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Re:Logistics of biking 9833 miles in 409 days by ilyt on Monday November 14, 2022 @06:48PM (#33603133)
Literally anything that's not build out of bargain bin parts will do fine. And better one will not necessarily prevent that many failures, over some point it's mostly incremental improvements in experience quality, not reliability.

I had 3 bikes, 2 of them did around 10k, 3rd one, well, I bought it at start of pandemic, then we moved WfH so it did much less.

Around 20% was riding around local forests, rest in city.

The first bike was literally like $300 (...probably closer to $400 now with inflation and all). I only replaced the saddle for more comfortable one but that's all. No disc brakes, literally the fanciest thing on it was that it had shocks on front.

But after finding job in big city and moving there I was using it for commute every day so after few years I decided "well, might as well buy something nice", bought one for I think like $2000, nice disc brakes, rear shock, lighter, "good" etc.

Comparing those two I went from mechanical rim brakes to hydraulic disk brakes and they did feel nicer, but in the end the rim brakes stopping power was just fine, it didn't feel as that much of an upgrade. Sure, a bit lighter to use but I could still yeet myself thru the front tire on rim brakes (probably). And rear wheel disc brake was entirely a waste, there is way less braking force needed on rear to lock up wheel.

In general I liked it but managed to break the frame (I was on max range of weight for that bike which probably didn't help), and decided to get something slighty cheaper, no rear shock (not much use for what I drive), cheaper accessories etc. (think it was about $1000). After a bit of riding turned out that only thing I missed was that tiny screw to adjust preload on brakes as the pads wear out. Drove few K so far, think some bearing in pedal broke (it's a bit wobbly), but not annoying enough yet for me to fix it.

In every case I had to replace sprockets as they use, replace the saddle for more comfortable one and install some accessory bits, replace the handlebars for one that fit me better and few smaller bit. But even the cheapo was reliable enough.

Generally the thing worth investing most is frame (as that will not change) and derailleur, as that will generally stay, brakes depending on riding (as I said, people driving hard off hills will probably have different needs than me driving some random forest dirt roads). Everything else you probably want to fit to your needs and you want to drive the bike for a bit to know exactly what you want.

Re:Logistics of biking 9833 miles in 409 days by jamiek88 on Monday November 14, 2022 @07:40PM (#33603597)
I e never heard anyone use the phrase ‘drive a bike’ before, always ‘ride a bike’, you use drive several times - is this a regional thing I’ve not come across before?
Re:Logistics of biking 9833 miles in 409 days by whatofolloww on Monday November 14, 2022 @07:50PM (#33603681)
It may sound odd because "biker" colloquially refers to a motorcyclist, but not many people would call a motorcycle a "bike" in day-to-day conversation.

Maybe "driving a bike" will get more popular as electric velocipedes continue to blur those lines.

Re:Logistics of biking 9833 miles in 409 days by ilyt on Monday November 14, 2022 @07:57PM (#33603761)
Nope, I hust don't talk about bicycles in english all that often (well, basically never).

I also find the word "bike" annoying, as it seems to mean both bicycle and motorbike, while in my native language there are entirely separate words with no common root (but funnily enough colloquial term for motorbike is same as "engine")

Re:Logistics of biking 9833 miles in 409 days by skhr0680 on Monday November 14, 2022 @08:33PM (#33604123)
What language is that? In Japanese "bike" specifically refers to motorcycles, and 50cc scooters are called "engines" :-)
Re:Logistics of biking 9833 miles in 409 days by ilyt on Tuesday November 15, 2022 @03:14AM (#33606612)
Polish. Bike is "Motor" (engine) or "motocykl", bicycle is "rower", scooter is also basically "skuter" but it is just about the form factor, not the engine

Also 50cc ones are called "engine bicycles" although that name isn't really used that often.