PoorBob

Just curious on what other 200lbs + riders are experiencing with the longevity of components?

I will be the first to admit I am not the strongest technical rider so much of the blame is on me for the short life span of certain items (cassettes, chains)

lykbutta

I have a 2020 GIANT Contend Ar1. I’m 6’3 - 256 (was 280 just 2-1/2 months ago) but my bike has 0 issues.

dbikingman

I don't seem to notice anything wearing too quickly. I think the main point is being cautious on bumps not dropping off a sidewalk curb.

cyclist2000

I have been over 200 lbs most of my life. Most of my problems are from normal wear and tear, I have had some other issues but I doubt that it is related to my weight.

Thruhiker 

I'm 280 pounds and about every weekend I ride on the c&o canal and camp. With my camping gear that's another 35 or 40 pounds. The only thing I think wears out faster is chains. I usually have to replace mine 1500 to 2000 miles maybe that's normal or maybe it's from all the dust and grit it picks up. Also I'm not the greatest at keeping up on preventative maintenance.

Russ Roth

I'd chalk that one up to canal dust, the cinder dust along the Erie canal will take out chains fast too, had a guy that always lubed his chain when it looked dry and never wiped off the excess or old stuff and canal dust just looks dry, he could grind through a chain and cog faster then anyone.
Personally haven't noticed and excessive wear on anything.

tallbikeman

I build Clyde bikes for myself so frames, forks, brakes, handlebars, seatposts, cranks, hubs, rims, derailleurs don't have any breakage or even wear issues. I weigh 235lbs with another 35 to 40lbs in bicycle and gear. I wear through rear tires the fastest. I've been using Schwalbe Marathon plus for several years. They hardly ever have flats but the rear tires only last a couple of years. I ride year round and add up miles so this is to be expected. Front tires last much longer. I did break a left side rear spoke here recently on a used Shimano wheelset I bought. First spoke I've broken in years. This particular wheelset has 20 spokes on the rear so I'm weight testing this whole wheel. I don't wear out my chains and sprockets the way some of you do and I attribute that to lots of chain/sprocket maintenance and the fact that at my age I don't develop the horsepower that wears out chains.

SethAZ 

I rode my mountain bike into the ground. Probably 9000 miles on it, mostly on the road, but after I got a road bike in 2012 it switched back to purely mountain biking. When I say I rode it into the ground I mean bottom bracket had to be replaced, I broke a wheel, broke a chain and only then learned about chain stretch. Discovered that riding a highly worn chain had eroded my cassette teeth and one of the three chainrings to the point where with the new chain they were skipping, so had to replace those. The front shock is crap now and really should be replaced. Now the shifters aren't working right and I don't know if they can be economically repaired, so I may just upgrade them to nicer new ones. That MTB was a cheap one, a hardtail that cost something like $600 new, so none of this shocks me.

Since I'd already learned a lot about bikes and maintenance and preventive maintenance and whatnot by the time I got a road bike, my road bikes haven't really been worn out at all. I've replaced chains, clean my chains off bike every 500 miles or so and lube them assiduously, etc. With a large portion of the roads around me being utter dog crap I run over tons of cracks, pot holes, undulations, very rough aggregate showing on the surface, etc. The bike gets vibrated a lot, and that makes me nervous. On my new bike (well, new to me in 2017) I ride large tires not only for my own comfort but also to reduce the magnitude of the shocks and vibration the bike gets through the road surface. I also recently upgraded to a carbon handlebar that has a little compliance to it, upgraded to a ti-railed saddle that offers some compliance, etc. The idea is that whatever makes me more comfortable is also helping the bike by smoothing out and lowering the amplitude of the shocks and vibration, and that has to be a good thing, especially as I'm currently in the 270s. My wheels have 36 spokes both front and rear, though I'm in the middle of building a new front wheel that will only rock 28 spokes. I've got a truing stand and periodically throw the wheels on to ensure the spokes are all up to tension and evenly tensioned. I firmly believe that by properly torquing my bolts when I work on the bike, cleaning my chains regularly and lubing them well, doing anything I can to reduce vibration on my bad roads for not only my sake but also the bike's, my bike will last a very long time. Only time will tell.

chadtrent

I just bought a new bike, but my previous bike was a 2008 model. The only thing I replaced on it was standard wear items like tires, chain, cassette, etc. I'm going to guess I had about 12-14k miles on it.

pdlamb

I suspect my weight limits chain and tire life to about 2,000 miles each (99% road riding). Everything else I chalk up to normal wear and tear, or abuse (like when I didn't swap a chain for 4,000 miles and had to replace the cassette and all the chainrings).

I did have an aluminum seatpost break and fold over under me a few years ago. It probably had 50,000 miles on it. Was that rider weight or fatigue and longevity?

MRT2

What do you consider a short life span?

PoorBob

Im averaging 1750-2000 miles on a chain and rear cassette.

Just hit 5000 and the big and little chain rings are getting worn, pulley wheels.


I had a few issues with my old hubs as well, but the LBS thought it was likely a manufacture issue.

pdlamb

In the future, you should probably start measuring your chain around 1,500 miles. 12-1/16" for 12 links, change the chain. It'll cost a little more than going 2,000 miles in chains, but you'll make it up in chainrings.

fietsbob

Frame & Wheels ,, steel and don't be trendy with low spoke counts..

cyccommute 

That’s a bit low for chain mileage and definitely low for cassette. Chains generally last me 3000 miles (9 speed cheap as I can get SRAM chains). Cassettes generally last at least 3 chains or about 9000 miles. Are you sure the cassette is worn? Does it skip when you put a new chain on it? If not, how are you measuring cassette wear.

Rings shouldn’t be worn at all at 5000 miles. Are you sure they are worn or are you seeing teeth that are oddly shaped? The chainring on the left is worn (perhaps more than it should be) while the one on the right is new.

worn vs unworn by Stuart Black, on Flickr

But if you are seeing some teeth that look flatter than the others, those aren’t worn. The three kind of flat teeth in this picture that the red arrows point to

Untitled by Stuart Black, on Flickr

are not worn. That’s a feature. The blue arrow points to a pin that lifts the chain up on up shifts. The flat teeth help the chain rail up to the chainring during a shift. I’ve seen lots of worn out chainrings but, honestly, have never been able to figure out how people do it. I’ve got chainrings with up to 4 times your mileage and I’ve never replaced a worn out chainring. And I don’t use steel except on the smallest ring of a triple.

tallbikeman

SethAZ I second your concerns about road induced vibration. I pick smooth routes for my drop bar bike because it will shake your eye teeth out if you don't. I use my other two bikes for everything else with the 700x40mm equipped bike getting all the rough stuff. I believe that 36 spoke wheels are a good place to start for folks over 200lbs. Less spokes can work but breakage will be higher usually. I think your 28 spoke wheel will work fine with proper spokes and components. I've been riding a Shimano WH-RS10 wheelset with 16 spokes on the front. It has been very reliable for several months now hauling my 235lbs and bicycle. I keep a wary eye on this wheelset because of the lack of spokes. I ride it because it is so blazingly fast compared to my other Clyde wheelsets. Time will tell.

SethAZ 

I'm pretty stoked to build this new front wheel. It will use the WR-50 rim from Light-Bicycle (32mm OD, 50mm deep), which will be well matched in width to the 32mm Rene Herse tire I'm using up front. The hub is the White Industries CLD, and the spokes are 14 CX-Sprint on the disc side, 14 CX-Ray on the non-disc side to better match the spokes with the lower non-disc side tension. I think it should be lighter and more aerodynamic than my current front wheel, which uses a 28mm wide 46mm deep rim and 36 CX-Sprint spokes. I already have the hub and spokes, and Light-Bicycle just shipped the rim, though it's taking the "slow-boat" route right now from China due to covid, and I'm not expecting it sooner than maybe another three weeks. When it's done my "AeroClyde" wheelset will have be 28f/36r which I think is excellent for a very heavy rider like me.

tallbikeman

SethAZ thanks for the technical update on your front wheel. I'm checking out this rim manufacturer for a wheelset buildup in the near future. I had not heard of this manufacturer. I've been wanting to build a very aero rim into a wheelset. Vuelta makes a very nice wheelset called the SL37 that I believe would work fine for a Clyde. It uses twelve 4mm aero spokes in front and twenty 4mm aero spokes in the rear. The rims are aluminum at 37mm deep. Years ago I mounted a Vuelta 26" MTB wheelset to my MTB and never had troubles with it. It used twenty four 3mm spokes for front and back with a deep V aluminum rim. Totally bulletproof for mountain biking. Never broke a spoke or had any rim failure. That MTB wheelset was 2mph on average faster than my older traditional style wheelset. Now I'm going to look up the necessary components and prices and for a carbon aero build. Never ending fun.

sdmc530

tires, I hate how fast tires go when your heavier. other than that I don't have any unusual wear issues.

SethAZ 

Light-Bicycle has been around for a few years, selling their own rims under their own name and acting like a real company. They've got a pretty good reputation, and I trust them more than I'd trust someone reselling anonymously sourced stuff on fleaBay or Alibaba or whatever. I've only used one pair of rims from them before this, but they've been great so far with probably around 3000 miles on them so far, and I've got no complaints or criticisms. I haven't scientifically tested them or anything. So far I've only bought rims from the, but they also sell whole wheelsets with several different hub and spoke options and whatnot that you can select. I got the rims only for my first wheelset with their rims because the 36h front and rear that I wanted for my AeroClyde 1.0 wheelset, combined with disc brakes and a funky 15mm thru-axle (I've got a gravel fork on my bike, and 15mm was the size that came with it. Kinda wish I had the now-standard 12mm thru-axle instead) pretty much limited me to just the White Industries hubs. So I had to build these myself, which I liked doing anyways. If your specific needs line up with what they can build, however, their wheelsets look like a pretty good deal.

tallbikeman

I'm looking forward to seeing a picture of your completed wheel. These light low spoke count aero wheel sets are very fast compared to older style wheels. I'm a believer and have slowly been looking for better and better aero equipment for my bicycles. Besides losing body weight aero wheelsets were by far the biggest jump in performance for me.

tallbikeman

My son rides an old Ross American style 10 speed whose front chainrings have worn down to little knives rotating around. I suggested changing out these original one piece crank chainrings but he told me the bike shifted superbly and he didn't want to change them. They are behind a chrome chainguard which does protect your leg. I believe he will wear these down to nubs before he changes them. As you can see Ross helped the front derailler by only putting every other tooth on the sprocket which leads to higher wear. Like you I haven't really worn out chainrings as bad as this one is worn. I do split my rides equally between 3 bicycles and that does keep wear down. Good old American made bicycle still plying the streets.

xraydog

Haven't worn out a cassette or chain ring.

Need to replace chain every 3,000 miles or so and I break a spoke (rear wheel) about every 18months.

I replace disk brake pads yearly (3-4,000 miles) for my own peace of mine as I live in the mountains.

cyccommute 

The rings in your picture aren’t worn down. They were made that way. I can’t recall what kind of chainring that is but they were built that way with half the teeth and the teeth very pointed.

Cornchips

I had more or less the same thing happen to my old hardtail.

I thought it may have been 'normal' wear and tear given the mileage, but I guess at around 95kg/210lbs weight may have also played a part - I wasn't aware of the term "Clydesdale" before I joined this forum. I sometimes forget that bikes aren't always designed for heavy loads, and have had issues with BBs, wheels and spokes with bikes I've had in the past.

But again, not sure if it's normal wear and tear, weight - or both.

I'd like to consider myself on the taller rather than bigger side, but my weight has been creeping up ever since I developed bursitis in my right glute - which has been a literal pain in the arse. And ironically, I got it through running, when I was in the best shape of my life. It's kind of settled down now, but 'flares up' if I try any sort of rigorous physical activity, Riding is OK- as long as its not uphill!