Mixed bizness - Kona Cinder Cone 1996 - RIP

I'm amazed at the attrition rate some of you guys are seeing with your 'consumables!'

BiTD the commute on my Scott Montana was only around 70 miles a week but that was year round in all weathers, and included a very steep hill on the way home; all I ever had to replace was tyres (Tioga City Slicker 1.9) and tubes (AirB), and even then I used to eke out the tyre life by bodging up the holes in the sidewalls with patches cut from thin plastic sheet!

I didn't hang around either: I used to chase the 'peds on the downhill bits and taunt the cycle couriers up the hill...

Tell a lie: I once broke the axle on an XT pedal stomping up the hill...

...made for an awkward/uncomfortable rest of the journey home that afternoon; but that was the sum total of my parts consumption!

Well on top of the all year round approach and riding hard, for me anyway the winter season really kills components (salt). Add in the really skinny tyres (1.3's compared with 1.9's) I use with the potholes then it's only a matter of time before things wear out, even after a weekly clean and monthly deep clean and full lube.

Core components are up for karma over here:

viewtopic.php?uid=4974&f=2&t=272486&start=0

Oh, what a shame. That is such a sweet looking bike. I ride around 85 km/week 12 mo a year in all weather (well except snow and black ice days). Most of that has been on a Kona hybrid (Dew FS) which I changed into a flat bar Norco CCX which I like better. Still I had a Cove Stiffee that was my backup / snow bike set up similar to yours (not as pretty though). I like the idea of the 48 big ring. I was always running out of gears on the flats and downhills with a stock atb crank. Anyhow, I was cleaning it one day and discovered that I had cracked the weld between the seat tube and the bb. Being aluminum it was a throw away. Now its a Zaskar. The Zaskar doesn't suit the speedy fully rigid atb commuter though. I'm looking for something else to replace it.

she isn't dead yet...........

^^^ karma King BCM Very curious to see what you've done

As for my commute, I have a new beasty - new thread to come