10,000 km: a first inventory of breakdowns and wear

The first 10,000 km are behind us.

The journey so far has taken us from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea and from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea, from the lowland forests of the Danube to the steppes of Central Anatolia and from the autumnal forests of the Lesser Caucasus to the desert of Jordan - time for a first review of how the equipment held up! In this article we look at the breakdowns and wear. We will go into the necessary regular maintenance work in a later article.

Frame and pannier rack

So far we haven't had any problems with the steel frame - anything else would have been a bitter disappointment. On the pannier racks, we have been able to avoid excessive wear at the contact points with the pannier attachments by means of abrasion protection (plastic rollers, sold directly by Tubus, alternatively also fabric tape).

However, the mounting screws of the (heavily loaded) rear pannier rack have proven to be a weak point. Although our load is within the specifications of the bicycle and pannier rack manufacturer, one of the frame screws on Matthias' bike broke off without any major shock. Luckily, a mechanic with a drill was nearby at that moment, so the broken screw could be quickly drilled out. We twice lost one of the frame screws on Sonja's bike (despite screw lock). In any case, we would advise carrying the retaining screws for the pannier rack (there are many) as spare parts, because obtaining this type of screw (and they are not even exotic) was not that easy on the road. In general, screws have come loose from time to time, which is why a regular check (takes only a few minutes per wheel) is advisable.

Hubs and axles

We had already described the breakdown of Sonja's Rohloff hub in a separate article in the “Our Gear” section: a fishing line had destroyed the hub's shaft seal. Rohloff's customer service sent us a new seal and installation tool to Serbia, which enabled us to repair the damage ourselves.

Another incident concerned the front wheel of Matthias' bike: when installing the wheel, the quick release axle of the front wheel broke (tightening torque was always considered). We had a spare axle with us, so the breakdown was resolved within minutes. Luckily for us, because with a broken axle the bike can no longer be pushed at all. Anyone who researches the internet will find that broken quick release axles are not an isolated case. Since they are also cheap, small and light, our recommendation is clear: a pair of spare quick release axles should be taken with you on a bike trip (when buying, note the correct installation dimensions for the front and rear wheel)!

Tires and tubes

So far we have only had one flat tire on each bike. In both cases, the cause was fine wires that probably came from car tires. We patched the tubes with Lezyne patches. One of the patches has now lasted over 2,500 km, so it is quite durable. In Georgia we swapped the tires on the front and rear wheels - this way we can get even more kilometers out of the old tires.

We are still on the road with the first inner tubes, but put on new tires after about 9,000 km. The old tires would certainly have run for a while, but of course they were already showing signs of wear, which is why we preferred to continue on our bikes in the direction of South Asia with “fresh” tires on. We had the new tires sent to us in a package to Cyprus (the last country in the EU internal market for us), because we couldn't find the tried-and-tested Marathon Mondial Evo in Georgia, Armenia, Turkey or Cyprus.

Brakes

As expected, the wear of the brake pads was heavily dependent on the load on the respective wheel and therefore varied greatly. Of course, the number, length and gradient of the descents also affect the load on the brakes, which is why a different route profile would have led to a different need for brake pads. On the (lighter loaded) front wheels, the first brake pads are now nearing the end of their service life. We have changed the brake pads twice on the rear wheel of Sonja's bike and three times on the heavily loaded rear wheel of Matthias' bike. Unfortunately, we had to replace quite fresh pads once again, as they were contaminated with oil during transport in a bus on the way back from Georgia to Aksaray - for such a mishap an additional pair of replacement brake pads can therefore not hurt... Of course, the brake discs also depend on the combination of materials: within the Magura system we run “7.S” pads on “MDR-C” discs (front wheel) or on Rohloff-compatible discs (rear wheel, disc diameter 180 mm each). With any other combination of materials, wear and tear should be different (probably higher). Otherwise, the brakes haven't given us any problems so far. Bleeding was just as unnecessary as re-adjusting the brake calipers. And since these are disc brakes, there is logically no wear on the flanks of the rims.

Drive train

Before starting the trip, we installed a fresh set of chainring, sprocket and chain from KMC's "10,000km+" system. We can now say that the "plus" of our bikes will be quite large, because after 10,000 km the teeth of the ring and sprocket as well as the chain show little wear and therefore do not cause any problems.

Panniers

The mount for the Ortlieb handlebar bag includes a wire that locks the mount to the handlebar. We would have preferred a solution with clamps during assembly. The wire then broke at Matthias’ handlebar mount in Serbia, which is why he traveled to Istanbul with a makeshift solution made of cord and fabric tape.

So far we have also lost a screw on the back of the panniers twice. Luckily we have a spare set of screws (available directly from the manufacturer) which enabled us to replace the screws (the loss of which was not immediately noticeable while riding).

Other

So far we've been very lucky with our equipment and only have small things to complain about: On Sonja's bike, a weld on the Expedition Cage bottle holder broke. One of the two carrying straps of the Ortlieb Gear-Pack ripped off (in general, the sewing kit that we took with us was sometimes helpful). We had to patch an inflatable pillow once. Tent, sleeping mats, cooker and clothes (apart from an open seam on one pair of trousers, see sewing kit) have held up very well so far.