What bit of biking gear do you own that will outlast you?

I have a Timbuk2 messenger back that is c1990, still used most days.

My 1992 Lava Dome will also outlast me.

All my old tyres in landfill 😩

Pretty much everything I own other than chains and brake pads. Maybe the odd tyre or two 🤣

My Topeak Alien tool has had so much abuse and keeps coming back for more. It’s bulky and heavy compared to modern equivalents, but not sure I can give it up.

Don’t know about gear but I’ve a tub of copper slip that’s probably well over a decade old and will be likely passed down to future grandkids

Pah, 25 years and counting! 🙂

Got some 520 pedals that have spanned 4.ikes in 10 years. No maintenance and still perfect. A (500g? 50oz?) tub of SRAM Butter that I’ll hand down to my daughter.

My 2006 Kona Coiler with a set of Totems? Ok it doesn’t get ridden any more and spends its time living in the garage roof but I’m pretty certain it would continue living through a nuclear war.

It looks like it was put together in some sort of cold war soviet facility and I reckon it would live forever.

Camelbak ‘The Don’ thats easily 15 years old. I don’t really use it anymore because I’ve got better packs but there’s nothing wrong with it.

I can’t name a single thing that I’ve bought in the last 5 years that I’d have any faith in lasting. Other than another set of 520s…

My ebike lasted 18 months before it  needed a new motor. Clothes I buy fall apart. Parts wear out in months rather than years. Even …. I used to replace them once I’d put a huge gash in them. Now they only seem to last a few months before the side knobs rip off and the centre tread shreds itself.

Wouldn’t be so bad if they weren’t at least £50 a time to replace!

Wow, this thread has made me angrier than I needed to be

Like tjagain…  Rohloff hub on the Shand, and the Sturmer archer hub on the Brompton.

Heirlooms.

Don’t know about gear but I’ve a tub of copper slip that’s probably well over a decade old and will be likely passed down to future grandkids

Pah, 25 years and counting!

I’ve got a tin of the stuff I bought in 1991, used to slap some on spark plug threads when I was learning how to service a car and nothing much else. Still almost completely full. Got a rare bit of use out of it the other weekend screwing some titanium bolts into my brompton

A Fox long sleved shirt from 1990 I think. A pair of Pearl Izumi winter gloves from the same era, which are still my uber-cold weather gloves of choice.
CK headset from 2008 is still spotless apart from changing an O ring thingy in it BITD when they were causing wear to steerer tubes.
I seem to be rather good at destroying Time ATAC pedals though, I’ve been through four sets since 1990. Genuinely worn out, not just in need of replacement bushes/ bearings.

My tub of copper grease is a mere stripling, purchased early this century. Now about 1/2 full.

I’ve got a Berghaus convertible windproof jakcet/gilet that must be from early 2000’s. Still a really useful, versatile garment, I’m going to be gutted when the zips fail.

Don’t know about gear but I’ve a tub of copper slip that’s probably well over a decade old and will be likely passed down to future grandkids

I’ve got a tube of Finish Line teflon grease like that.

Easily 20 years old, very occasionally I’ll get a dab of grease out for pedal threads and it’s like a never ending tube.

Noone in the history of cycling has ever worn out a set of bog-standard Shimano SPD pedals. Period.

I have.

I wore the indents out of the cleat attachment point. Even new cleats just didn’t work.

Twice.

I forgot all about my Chris King headset, when posting about my Saint bottom bracket.
I suppose that speak volumes about how they are simply indestructible, and quietly get on with their job.

Sturmey archer 3 speed.

vmgscot I still use a Freestyle gortex jacket going strong from the 90’s. Mine’s dark blue with the rollaway hood. It just gets used for road duties but still looks in great condition.

Plenty that don’t get used often. Bought on a whim and rarely used. Things like waterproof shorts.

Now, for kit that is well used and is probably over engineered, I’d go with most stems and most Shimano pedals. Thankfully so, as a failure of either would probably result in a crash.

I’d like a new pair of mtb spd shoes to replace my venerable and rather smelly Shimano ME5s. But they just keep on going and I hate throwing things away that still have life in them.

I’ve got a pair about the same age. Shimano SPD’s are impossible to kill. You could drive over them in a tank and they’d still work

You can wear the top plates to the point where they no longer hold onto the cleats – hello Peak grit – at which point they are either junk or you buy some replacement plates from SJS or use a cheapo donor pedal to rebuild them, at which point it’s questionable whether they’re still the same pedal.

@BadlyWiredDog …

I’ve got a few Dakine hydration bags that are still going strong, the wife’s Shimano DX SPD pedals will last so long they’ll be found by archeologists. My Mk1 Burgtec Penthouse Flats are still spinning well on my brother’s BMX and I have an Endura Event Jacket that’s about 18 years old and still good for general day to day stuff (apart from being hood free)

4litres bidon of finish line cross country lube I bought about 20 years ago now

And one of these

… a Timbuk2 messenger back that is c1990, still used most days.

I’m with Kelvin on the Pace Winteractive smock,

and my 23 year old Buffalo smock, both perfect for Bavarian winters

Plenty that don’t get used often. Bought on a whim and rarely used. Things like waterproof shorts.

Trousers are lasting a while as they only come out on the coldest shittiest days when no one sensible would be riding anyway, like a winter away trip and the weather is rubbish.

But shorts get trashed.

Maybe it’s because they only get used in dryer weather but I’ve some Humvees made from something like cordura that must be 10 years old now?  Whereas winter Altura attack shorts last a winter or two at most depending on how many pairs are in rotation. Grit just seems to eat them at the seams.

Dry weather tyres due to being made redundant.

I was going to say my 12 + year old slightly baggy Altrura tights (old fashioned, no bib, no chamois, hoops for the feet).  But I over cooked a corner on the road bike today and had big spill and shredded the knee so maybe not.

One of my Chris King hub sets is now 20+ years old and is as good as the day I bought it.  Standards, not degradation will eventually kill it.

The hubs on my commuter are now 4 years and 34000+ km in and still feel utterly indistinguishable from when they were new.  Well, they’ve worn in a bit and actually feel even better.  No bits, no bearings, no seals, just an occasional clean and relube.

I **** love CK – this is how engineering should be done.

Roach tops and shorts.

My POC Enduro shorts seem pretty bombproof.

I was going to say my old M636 (DX) pedals but I went to fit them to my MTB for an upcoming BPW trip last night and the right one felt a bit grumbly.

I’ll find out later if they’re actually going to out live me or end up finally being retired. I’m not the first owner, I’d estimate they’re coming up on 30 years old, still arguably the toughest SPD’s ever made…

Was thinking about this yesterday when I dug out my crown race setter.  Gets used once a year or so, is a solid metal tube, is alloy (so no rust) and has no moving parts.  Obsolescence (or a change in standards) is its’ only danger.  About 20 years old and counting.

Park headset press. BB ream. Headset facing tool. Floor pump I’ve had since the late 70’s.
But – The Mrs. (By far the most valuable bit). Maybe even the cat.

Don’t know about gear but I’ve a tub of copper slip that’s probably well over a decade old

I have a tub of Castrol Graphite Grease that I bought from Northern Autos in Skipton sometime around the mid-80s that is still in my maintenance box. I can’t remember what I bought it for or why – but as I was a not so well off teenager it was probably because it was cheap at the time. I used to use it to grease the cup and cone bearings on my clunker.

Good news, a clean up, some grease and a bit of a bearing tweak and the old DX pedals will indeed outlive me.

I’ve a Polaris pertex smock that I bought before Lister and I went to Whistler in 1995. The bum bag packaway elastic straps have succumbed to time but everything else looks like new.

I’ve also got a manitou sweatshirt that I bought sometime in 1994. It’s my go-to working in cold conditions top and has kept me warm and under numerous vehicles.

I have a 36h Paris-Roubaix rim built using plain gauge spokes into a Mavic 571 hub, all put together by Pete Matthews. I expect that to outlive civilisation itself.

Why can’t they make bottom brackets and frame bearings last as long as pair of Shimano pedals?

A whole lot of stuff that I definitely needed when I bought it, but have barely or never ever used.

And a bunch of DT240S hubs, which are old enough to have kids and have survived the bike industry’s best efforts to murder them in their sleep. One of them pre-dates bolt-throughs. Also I suppose my XTR M970 cranks. And I have 4 sets of 2010 Formula The One brakes which I’ll keep using for as long as they keep going, though that’s getting a little bit triggers broomey, I’ve killed a couple of other sets and harvested their organs

I had a chris king headset but since it was doing its damnedest to outlast the forks that it was supposed to be holding by grinding through the steerer tube, I got rid. No doubt it’s still in service somewhere, eating someone else’s fork steerer.

It’s the bits of gear that get used nearly every ride that are the real heroes. My Endura bright blue cycling jacket has been used for regular rides for about 10 years up until time away from riding. Since then it’s been nabbed by my wife for thousands of miles worth of running. Before then it was used daily on the commute to my old job, in all weathers. The caked in mud riding off road at the weekend.

It’d then be unceremoniously lobbed in the wash, left to dry and sprayed with nikwax and it was good to go again. It’s showing a few signs of wear, and mud stains that won’t come out, but it’s still more than serviceable after thousands of hours of use.

It was expensive at the time, same as my Dakine bag, but they’ve both been exceptional.

My Surface Snugflex hoodie must be fifteen years old by now and still looks amazing apart from a broken zip pull. Think I’m going to end up being buried in it.

@kelvin – I came in to post that

Pace Winteractive smock/jacket.

I bought mine in the – I think – Hathersage store in around 1994 maybe. Don’ t use it for riding but it’s in my bag for post ride warmups.