[Closed] Mountain Bikes, Fit for Purpose?

I think mountain bikes are one of those things that dimish with cost. The more you pay, the less it weighs, and subsequently the less time it has to live.

On the other hand £300 will get you a bike that will withstand a nuclear war.

It's an interesting topic though. A car for example lasts an insanely long time in comparrison, with very little maintenance. I've had parts on my bike go before I even hit the 500 mile mark. That could be a couple of days commute in a car....you'd take it straight back to the dealer if anything happened to it within 20 thousands miles of that figure.

Disclaimer: None of this is probably true.

Ton and I were chatting about this at the weekend. We were both amazed at the number of folk who seem to regularly break stuff.

I know with my RS forks they say service every x amount of hours of riding. As with all expensive forks, they need a lot more care, due to trying to loose as much weight as possible.

You also sound unlucky or ride too hard! Freehub body, Rear mechs, Chains, Cables... Or you ride quite a lot!

Buy marzocchi forks and an alfine hub...sorted.Only you won't because they're heavy.
Light,strong,Cheap.....Choose 2.

A car for example lasts an insanely long time in comparrison

I doubt my car would last 500 miles of the chilterns bridleways let alone a single trip down Aston Hill

If I was you wagenwheel, I'd buy a rigid singlespeed!

That does semm like an insane amount of failures though...

I've had a few in recent times (notably a KS i900 seatpost), and I managed to bend a set of XT M760 crank arms, but mostly it's just normal wear and tear for me.

Depends on the stuff you buy I guess. I always build my bikes a bit heavier and with older proven products, since it seems to last longer. Coil forks, single pivot frame (or hardtail), mavic rims on pro 2's, juicy 5's, older deore 2x9 setup and not much has gone wrong so far.

I'm not going through all that list but, to pull out a few examples:

6. SLX Chain (snapped) - you replaced a whole chain because of one snapped pin/link?
12. Changed from a Shimano Non series Crank Set to SLX because after a month it looked like it had been to the moon and back. - not sure what you mean by that, did it still work?
17 Bontrager front Hub bearings (worn out at 6 months) Bought some Hope Wheels. - seems a bit drastic to buy new wheels rather than just replace the bearings
18. 3 Sets of Gear Cables (inner and outer) - maybe just buy one set of Gore ride-ons or similar?

Hw old are those fox forks?
How much use are we talkin? Proper rides every day?

[i]until last week when I found some wear on my Fork stanchions.[/i]

£300? Why? Have they failed? Has it affected performance?

Yes and no.
I've stripped out all of the broken stuff for a start. Nobody but you knows how what when you ride.

1 . Shimano Freehub Body (failed)
2. Shimano Freehub Body (rough and noisy)
4. Shimano Freehub Body (rough and noisy) again so I changed to a Hope wheel set

Probably not fit for purpose, just a generic free hub, used on all shimano hubs. Felt rough and failed are not the same.

5. Shimano external BB Felt a bit rough after winter.
Felt rough and failed are not the same.

7 . SLX Cassette (Worn)
Yeap and the chain

9. Rear Shock lower DU Bushes every 2 months
Thats not right. The beaaring carrier is prabably worn oval.

11. DMR v12 Mag pedals after 2 months (pins broken, threads stripped for pins, bearings tight.
Pins you broke, threads you stripped smacking the pedals.
Bearings probably knackered due to above abuse.When you smack the pedal haed enough to break a pin off that force is travelling through the bike via the bearings.

13. Avid Elixir R Brakes changed for Hope ones after various problems
No details, but they do come in two types good and bad.

14. 4 sets of Brake pads
Local conditions and the way you brake will do that. kielder 100km - you must have two spares sets of pads to start!

15. Rockshox Reverb lasted about 6 months. (I did pursue that)
Not the first to have problems

16. Fox 32 Talas Forks, bike shop serviced 4 times, wiper seal maintenance carried out in between services, by my self. (just starting to show wear to the stanchions) NOT REPLACED YET
The clue there is in the name fox.

17 Bontrager front Hub bearings (worn out at 6 months) Bought some Hope Wheels.
Failed or rough? I've run my hope bulb with rough bearings all winter. they haven't failed.

18. 3 Sets of Gear Cables (inner and outer)
Better sealing, one piece outers?

Some kit is poor, fact. some gets used and some abused:-)

in the last 12 months my bike has had.

several new pairs of brake pads.
new grips.
new seatpost.

crispedwheel, without boring you took much, after having lots of problems with the back wheel, then the front wheel started playing up, I decided it was false economy to carry on fixing them.

After a chain has snapped I would never use it again (except to get home) Reliability is too important to me.

You got me on the Crank Set though 😳

I usually do between 2 and 3 trail centre type rides every week. average 12 miles per ride?

The front wheel bearings started noisy and developed play.

My forks are just over 12 months old, not causing any problems....yet, but you can clearly see wear the bush has been rubbing on the Talas side stanchion (with the lowers removed)

Thw whole argument of how long mtb stuff lasts I think comes down to weight a lot.

Car suspension and brakes etc IMO get just as much abuse from a road (much higher impact speeds, appauling weather in winter + salt x 25 years!) However they can be engineered to compensate ie you would soon complain if your suspension fork weighed 10 x as much as the rest of the bike, but hay it would last.

I guess the same goes for MX bikes, I think they get a much harder life than any mtb, but they weigh significantly more. However I would be interested to see what the difference in weight is when you take out the petrol tank, engine and gear box etc. How often does stuff like suspension bushings etc have to be changed on MX bikes?

My 36s have some wear on the stanchions.... but it doesn't effect performance (a little dribble of oil is acceptable to me...). Oh, and they cost me £100.... yet do the same job as £800 forks.

Shock bushings need replacing, but they've been the same for 2yrs now... in no hurry to replace them (the frame's 12 years old..).

Rear shock could probably do with a service - it's an old Vanilla RC (original on frame!). It's very simple, and works well.

Front bearings - bit of wobble - probably due for replacement... but they're untouched since I purchased the wheel OEM 4yrs ago...

Only things *new* in the past 12 months (excluding 2nd hand gear) is brake pads, 1 tyre and some knee/elbow pads (G-Form..). Oh, and a front hub to complete a wheelset build.

Unless you are doing exceptional amounts of riding, or have a reason to be riding exceptionally boldly then surely bending 3 rear mechs in 12 months is just careless?

Are you riding some sort of superlight, flimsy XC race bike on downhill courses? Fit-for-purpose works both ways.

i've had my bike 2 years and have replaced the following.

Rear free hub went after a year
just replaced the frame bearings
cable inner and outer a few times
brake pads times a few
a new headset
new BB

apart from the above list everything else i have bought is to do with me just wanting a bling bit of kit. i absolutley hammer my bike and i weigh the same as a small bungalow so i don't think it's bad going.

I have a pair of fox forks that need replacing as well but thats because of the shitty forks and not the bike.

i had a 5 yr old orange 5 before this and the only thing that had been replaced were the tyres and a few sets of brake pads 😀

[i]My forks are just over 12 months old, not causing any problems....yet, but you can clearly see wear the bush has been rubbing on the Talas side stanchion (with the lowers removed)[/i]

So no then. That's not £300, that's £0.
I have some Floats from 2008 with absolutely no wear.
I have some Vanillas from 2007 with a bit of worn paint. That's all it is. It's certainly not worth splashing £300 over.

I've never bent a mech and only snapped one chain - that was a £3.99 ss chain from Asda and was about a year old.

Had the same bike since 2004, a Kona.

So far I have replace the rear wheel, replaced the bars and grips and replaced the tyres. One set of brake pads have also been replaced.

There does seem to be a "pay more, expect to replace more" thing going on with mountain bikes over the last few years. There also seems to be many a thread on here detailing how an extremely expensive part has failed/worn out prematurely/never worked from day one. Seems someone is getting very rich from cyclists

Shimano freehubs used to be OK-ish and front hubs last forever IME, what model?
Bent rear mechs riders fault or just unlucky, not components fault anyway
Drivechain wear, rough external BB bearings and brake pad wear are all contentious subjects loads of opinions on here either way and I've had experience of both fast and slow wear. Conditions and maintenance related is my guess.
Your V12s, reverb and fox fork experience sounds rubbish - quite pricey parts too.
DU bushings and gear cables should be annual replacements IMO, do you ride in wet gritty places a lot?

My dad always said modern bikes were rubbish, if he saw my CRC/Merlin account he'd probably go mental.

Oh and my road bike which only comes out in dry weather has only had brake pads and tyres (due to slashes) in 4 or 5 years. Dirt, mud and water [b]kill[/b] your bike.

Most of the stuff listed above would be fine if you didn't crash and did some maintenance.

I ride a 150mm travel Trek Remedy, I'm putting the rear mechs down as bad luck, the 1st one I bent on a big boulder, in my wisdom I decided to straighten it when I got home. A week later it snapped in the car park of the trail centre I had just driven 2.5 hours to get to 🙁

I ride a lot in the Yorkshire Dales, I assume the other bent derailleurs have been caused by big rocks flying about, I don't straight derailleurs anymore.

"My dad always said modern bikes were rubbish, if he saw my CRC/Merlin account he'd probably go mental" Mine too

If I was you wagenwheel, I'd buy a rigid single speed!

Or maybe take up reading!

3 Sets of Gear Cables (inner and outer) in 12 months is ludicrous. What exactly was wrong with them?

my soul is in its fifth year now doing well over twice OPs mileage.
excluding tyres, jizz, tubes and lubes. I've had to swap out the middle ring (XT for some truvativ steel thing). Snapped one chain, and swapped an XT mech for a XTR one (christmas pressie) 2 years ago (the bottom pulley wheels looking a bit iffy). So all in all very fit for purpose.

Oh and a swapped out the xt bb bearings after 2 years for some phil woods.

Don't buy Fox. RockShox are just as good and slightly cheaper; X-Fusion is cheaper still and from what I can determine, just as good.

Rockshox and X-Fusion are both cheaper to maintain as well.

I did my rear mech too, bad luck I think.

just replaced my rear sprocket as well but other than that I've not really had anything except the usual brake pads, cables and chain links. My bike is 3 years old.

Not knackered yet, but I don't expect them to get any better.[img] [/img]

Am I supposed to be seeing wear on those stanchions?

Sounds like you might be best riding a road bike where lots of stuff stays shiney and new looking.

In the last year I think I've replaced about a set of tyres, a set of brake pads, a chain (maybe 2), a cassette, a middle chain ring and 2 stans valve inserts (the little takeoutable presta jobby rather than the valve). I also upgraded my stem and bars though those were upgrades so don't count. All of the above baring the stans valves were as a result of wear and tear conducive with the amount of riding i've been doing. Which is probably 30-40 miles a week average with more over the summer than the winter. Though in saying that me and my riding buddies have mostly all been at this since our teens and we're all well into our thirties now so it's not like we're taking it easy. However we all learned on rigid bikes or hardtails with less than 80mm of usable suspension so we all ride in a manner where line choice is key.

With all of that in mind i'd possibly echo some of the statements above about how much stuff some people break. I'd also possibly wonder about how the OP rides considering he's managed to bend 3 rear mechs in under a year. Most/a lot of what he's mentioned could possibly be put down to wear and tear if he's riding a lot though the thing about the mechs would make me wonder about his riding style and if this also effects the number of other breakages.

You could build a mountain bike that did not wear out. But it would be unridable.

I'd shout at Fox if my £750 forks died within a year and I'd also shout a lot about the dead Reverb. As has also been said, the DU bushings every two months really don't sound right at all. Something is badly wrong somewhere to get through them so quickly.

I've clocked up at least 5,000 miles on my 2004 Enduro. The only components which have necessitated replacement due to actual failure are four bottom brackets, a RaceFace Evolve XC crankset (the splines sharted in eighteen months, a known issue), the handlebars due to crash damage, a Crank Bros Mallet pedal and a couple of tyres which popped a sidewall - these being in excess of four years old and run in the flinty southeast.

Everything else that I've replaced has been down to my own vanity or simple wear and tear. BBs will last about eight months to a year depending on use, pretty much the same timeframe as chains, cassettes and chainrings. I've replaced the frame bearings just once but the horst link bearings are about to die again. My shock bushings have started to demonstrate play after the last ride, but they're three years old. The shock fender I've fitted seems to have improved matters there though.

"Am I supposed to be seeing wear on those stanchions?"

I think if they where For Sale most people would consider that as wear.

wagonwheel thats nothing, keep them clean and check the seals and you can get a few years from them 😀 mine are in a much worst state than that and i still use them.

I tend to find broken kit will keep going for a long time before total FUBAR sets in

a fool and his money?

ever since my mate found out that his HRs are not the new HR2s he keeps mentioning his tyres are getting a bit tired

i think part of the OPs problem is that he wants the efficiency and silence of riding a well oiled fixie on brand new tarmac, but on a fully suspended, dropper post'd, geared for every eventuality.... mtb.

moon/stick.

Nobody has mentioned cleaning regime? Too much can be just as bad as not enough. Use muc off or jet wash?
How often do you lube your gear cables, perform routine maintenance?

philfive, thanks,

I didn't know how quick they would go from being slightly worn to completely knackered.

I regularly strip and lubricate my bike, the last set of gear cables i bought are Goodridge ones, they seem to be lasting better than the others.

Some people just seem cursed to break stuff.

I regularly strip and lubricate my bike

There's your problem, stop faffing and ride the thing. 😉

Fox/mojo would be getting some shit if I'd had 4 services in the first year of ownership and they still failed.
That's not acceptable and IDGAF what mojo say.