Hi Shawn - That's a fairly broad question with a good number of variables: Fenders or Open-Wheel?, Fair-Weather or Everyday? Delayed Maintenance or Son-of-a-mechanic obsessive?
Particularly with respect to the headset, where certain companies have focused upon making "the best" and managed to gain significant use and product loyalty. For me, the realization came during the El Niño winters of the late 90's. I think I burned through three "standard" type headsets that winter on my open wheeled mtb - so a month and a half each? The effect of rain and dirt put a wonderfully fine spray of grinding paste up into the headtube, and the cups and balls got pitted and scratched beyond repair. We'd slap in larger bearings and extra grease, run neoprene "shields" on the headtube, but nothing really mattered. I got really tired of dropping the fork and pressing in another headset. At the time, I had full shop/tool access, so it wasn't even a problem of paying for the labor (headset press - though you can make one yourself - is one of those tools I never have bought.) After number three, I bought a Chris King, which survived that bicycle and moved to its replacement. I've continued that habit through this day, and expect the headsets to last at least as long as the frameset. On bb's, I've always upgraded from the base model - mostly out of latent weight-weenydom. The UN72 type bb's (as opposed to the UN53/intro level ones) keep plugging along, and I know I've got over 10K on the ones in my bikes right now. I've heard 20K pretty regularly. I've replaced many more cogs, chainrings, cables and cranks than bb's. hope that's of some help - what type of bike are you putting these on? - Jim Cyclofiend / cyclofi...@gmail.com / Cyclofiend.com -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msg/rbw-owners-bunch/-/6g2HAxjLZlYJ. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
