I ride a cross bike for commuting.

With the recent cycling boom, more and more people are riding cross bikes, and I'm often asked how many years they typically last.

Since it's not a cheap purchase, people might be curious about how long they can ride it.

At such times, a particular phrase comes up, so I'd like to address that as well.

DURABILITY PERIOD VS. SERVICE LIFE

When discussing "how long it lasts," I'm sometimes asked, "What is its service life?"

The questioner's intention is usually to ask, "What is its lifespan?"

However, the term "service life" is problematic.

This is a legal term, asking about the number of years for depreciation.

The service life of a bicycle is set at 2 years by the Japan National Tax Agency.

This applies equally to road bikes, cross bikes, MTBs, city bikes (mamachari), and children's bikes.

In other words, it doesn't mean "it will break and be unusable after 2 years."

It means that the period during which tax deductions can be claimed is 2 years, legally speaking.

If you buy a bicycle for personal use, this "service life" is mostly irrelevant.

On the other hand, "durability period" has the same meaning as "lifespan."

Both cross bikes and road bikes are similar in that their lifespan is not determined by years.

If there's one person who rides only 1 km a year and another who rides 100,000 km, naturally the one who rides 100,000 km will experience more severe deterioration and will become unable to ride sooner.

Also, since there are careful riders and rough riders, it's difficult to simply consider it in terms of distance.

Furthermore, the wear and tear on a bicycle will be vastly different between someone who performs regular maintenance and someone who never touches it.

As such, the lifespan varies depending on various conditions such as riding style, distance ridden, and maintenance frequency.

However, if I were to state it without fear of misunderstanding, it seems generally possible to ride for about 10 years.

Next, I asked cross bike owners specifically what parts tend to wear out and reach the end of their lifespan.

Where Cross Bikes Reach the End of Their Lifespan

• Paint peeling

If you neglect simple maintenance like "wiping it when it gets dirty," the paint can peel off.

Whether it's carbon, aluminum, or chromoly (steel), peeled paint doesn't pose any structural problem at all, but if you're using an expensive frame, paint peeling can become unacceptable.

However, with a little effort and repair, you can still ride it sufficiently.

If the paint on your bicycle is peeling and bothering you, please repair it so you can ride it with pride.

• Crank spindle bearing deterioration and hole widening

The crank spindle is the part that supports the pedal axle.

The small ball bearings inside, often called "tama-jikuke," will deteriorate.

In many cases, these bearings are commercially available and manufactured to JIS standards.

Although a special tool is required, they can be replaced relatively inexpensively.

However, if the hole for installing these bearings widens, the bearings cannot be fixed, meaning the axle becomes unstable.

This can lead to noise, and in severe cases, the pedals might become wobbly.

If that happens, replacement becomes necessary.

While there are ways to forcibly fix it with adhesive, subsequent maintenance becomes impossible, so replacing the frame is often considered.

There are two countermeasures for this, and I'll first explain how to prevent deterioration.

When replacing bearings, use specialized tools like a puller.

Roughly knocking them out can damage the frame.

This is when the hole gets damaged.

Next, for dealing with deterioration, carbon reinforcement can be considered.

I haven't actually done this myself, so I can't explain it in detail, but it involves preparing reinforcing carbon sheets and applying them to the inside of the hole.

There are methods using adhesive and methods using heat bonding, but both are highly advanced, so I don't think there are many places that would undertake such a task, both in terms of cost and technical skill.

It's a very difficult job, so it's best to avoid it if possible.

*The term "ride frequently" here refers to someone who rides more than 10,000 km per year.

This might be plausible for road bikes, but for cross bikes used for commuting, most people would not fit this category.

Even if you commute 5 km one way by bicycle every day, it only amounts to about 2,500 km per year.

In such cases, with a little simple maintenance, it should easily last 10 years.

• Front derailleur bracket damage

The front derailleur bracket (mount) can sometimes break.

Despite being a relatively small component, some designs have less material around the mounting holes.

As a result, it can break at the hole after years of use.

While preparing a replacement part is an option, it's not always easy to remove the old one cleanly, making replacement difficult.

Looking at information online, it seems some people even make their own brackets.

In such cases, they appear to make them out of carbon, or iron and stainless steel.

Again, these are not simple parts you can buy at a home center, so you'd need to find a designer to draw up plans and a fabricator to produce them.

Even if you draw the plans yourself, these days you can find online services that will do the fabrication, which you might consider using.

From the perspective of someone in mechanical design, these would be relatively expensive parts, but it's a good era since they can handle orders for even a single item.

To avoid these problems, perform simple maintenance yourself, and for equipment adjustments, leave them to professionals. Learn from them and then try to do it yourself.

External writer: Koichi Okuno