to devote around a page to each route and more to the killer loop. This is total shyte.

Sorry for thread hi-jack, as you were!

For the price of two of these crap mags I could get a £7 chain which at least would be useful for a month or two and have enough money left over for a can of beer to drink while i'm installing the chain.

P.S. entertaining thread 🙂

The basic components are all made from steel and are basically the same shape and size.

grantus: re the mags:
[img] [/img]
[img] http://www.cherrylane.com/getattachment/67aed18f-8494-47ec-afc0-5c880c5d6d6c/One-Stop-Shopping.aspx [/img]

As for Graham - that's your thing mate. We're all a bit odd. It keeps things interesting between us all! And we like to laugh at others "oddities". You just go for it!

Lastly why tf cant I get the symbol plus to post in any posts. It just comes out as a space and yet you guys can do plus characters all the time????

To be fair, the mental enduro man article was good too IMO 😆

I'm using SportTracks 2.1 which lets me log the usage of anything. If you want a copy please let me know.

Damn you,

You have got my geeky mind into over drive.

Watch this space!

Asking for advice related to riding a bike so often that you start wearing parts out within a couple of months is not.

Didn't you know that the riders on here only use Chris King and Thomson so nothing ever wears out or breaks? 😉

Kinda pointless, other than for your own interest...

As an example, any discussion about Egg Beaters will soon turn to how unreliable they are.
All I can tell you so far is that I have regreased, but not rebuilt mine since I started logging my distance this year, so one pair has done at least 670km.

Numlok, yes please.
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