Pinkbike Poll: How Reliable Are Modern Mountain Bikes?
We all know it happens sometimes, but how often do bikes fail these days and why?
Recently a petition was launched to "end the manufacture and sale of built-to-fail budget bicycles". The idea was to clamp down on those bottom-end bikes that aren't serviceable, durable, or even safe.
Needless to say, the comments on the article about it got pretty heated. On the one hand, there's a lot to be said for cracking down on planned obsolescence where it exists or discouraging bikes that are so unreliable and hard to repair that they offer unwitting buyers poor value for money despite the low sticker price. On the other hand, people vote with their wallets and there is clearly a market for bikes that cost less than $200. Some commenters were concerned that imposing minimum standards would raise prices to the point where some couldn't afford a bike at all.
This is all very interesting but, despite what some commenters seemed to think, the petition really wasn't about the kind of bikes most Pinkbike readers ride. Not to sound snobbish, but most people who answered the Pinkbike Community Survey said they spent between $2,000 and $6,000 on their current primary mountain bike, whereas the petition was about sub-$200 bikes with non-replaceable chainrings, poor welds and plastic derailleurs.
Nevertheless, reliability could be a lot better at every price point. Even on high-end bikes, derailleurs break, bearings wear out (and aren't exactly easy to replace), rims dent, tires puncture, shocks fail, forks creak and so on.
More money, more problems? It often seems that way.
In fact if anything, reliability seems to get worse at higher price points beyond mid-level bikes. Bontrager's maxim famously states, "cheap, light, strong: pick two", but it seems that with high-end mountain bikes you only get to pick one.
It's easy to point the finger at the bike brands, and I think there is something to be said for that and a lot more they could be doing. But like with those budget bikes, customers vote with their wallets, and for the keen rider, lightness sells. Most of us want high-performance bikes which are as close as possible to those being raced at the top level. It's almost like using a Formula One car as a daily driver. Put that way, it's perhaps not too surprising things don't always last too well.
I've argued before that realistic weight savings create a tiny benefit, but they're probably still worth pursuing if you're a pro racer where every second counts and your bike is meticulously checked over after every race and any damaged parts are replaced. For the rest of us, shouldn't our priorities be a little different?
For a few thousand dollars you can buy something very similar to what the world's best are racing, but if you want your bike to last many years with minimal maintenance, shouldn't we have something more durable?
Our buying decisions say no. Here's a concrete example: RaceFace offer a steel chainring which costs just $20 and lasts longer than their $79.99 aluminum chainring. But with a weight penalty of 89g, the steel version is much less popular than aluminum. Similarly, many long-travel enduro bikes still come with lightweight (e.g. EXO casing) tires, presumably because manufacturers and retailers know they'll sell more bikes if they weigh less. I know a review isn't
complete without a weigh-in and bikes above a certain threshold will get a hard time in the comments. At the end of the day, brands are making the bikes people want to buy.
What do you think?
complete without a weigh-in and bikes above a certain threshold will get a hard time in the comments. At the end of the day, brands are making the bikes people want to buy.
What do you think?
At one quarter the price, with superior durability and an imperceptible weight penalty, steel chainrings should be on most bikes, right? Apparently not.
Which components have let you down in the last couple of years?
Tick all that apply
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Member since Dec 29, 2014
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This wasn't a rusted out hunk either, it was periodically cleaned out and greased, and looked fine internally.
Yeah, I hate throwing things away too, but sometimes it's just economics. Maybe you would rather Shimano increased prices _and_ took up space in shipping containers to transport a bunch of rarely needed internal parts around the world, but most of us would rather keep getting $42 12-speed shifters.
(In nearly three decades of riding and at least a dozen (maybe 20 considering fronts too) index shifters, I can only remember one just randomly breaking internally, and it was not new when it happened.)
My Hydra hubs are 100% easily serviced at home with every part available to maintain or repair them.
Full exploded diagrams with detailed service instructions and videos from I9.
Freehub can be pulled with zero tools or need to even remove the cassette to access drive ring and pawls.
A well designed pawl system is reliable and easy to work on.
King does require specialty tools and knowledge. Those tools are not cheap whatsoever.
Kings are absolutely superior to every other hub on the market in every way (except that you need their proprietary tools to fully disassemble). You don't need the tools to do a service however. The tool is simply to remove the bearings, which can be serviced without removal.
Quality made, simple kit from the old skool that may not be as high performance as others made today, tbf I've not tried any, but a) I still ride 26 b) I'm happy with what I'm running so there's no provocation to change
Since we already removed the rim and spokes he bolted on an old brake disc and clamped it in a vice. The ring was so seized up that even the big torque wrench (which we used out of curiosity) clicked at maximum torque (250 Nm).
The ring became loose eventually, but we twisted the whole hub body by mutliple degrees in the process...
On the plus side: I called DT Swiss and even though the wheel was over 5 years old and I'm not the first owner (bought it as "used like new" from someone who took it out of a brand new bike) they offered to replace the hub body on a goodwill basis and rebuild my wheel if I pay for the other parts (rim, spokes, bearings). In the end I got an almost new wheel (they only reused the axle) for a really fair price, far lower than the standard retail price.
But yeah, definitely the shop's fault for, uh, lemme check my notes... not supplying parts in a timely fashion that literally do not exist as an SKU or have been out of stock since product release. Cool to know!
I was once quoted £69 and 6 week delivery for 4 SRAM brake piston seals. The Hope equivalent seals were £2 and available next day. How can anyone justify that price difference?
Shimano as reliable as they are don’t appear to want their parts to serviceable, in time this may change if and when sustainability becomes an increased factor when deciding what to buy.
Find me XT pistons. Go a f*ckin' head.
Was extremely disappointed to encounter that. I feel Hope is likely great for anyone on that island, but it isn't always amazing elsewhere.
In regards to the rest if your statement, that is wrong on ao many levels.
1st. It is not the bike shops responsibility to ensure ease of navigation for service parts. It's the manufacturers, this is also a key to sustaining market share, which Shimano has done a terrible job doing.
2nd. You cannot just throw any part in from another manufacturer without customer concent.
3rd. If the customer agrees, the bike shop is now ordering parts at retail prices to sell retail. This obviously provides no profit, and given the bike shop is a business, their goal is to make money.
4th. Time is money. Bike mechanics work for the bike shop. Their job is to fix and repair bicycles in an effective and efficient manner. If they are spending time tracking parts through many resources, this can get costly, and either eats away at the companies profit, or potentially trickles down to the customers.
5th. Seasonal demand. Through the summer time or prime time service shops often back backlogged with a laundry list of bikes to repair. This goes back to effective and efficient. The more time each bike takes to repair the longer it takes to repair all bikes and in turn creates more down time for people looking to get out and ride, and in return can deture customers from giving business to your local bike shops.
I can keep going, biy I feel I've hit some heavy points as to why what your saying is just all around bad business practices.
Learn how to fix your own bike is basically easy I'm saying, or be thankful that there are people out there trying to drive a more effective and efficient way to do their jobs to provide better services to the consumer basis, especially given the increasing cost and scarcity of parts.
Once again, I will agree a large amount of mechanics don't know. It does however need to be treated as a trade, and in doing so knowing that apprentices and journeymen are expected to have a different level of expertise and knowledge.
I've been in and out of the industry for nearly 23 years. With the ever changing standards and fads that come and go, it's difficult to know it all. A good mechanic will do their best to source parts and remedy situations, but I've also seen the best mechanics struggle with certain situations simply because the industry doesn't make it easy.
The solution unfortunately to offer limited options as a bike shop and stop supporting brands that don't support local bike shops. Eventually the brand dissapears, or changes their processes. Shimano is a bit of a unique brand in that they have successfully developed and offered rather good products with little to no support to local bike shops.
CRC used to sell their products for cheaper than wholesale here in Canada.
This led to local bike shops not being able to compete, and ultimately dropped the brand.
Eventually sram took advantage of the opening and gained a large market share.
They still control the majority of the OEM market.
Shimano can catch up, but they need something special.
I have a Shimano B2B account. It is easy to navigate. They do not sell brake pistons aftermarket. This isn't an issue with my skill, this is now an issue with your reading comprehension. I am telling you, as an individual who has access to Shimano's part's catalog, they do not offer them.
I do understand how to do my job, thank you very much.
Yes parts aren't as robust as they could be, but some parts are designed for light weight as you say rather than durability, so you have to evaluate something based on its intended use. If you want durability there are steel cogs available. If you want light weight with less durability you can get alu ones. But you can't criticise a part for not doing something that it isn't intended to do.
Shouldn't I expect my bike & parts to not explode because of a small off-line when smashing through a janky rock garden? That's "just riding along" in the MTB/trail context, and we should be able to reasonably expect the bikes to handle some amount of rider error.
The last question could have been rephrased to ask "Is it worth 2 pounds to make _any and all_ riding (and mistakes made during riding) be considered "just riding along"?
My current 1x12 setup unfortunately is far from being on the same level of reliability. Fortunately I ride less these days…
It's had it's chain replaced once, a few tires & tubes, brake rubber - and nothing else. It rides & looks like a shed now, but it was left unlocked outside the school for 3 days/nights without anybody stealing it!
I will give you that some of the old shimano drivetrain parts were pretty rugged....but they sure as hell didnt work as well. Early grip shift on the other hand.....
How about der hangers?!?! Ya look at em the wrong way back then and would need to replace em. I cant remember the last time I needed to replace my hanger recently.
Bikes are definitely "better" now in performance, but that was also the era of brute simplicity which had its own benefits.
Except brakes, no one makes good brakes right now. Anyone over 180lbs should agree.
For brakes, Trick Stuff. Stupid $$, but absolutely ridiculous performance. My 200 lbs ex-pro buddy turned me onto them.
Don't get me started on the cost of a dirtbike tire that is 4X the material of an mtb tire for the same cost even though Maxxis easily makes 6X the volume of mtb tires compared to moto, those savings definitely are not passed on.
I think the difference is they design dirtbikes FOR the top tier rider so that "if it can withstand them, it withstand anyone" vs mtb where they kind of design things for "middle of the road rider, save money" so if you actually ride hard, shit breaks constantlyyyy. Exactly like the photo shown above, I won't ever ride carbon cranks again.
On a separate note, does anyone here remember the original Sram Codes? Those were the best darn brakes and they stopped making them. When I see riders like Kyle Strait somehow still running them, I get angry "see even your pro rider knows it, how do I get my hands on them again." I would gladly take the weight difference to keep running the old ones.
Things that play a roll are the type of riding you do, and the conditions you ride in.
Overall, what I fail to understand is how people will spend every last penny on the highest end part they can afford, but refuse to spend the money to properly service it.
You wouldn't buy a Ferrari and skip the service intervals because they are too expensive.
- Hayes Dominion A4
- Formula Cura 4
- Any Trickstuff 4-pot
Good reliability and enough power for most:
- TRP 4-pots
- Hope 4-pots
I'm sure I missed a few. Just look further than the ubiquitous SRAM underpowered and Shimano wandering brakes.
I have a personal list of "never will be on any bike I ride" parts and I stick to it.
Do you also think that just because people vote that they want bikes to be “perfectly reliable “ that they also think it will magically happen???
Would I give up a little bit of that to save two pounds? Not a chance in hell.
*Except the wheels that came with it, that I replaced with heavier and stronger wheels.
Just using your examples: The CSU is handling a lot of force in a pretty small area, but making that area bigger means the stuff around it has to get bigger, and more of anything usually means more weight. Same with the seat-post: to more reliably enable 20cm of extension that can hold a couple hundred pounds of human, the whole thing should be bigger, like even bigger than 34.9mm around, but again more stuff equals more weight. Might not add up to 2.2 pounds just for those, but "perfect reliability" means _nothing_ will break in the normal course of trail riding, including a safety margin to handle the occasional crash or misjudgment. as a safety
It's an odd question, and what it's really asking is (since we all know these polls are to collect opinion data to sell to bike companies) "How much beefier can we make our bikes/components in the name of increased durability (and thus lower warranty instances) before the general riding public is no longer willing to purchase them?".
Most likely, the kind of parts we're getting already reflect what customers want in terms of price vs weight vs reliability.
I am 100% in your camp on Rockshox suspension and shimano drivetrains.
I also only use shimano breaks as I like the feel and I find bleeding them easy. Plus mineral oil is a bit more friendly than Dot.
My failures:
- Giant dropper post wore through the anodization shockingly fast
- Formula hub pawl snapped in half
- Dropping chains due to Praxis narrow/half-wide chainring design and munching through an aluminum ring in 3 months ($70 ring, mind you, and only 0mm offset fits)
Bikes are continuing to get heavier and stuff still keeps breaking and wearing out so…
Overall, my bikes take really good care of me. On the other hand, my local LBS is also very familiar with them too.
There’s an infamous rocky section st mammoth that I’ve seen several people HAUL ass through and destroy very expensive rims on…and everyone knows that’s the section where people destroy rims on, yet they still have to show off their speed.
Very true, I went thru a set of not expensive rims with the DH bike after a week at Whistler. Fair trade in my book. Replaced them with a good, not great set of Alu wheels from the LBS.
What most people consider to be “reliable” is more accurately described as “durable”, and particularly in America this seems to mean “tolerant of abuse and neglect”. A BMW can be as reliable as a Cavalier if you follow BMW’s maintenance schedule as prescribed and change out parts when they meet the end of their service life. A Cavalier will run on 3 cylinders and 2/4 functioning wheel bearings longer than most cars will run, period.
2) Americans by and large do not see bicycles as more than recreational equipment or last-ditch transportation for people with too many DUIs. Everyone I know in New England thinks skiing is an expensive sport to get into, until you start mentioning how you’re not getting a brand new mountain bike that can reliable handle an American-sized male riding it in off-road conditions for less than $1500, plus regular maintenance and repair of multi-hundred dollar components. Until the general public stops thinking of bicycles as cheap entertainment for children compared to a PlayStation or Xbox, they’re going to keep demanding $250 department store disposable bikes. Unfortunately, the parents are the ones that have to be taught this, and doubly unfortunate is the fact that buying multiple $750+ bikes for an average household income of about $60,000, multiple times as their children grow up, just isn’t financially sound.
Most other failures have been predictable or rectified almost immediately (broken carbon wheels = warrantied, spoke failure, etc.). I think bikes are getting pretty great, especially if you take care of them.
But… from the rumour mill, supposedly, once this whole world wide shipping delay situation gets sorted and everyone catches up you can expect the bike co’s to start redesigning their frames around direct mount derailleurs that sit quite a bit more in and up out of the way. Will that solve the issue?? Who knows… will it keep people buying new bikes now that geo is sorted out, probably.
m.pinkbike.com/news/sram-granted-patent-for-drivetrain-with-a-direct-mount-derailleur.html
The best thing we can hope for is stronger right-to-repair regulation. The EU could implement this on its own and changes would likely filter out to the rest of the world.
My 06 V10 with intense mag 30 rims coil fork and shock and old school saint brakes never needs anything. Haven't even checked the spoke tension in 8 years.But weighs more than 50 pounds.
The new bike tech is awesome for being light and somewhat reliable with all the droppers and adjustments and features. You cant ever have it all but we have it pretty good for sure.
Before (Australian) winter I built a set of wheels for a friend (170lb) with 511’s on a set of 350 hubs. I encouraged him to use 560’s, but he insisted. They’re built with the same dt alpine 2 spokes and 14mm brass nipples as my personal wheels. One rim lasted four rides and the other lasted six. I rebuilt the wheels with 560’s and they’ve been strong and true for seven or eight months now.
100kg, 511s on competitions, schladming is my local. Not a whisper in 2 years.
As for steel chainrings, I've been using steel 32t Deore 9sp middle rings for years. The granny was 22t and didn't really wear (wasn't used much either) and didn't use a big ring (just a bash guard). The 32t steel ring was 9 euros a piece so fairly acceptable. I couldn't understand why others would go for more expensive and shorter lasting aluminium rings. But for a 1x drivetrain, the tables have turned. I want an oval 34t ring with 104mm BCD (for Shimano Zee cranks). The ones from RaceFace don't fit, they use a different mount. Wolftooth makes them in steel but these are massively more expensive than aluminium. Understandable as I suppose these are machined, so tool wear is massive compared to machining aluminium rings. They don't stamp/punch them, like Shimano used to stamp my Deore rings. Yet at the same time, 1x rings don't skip as badly when worn like worn shift-rings do. Aluminium rings (from Superstarcomponents and Absolute Black) last long enough for me. I do use a chain guide though, which probably matters. Rear sprockets (steel) wear much, much faster.
"Would you accept a one-kilogram (2.2 lb) weight penalty for perfect reliability?"
Rigid frame bikes from the 80's were overbuilt. The only issue I had was the brake mount on fork broke off on a Specialized stumpjumper.
And the only problem I've currently had is BB frame shell bushing worn oversize .4mm (.016") on a C2 Optic, but Norco will warranty this.
But if only one manufacturer does it then all of a sudden reviews are going to complain that it's "100g heavier than the competition".
With better geo and bigger wheels we're riding rougher terrain, faster than back then too.
Ironically my bike weight has stayed the same over 10 years at about the same reliability: 33 lbs
Tire weight increases and adding a dropper post have gobbled up weight savings from fork/frame/component improvements. (but it's a good trade)
Recent failures that come to mind:
- Fork crown creaking: $0 Warrantied (long-travel single-crown steerers need more beef to avoid creaking)
- Rear hub bearing: $9 fix (1 failure out of 10 seasons of riding so to be expected; have to have proper tools)
- A few rear rims: $75-100 ea (Al rims dent too much at 26-28psi without inserts)
- A rear triangle: Crash-replaced at $400 (design flaws according to the mfr)
- Pedal spindle: $25 f*ck Crankbros mallets
- Drivetrain parts: $misc - Smashed derailleurs aside, getting 4+ years out of a XG-1175 cassette isn't bad
Sidenote: I'd be very irritated if frame mfr admitted design flaw and still charged you.
The frame was bought second hand, so it felt like a deal to only pay crash replacement price for the rear triangle.
2. I haven't had a component "fail" in ages. The last one I can remember is when there was barbed wire on a trail and it got into my wheel and destroyed the wheel and shifter and I think I'll call that one rider error rather than blame sram for crappy parts :-) Stuff does wear out and I wish it lasted longer (looking at you cassettes, grips, and tires) but I've been pretty happy with my bike.
In reality, I have some bike parts from the 1980's that are still going strong, Suntour friction shifters, IRD seatpost, Chris King hubset. So not everything newer is better in terms of reliability, nor function for that matter.
I've been through a lot of parts over the years, and I know that nothing lasts forever, no matter how badly you want it to. It's a matter of buying the right tools for the job, really. I have 2 steel hardtail frames that each have more than 100,000 miles on them. They were made with the right tube sets, not the lightest, but light enough to be competitive in top level races. Now I ride an aluminum full suspension bike that I think will also be reliable for the long term for me and the kind of riding I do now.
I no longer race but I do lots of what I consider endurance riding, off road, 80 to 100+ mile rides. It's very important to me that my bike doesn't break as I'm usually riding solo. I don't even know what my bike weighs, nor do I care. I feel like there's a balance between weight and durability, and going too light for what you're doing is just asking for trouble.
Personally, the greatest factor increasing my bikes reliability is my age. The older I get, the fewer chances I take. It's made all the difference in the world.
Everything seemed pretty balanced there, but there was no mention to the fact that every bike comes with alloy cranks decades ago, even crappy supermarket bikes, as opposed to carbon cranks, which are only found in high end builds or aftermarket.
So I wonder how many of those broken alloy cranks were XT, or Saint, or Turbine, or any other high end alloy cranks, to make the comparison a bit more apples to apples.
Rims tend to be kind of flimsy-except for EX511s. All rims should be that straight/true, easy to build and durable.
And…..I get part of this is big wheels on long travel bikes adding stress, but I’ve had a few rear shocks fail on me the last couple of years. 3 were Trek through-shaft (ick!!) but I also had the aircan blow off an almost brand new DVO.
On the positive side, SRAM and Shimano make good brakes these days, OneUp 210 dropper has been easy to live with, Deity Deftraps KILL IT if you rock flats!!
Square taper BB & cranks with press fit chainring.
With a busted chainring, you have to replace the whole setup, and that is if you can find parts. Not even talking about anything serviceable.
Fork - Should probably have been a rigid.
Shifter, derailleur & cassette…. Impossible to find replacements. Had to make old Shimano 8spd & 9spd components work on a wheel relaced to an old DT hub.
Original cable actuated disc brakes - unserviceable and crap. Ditched them for cheap Tektro hydraulics. More serviceable and still working like a charm for the next kid
I've had great success with SRAM and Trek, whereas Fox and Yeti have been challenging at best.
Shimano m7000 rear derailleur, the spring was full with mud and rust. After that I learned to service it every 6 months at worst.
Cchainstay with broken weld, cracked seatstay at the PM. Great customer service, replaced under warranty.
DVO Jade, developed wear mark on the stantion after few months. Got my money back. (Bearings were new, bushings were new, harder was new-ish.)
2 destroyed rear wheels, because city riding sux.
I upgraded to m7100, and after 2 weeks, I lost one of the boys that keep the shifter from rotating.
New Shimano direct mount chainrings have 8 instead of 4 bolts that WILL get loose.
Fox DH X2 shocks get get cracked at the damper near the eyelet, and they leak. I've seen 5 in the last 2 years.
My colleague bent his crankarm after he layed down on the side with the bike. Really stupid. He is really disappointed with his Trek Slash, because he spends more money than he rides. About 2-3 USD per kilometer. Rims made of cheese, cracks made of cheese, gears never worked properly (GX). I tried it once, and shifting under load is shit.
RS forks have rattle noise caused by the rebound inside the damper. I guess RS could've fixed it by installing really small O ring. We install plastic straw as really quick solution.
Shimano m7000 rear derailleur, the spring was full with mud and rust. After that I learned to service it every 6 months at worst.
Cchainstay with broken weld, cracked seatstay at the PM. Great customer service, replaced under warranty.
DVO Jade, developed wear mark on the stantion after few months. Got my money back. (Bearings were new, bushings were new, hardware was new-ish.)
2 destroyed rear wheels, because city riding sux.
I upgraded to m7100, and after 2 weeks, I lost one of the boys that keep the shifter from rotating.
New Shimano direct mount chainrings have 8 instead of 4 bolts that WILL get loose.
Fox DH X2 shocks get get cracked at the damper near the eyelet, and they leak. I've seen 5 in the last 2 years.
My colleague bent his crankarm after he layed down on the side with the bike. Really stupid. He is really disappointed with his Trek Slash, because he spends more money than he rides. About 2-3 USD per kilometer. Rims made of cheese, cracks made of cheese, gears never worked properly (GX). I tried it once, and shifting under load is shit.
RS forks have rattle noise caused by the rebound inside the damper. I guess RS could've fixed it by installing really small O ring. We install plastic straw as really quick solution.
E13 dropper with broken top head.
Older SLX crankarms seem to snap in half. My colleague broke his, last year I sold mine after 1year on the shelf. Few months later the dude I sold them to sent me a picture with the crankarm broken in half.
Yesterday I opened fairly new RS Reba for lower leg service, there were metal shards inside from when they installed the bushings.
Still, i'd take another 500g so that I don't need to send my Zeb in for CSU replacement for the 5th time.
Look at the price of a motocross bike the amount engineering you get for the $$ vs a bicycle. We are getting robbed!
The stuff thats replaced it was slightly heavier, half the price and lasted way longer.
Oh and did I mention E13 stuff is made of cheese?
My beef is with maintenance. By far the most time I spend on maintenance is linked to the drivetrain. My #1 request is an acceptable chainguard that keeps splashes and mud off my chain, and perhaps derailer. An article on Cyclingtips showed that a chain has the capacity to last indefinitely. The actual service life and maintenance needed to extend it is 100% due to exposure. Somebody, please sell a nice chainguard.
gx has no functional cluch, weighs 300g and costs £110
slx has a easy to use functional clutch weights 16g more and is £30 cheaper
i also have had no problems with my slx derailiure and have ran it on downhill,
loam, bikepark, and jumps for over a year.
had 2 from manf frame issues that were apparent when new
broke a hub axle recently but was hugely taken care of from the other side of the world. props to them for sure.
other than that i tend not to have any issues at all.
I honestly don't think the riding and riders today, in general, are really pushing the limits of bike stress they used to. I hear of parts wearing out (think aluminium gears with only 3 rings used, grinding a chain/front ring since so few use a bashguard anymore) but that is a given. Shimano shifters have always been the bastion of disposability since early times (except the top mount thumb shifters which never broke). I can't recall how many XT pods I have been through in the past. Tried to fix them? Sure? Any luck? No.
I wonder what the real failure rate/mechanical breakdown rate of motors are. And not like that is going to be cheap, either.
He'll! Imm even rocking parts from 2020!!!
For example, I've put many thousands of hard (I'm 100 kilos without gear and ride smashy) miles of New England jank (like you _need_ a bash-ring/guard, and my bashrings are all beat up) on various RaceFace BBs with no problems. But also had good results with Shimano BBs. Also never had a CSU creak through 5 different Fox CSUs (including a 150mm Float 32!!) in 10 years. YMMV, but some people forget that and just like to yell.
Two Hope cranksets w/hope BB 3-4yrs
Two Hope headsets 3-4yrs
Pro 2 hubs 6 yr’s+
Pro 4 hubs 3-4 yrs+
Tech 3 brakes 3-4 yrs +
still smooth as butter and easily serviced
Good stuff ain’t cheap.
Cheap stuff ain’t good. @chrod:
purchased separately/individually which makes buying used another decent option
I dunno…I’m biased, but after 3 or 4 years on a Taniwha I won’t go back to a traditional drivetrain. All that time spent fiddling, tuning, tweaking…I can’t be f*cked.
Just take two long rides instead of three
2010 Santa Cruz Carbon Nomad 26" (M): 30 lbs (XTR, Enve/King) $6900 MSRP
2021 Santa Cruz Carbon C Nomad 27.5" (M): 33 lbs (XT, RF/DT350) $6800 MSRP