Modern Crap

Rohloff period.

godders":3hpwd8m8 said:

GRD, Warpedboy2 and myself stoped at the village shop in peaslake this morning and there was a guy there with some flash Ti single speed that had the middleburn right had crank arm sheared rite off at the BB shell :shock: ... going to be an expensvive fix i recon !!

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Middleburn cranks are too weedy for SS

imo just bad luck .

rode Mounatin Mayhem with a 9 speed ( like 100s others ) set up and it was muddy , very muddy . worked fine , and still works .


modern stuff works as well if not better than older stuff .

But if modern stuff was still 8 speed it would work even better!!!

Russell":82lh6e69 said:

Sometimes shit fails.

BITD, 7 speed stuff broke too.

Do we, as consumers, honestly expect 100% reliability in everything we buy?

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Done thousands of miles touring on seven speed, and would put forward the argument it is still the hardiest balance.

given my size and with that my leg strength I've never gone beyond an 8 speed

largely along the thinking that highlandsflyer pointed out that in order to get that many gears within the same space the cogs have to be much thinner so I wonder if they are built to last or just fail regulary to keep you spending?

I'll stick to 8's and below

sylus":317b6f11 said:

largely along the thinking that highlandsflyer pointed out that in order to get that many gears within the same space the cogs have to be much thinner so I wonder if they are built to last or just fail regulary to keep you spending?

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Well, I read on a local forum that the 2011 XT 10-speed kit on my modern has a life expectancy of 5000 km (around 3000 miles) for chain and cogs ... assuming you have 3 chains and rotate between them every few hundred miles.
With 1 chain, expect the chain and cassette to be completely worn in less than 2000 miles.

To give you an idea :



On the left is the chain of my Copperhead. The bike has done about 500 miles since I bought it new in August 2011.
I'll occasionally accelerate hard and ride fast, but overall I'm being pretty careful still because the bike isn't really finished yet.

On the right is the chain of my Sbike 503. This is the original HG50 chain that the bike left the factory with in 1993.
Worn wheel bearings and the sorry condition of the rest of the bike make me think it had done somewhere in the 20K+ miles region by the time I bought it. The drivetrain had been completely neglected for a decade too.
I have put around 2.5K miles on the Sbike since I bought it in October 2011, and the bike is ridden a lot more aggressively than my Bulls.

As you can see, both still pass the test. However the tool's exact contact point with the rollers indicates that the modern chain already has slightly more wear than the old one. The measuring tool really goes further down in the modern chain, which indicates that it's stretching already.
If that HG50 doesn't break, it'll probably last another 10-15K miles. However that 10-speed affair will probably need to be replaced this time next year.

Still, lower-end Shimano stuff has always lasted longer, and it's no different for modern parts. a 10-speed SLX groupset seems to last 3 or 4 times as long as its XT counterpart.

Russell":2xsxp853 said:

That's it then, all Middleburn stuff must be shite too.

I wonder, as components become more high tech and tolerances tighten, how many 'just riding along' failures are genuinely down to quality control, and how many are due to improper installation or maintenance.

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Agreed. And for the record, my Middleburns have now done 9 or seasons' worth of cyclo-cross and still going strong! Like car parts, I do wonder if bike parts are moving in the direction of needing professional installation and servicing rather than being able to be worked on at home with a basic toolkit.

The only genuine weak link (no pun intended) in modern groupsets seems to be the chain; 10s and 11s ones are notoriously vulnerable in the cyclo-cross arena and snapped chains have cost riders a decent finish at a few events I've either ridden or spectated at. I'm still using 8s kit with no bother.

David

During that microcosm 6 months in a busy bike shop, lots of 10spd systems came in worn quite quickly after a few weekends around Wales (plus bushes too oh and suspension seals) whereas the hardy commuters on the 6, 7 and 8spds continued grinding away, often coming in for the first time since purchased.

Personally, I have seen 20,000 miles from a set of M735 XT chainrings and as far as I know, they are still going. The Shimano cassette and chain on my Overbury's are 22 years old and I've taken that around a few of the muddier long RB rides without issue (It measured only part worn when I got it though).

The middle ring on my CB's 500LX chainset was very soft and well known for that but even that lasted 2 years of absolute abuse from '91 to 93'.

When I went to 9spd, I found that our local combination of mud and clay simply killed the drivetrain over winter. It didnt matter what I had, cassettes were ground away and the chains were pretty much useless after a few weeks. Shifting went out very quickly resulting in too many miss shifts to make an off road ride comfortable.

Roll on 10 years to 2012 and 8spd is all that I will use, budget conscious parts are cheaper and probably easier to obtain via the web than ever before. So that is were I will stay for now.

Have to ask as its relevant
OP.Do you ever clean you bike ? as in at the end of a ride or just leave it till the next time :?
Im not saying thats wholly the reason but ive got sram cassette and mine is fine.I spray water through using a plant sprayer so as not to cause any internal grease removal you can get if you pressure wash.I do this 90% of the time after riding,admittedly im more on road than off so there isnt the grinding paste issue but im convinced keeping it clean prolongs its life.