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...you didn't have to pay for anything you broke on your bike?
I know I'd definitely be willing to ride more aggressively if I knew that I wouldn't be financially liable for trashed wheels, frames, etc.
no, but if I didnt have to worry about breaking myself.
No but I'd probably go to Di2 on everything!
no, but if I didnt have to worry about breaking myself.
this. I rarely break stuff on my bike but bits snap off me with worrying regularity.
Nopes, the bike breaking is so far down my list it's not even registering.
If you could remove my aging survival instinct though, that's a different story 🙂
Yeah in most cases the bike has come out worse than I have, casing a big gap will be painful regardless of it you smash the frame
Nope. I race a lot & it doesn't even register.
Last weekend did register from a 'don't nail yourself' perspective as we are off to Morzine tomorrow & I wanted to ride my bike, not sit in a cast. So I rode a bit conservative & tight (and then ironically, did all the crashing anyway).
Broken bike bits are just part of the game. Most stuff is great these days so it has to be something a bit silly to actually break something properly 🙂
Probably yes.
Borrowed a pals downhill bike at Revs once. Ended up having to build him new rims onto both wheels. 😀
I'd borrow it again if he said he'd pay for it!
No, i'd be a mincer regardless of how much money I had!!
no, but if I didn't have to worry about breaking myself.
This, breaking the bike doesn't even enter my mind, 'one of those things' although apart from the odd deaded rim I haven't broken anything in years.
I have broken myself though, lots and lots of unexplainable pain, 9 months off work, 1 year off the bike, injuries that will never heal.
I've told myself I've got one more recovery like that in me, but I'll hang up my Five Tens if I do.
No. Breakages happen hopefully to the bike not me.
no, but if I didn’t have to worry about breaking myself.
I'm currently broken and regretting it, would much rather have broken the bike
Nope. Can't think of the last thing I broke on my bike. I run out of skill/balls well before getting anywhere near 'breaking stuff' levels of speed or technicality.
Whats worse, being stuck out in the middle of nowhere with a bike which wont roll ruining what little spare time i have or having to pay to fix it at a later date (probably the being stuck one)
Not having to pay for repairs wouldnt make any difference as its a long way home without a bike generally, usually my survival instincts kick in way before id have chance to damaging it by being overly aggresive anyway!
However id consider spending a lot of money on one decent enduro bike if if i stopped damaging my current bikes (which are cheapish to repair)
Some stuff perhaps, but probably not. I try not to ride stuff I would weep at the loss of.
Plus my mechanical sympathy is mostly aimed at completing the ride without mechanicals rather than minimising cost.
No, I break way before anything on my bike does !!!
An old riding mate had a mantra of ‘the NHS is free, bike parts arent’ to The point where he would try to protect the bike with his body in a crash...
that was was when he was 18 though, I suspect age and fatherhood have changed that opinion...
It never even even enters my head.
I spend far more money on replacing parts for vanity/ upgrading than when they’re broken.
Broke my first ever rear mech last month after ten years riding, can’t grumble at that.
Nope. I would rather try and ride clean and light than attack everything in sight as if i've picked a fight with nature so my preferred riding style tends to dictate that I don't break much stuff. That wouldn't change even if i had the keys the warehouse.
I've got a road bike with tarty paint that doesn't come out if there's even a suggestion of rain...
Nope, though i might try a carbon frame if i could get it replaced for free
I know I’d definitely be willing to ride more aggressively if I knew that I wouldn’t be financially liable for trashed wheels, frames, etc.
Learn to be smoother and pick better lines - it costs nothing except your time
No, I break still.
Sort of, although only occasionally. There are a few drops I know I am capable of doing on my hardtail but which are pretty much to flat and last time I rode them I got a massive clunk sound from the headtube area. Also there a step up jump in Whalley that is very do-able but coming up short would be a frame breaker so I've not done that either.
However ... I recently built up a cheap hardtail to launch at these things so they may all be back on.
Once the mortgage is out the way I may get a bit more gnarry....
OK, so take personal injury out of the equation then - would that change it?
Even riding the smoothest you can and picking the best lines, if you start pushing your personal limits you're bound to have an off, and even silly ones can dent a frame if you're unlucky and it hits something at the wrong angle. The bike I ride now is the most expensive I've owned, and it's in the back of my head that replacing it would be money I wouldn't necessarily be able to afford a second time, so in certain situations I do definitely ride much more within my limits.
The cheap £150 hack gets ridden with much more abandon!
No, but I tend to view bike component selection as natural selection in action, if something breaks if gets replaced with something stronger, either cheaper and tougher, or more expensive and engineered depending on budget. The amount of times something actually breaks is fairly small. I probably wouldn't ride something I couldn't afford to replace though, what's the point of buying a carbon superbike if you're not prepared to ride it faster than a cheap aluminium one. Mentally if I'm spending £1500 on a bike or £60 on a component, I'm putting aside £750 or £20 to replace it if it breaks.
Far more worried about breaking myself these days, I still do jumps and drops and ride as quickly as I dare, but I've opted out of progressing further so it's still the same jumps and drops I was riding 5 years ago.
No but I might build bikes differently.
“The bike I ride now is the most expensive I’ve owned, and it’s in the back of my head that replacing it would be money I wouldn’t necessarily be able to afford a second time, so in certain situations I do definitely ride much more within my limits.”
Unless you’ve got some super light XC race machine then I think you’re underestimating the strength of your bike!
I break me more than the bike !
So turning this on it's head...OP what bike bits have you broken recently, and what caused the breakage?
The most expensive crash i've had wasn't a crash - a stick flipped into the rear mech, twisted it into the spokes and mangled the wheel. Conversely i've had 30+mph crashes and the bike has bounced to a halt with nothing more than a few scrapes to pedal/brake levers. My mates bike fell off the back of my car at motorways speeds and all it need was a new seat and a grip (he was being fussy as it was brand new 😛 ).
More worried about breaking myself over breaking my bike.
With my skill level I've never been overly concerned about breaking my bike or parts, but as I tend to ride solo I am more worried about breaking myself.
Looking back to what I've ever broken while riding over the last 20 years.
1 pair of old school ultralight alloy bars snapped in a crash
1 pair of fork lowers snapped due to the force of the V-brakes ( manufacturing faulty, forks were recalled shortly after)
2 rear rims destroyed by riding home on the rim after getting snakebites so bad the tyre the tyre would hold air.
1 rear shifter snapped in an over the bars crash into a pile of branches
2 rear hangers bent out of shape by twigs/branches sticking out into the trail
OK, so take personal injury out of the equation then – would that change it?
Yes, sometimes - sometimes I'm riding as fast as I can, often it's as fast as I dare.
Out of all the dozens of people I’ve ridden with in recent years, the only one I can recall breaking anything significant in a crash was someone who rides a LOT and is pretty damned quick and broke his Santa Cruz carbon frame crashing into a tree.
Lots more stuff broken by unfortunate sticks or thick mud in drivetrains.
OK, so take personal injury out of the equation then – would that change it?
Oh god yes, it's not that I don't care about my bike, it's just I don't *need* it - if I've over-cooked it and I break something I don't need it to get to work on Monday morning, if I've got the spare cash it get fixed ASAP, if I don't then I sit and sulk till payday, but it's not the end of the world.
Not to mention after years of Magpie like chasing of 'bling' bits, I no longer bother. My bike is a my idea of 'how to go fast and have fun for the best return on investment'.
Wheels are Nukeproof 'somethings', the hubs are generic whatevers, but they come with cartridge bearings and are serviceable, rims are rebranded WTB jobs, they're tough and have the oh so important 30mm internal diameter (actually I think they're 29mm). They cost £200 and if I smash a rim, it's probably cheaper to a buy a new one than repair it.
Forks is a Yari, cost me £400 in a sale, it's a great fork with some care on set-up and a Lufftkape, piss easy to maintain - no need to give Mojo £120 twice a year.
Dropper is a Pro, should have bought Brand X but still, £150, it's easy to service and robust.
I went a bit flash with the full M8000 brake and drivetrain combo, but it was relatively cheap and robust - I'd probably go SLX now, but it wasn't out when I bought them. The cranks are SLX because I seem to brake them every few years.
Frame is an Intense Tracer, bought as a full bike for peanuts because it was the last of the Alu ones, hand made in the US if you care about stuff like that, rather than machine made in Taiwan. It's a 650b, 160mm we beastie of a thing. It's not boost, but boost was brand new when I bought it, so I saved £800 by having a slightly narrower rear hub.
It's fairly contemporary, rides well, makes me smile and if anything breaks on it, I won't cry too much, but happily most of the stuff at the price point I buy at tends to be pretty robust anyway.
I've been riding around pretty gingerly on my new bike, Rockguardz don't to a guard for mine yet and I took a pretty large rock to the downtube last night.
There is a rubber pad thing on there but it's not big enough by half, one mf my riding buddies snapped his nomad frame with a rock stroke on the same route. A<span style="font-size: 0.8rem;">lso rock strike related snapages, 1 x scott spark and 1 x scott genius so we've got form round there.</span>
No but then I would never recommend buying a carbon demo based on the answer above lol.
No... time recovering is way more expensive should I not be able to work
I have literally never used "I might hurt my bike" as justification for sacking off riding something. 😀
I have literally never used “I might hurt my bike” as justification for sacking off riding something.
Yeah I'd say if you're not riding something due to fear of breaking the bike rather than yourself it's time for a cheaper bike.
Would I ride differently and hurting myself is out of the equation?
Yes I would.
I'd be smashing into those trees all day long.