So how long will they all last?

[Pickle]

I'll only hand my bikes down to my 2 sons if they show an interest

My daughter on the other hand is about to have a retro build started this weekend!

 

[stuartg]

My 11 year old son who is a real bike head, keeps looking at my Zaskar there is no way that is going to happen :twisted:

I was told that steel frames there is a problem with internal rust, but as long as kept rust free will last forever.

Alu bikes will last a period, but will lose stiffness.

Carbon bikes 3 years before the chainstay cracks

 

[dirtjumper_dmr]

Unless you thrash them offroad in which case it will probably last until you ride it into a tree or jump it off a small (or large) cliff.

isnt that what we're meant to do with them?
I think steel is where its at, my dad recently handed me down his Reynolds 531 Carlton road bike, which is in tip-top condition due to him having looked after it...

 

[dyna-ti]

Theres still Raleigh choppers around from the seventies ,i sold 1 recently,the build quality is completely Crap.Im suprised they lasted a couple of years never mind 30 odd,so i reckon the 10-15 yold frames you guys are talking about[that were built to a much higher standard]should last say, forty years without trouble

 

[one-eyed_jim]

Theres still Raleigh choppers around from the seventies ,i sold 1 recently,the build quality is completely Crap.Im suprised they lasted a couple of years never mind 30 odd,so i reckon the 10-15 yold frames you guys are talking about[that were built to a much higher standard]should last say, forty years without trouble

But choppers were given to kids who grew out of them quickly, and never rode them far anyway. Most of the kids I knew who had them just used to ride as far as the streeet corner and sit there on them. It was the Grifters that took a beating.

Tangent: my friend Jérôme's downstairs neighbour Géraldine was nagging me to come and look at her new Shopper she'd got from eBay. It was in fact a perfect, purple Raleigh Chopper. Accents are funny things.

 

[Geoff]

The only thing is, build quality not withstanding, and assuming they aren't rust proofed, won't nice steel frames rust through a lot quicker than cheap ones with very thick walled tubes?

 

[legrandefromage]

just check out old racing bikes - 50 years old or more and still being ridden.

 

[one-eyed_jim]

just check out old racing bikes - 50 years old or more and still being ridden.

But there are certainly far more frames that broke, bent, rusted out, or were thrown away in those 50 years than survived to old age. Bikes that are ridden hard and often generally break sooner or later. Bikes that are ridden gently and rarely can lead long lives. My '56 Mercian probably had 15 years of regular use followed by 25 years of idle neglect and ten years of pampering.

 

[Anthony]

The only thing is, build quality not withstanding, and assuming they aren't rust proofed, won't nice steel frames rust through a lot quicker than cheap ones with very thick walled tubes?

That is a good point, but funnily enough though Geoff, I think some of the alloying elements in high-end cromoly are rust inhibitors. I think it's coincidental rather than that they're chosen for that purpose, but some cromoly barely rusts.

My 97 Kilauea in Columbus Cyber has a bit of bare metal where I propped it up and a big gust of wind blew it over against a low brick wall. I still shudder at my carelessness, but despite all my crashes, that's the worst paint damage it has ever suffered. But anyway the point is that I did nothing to it, never treated it let alone repair it, and there it is seven years later still grey metal, no sign of rust whatsoever. So unless I've got the only titanium Kilauea ever made, Columbus Cyber isn't very prone to going brown.

 

[Tad]

Waxoyl - Squirt it inside every tube (on a steel frame) and it'll last for ever!

The other beauty of steel is it is easy to repair. I learned to braze and silver solder at art college. It came in very handy for replacing shifter bosses, repairing a cracked seat tube... A lot of my art work was bicycle shaped.