Originally Posted by
genejockey
You seem to be the place where bike parts go to die! Pretty sure you're riding A LOT MORE than me, but also a lot harder!
I did go through 2 aluminum stems on the Battaglin, but both had reputations for cracking. Luckily it didn't happen catastrophically. One stem I DIDN'T crack turned out to have been recalled one year after I bought it, but I didn't know that till I'd ridden the Ritchey with it for about 14 years!
I read a Lennard Zinn article where he tried to answer why some riders broke more parts than others. He concluded certain riders have have such uneven power delivery that they flex things much more than normal, leading to metal fatigue. That could be a factor, but riding desert bikes taught me to lift the front wheel and let the rear slam into things. I do that and the road bike sometimes, oops.
p.s. I'm riding about 15 hours per week, sometimes a little less, road and off road combined. I would do more if I could recover better. Getting old sucks.