Clyde Causalties

Being 250lbs has it's strains on bicycles parts. Cranks, chains, and brakes are prone to faster wear. Seatposts, handlebars, stems, saddle rails, wheels, and frames are subject to snapping catastrophically. Yes, just about everything on a bicycle needs to be carefully picked out for a clyde. I will start cataloging parts that fail and fare well with clyde abuse.

So I posted about the first one...

Item in question: Hope aluminum freehub
Length of use: Jan 2009 to June 2010
Failure: Cracked freehub body
Cause of failure: Typical use
Analysis: It's fairly well understood that an aluminum freehub is prone to cracking under heavy load. This doesn't seem to be exclusive to clydes.
Result: Hope sent me a steel freehub body that's been rock solid so far. It's nearly 50% heavier and made of steel, so I doubt I'll have any problems with it.


So beyond the actual bike itself, I recently found another casualty of my clyde-ness. My shoes.

Item in question: Shimano M122 Clipless Mountain Shoes (2 bolt)
Length of use: November 2008 to July 2010
Failure: Torn sole. Loss of shoe stiffness. Walking with bike introduces gobs of sand in my shoe.
Cause of failure: Hike a bikes, typical use.
Analysis: I never thought of shoes as a consumable part. In the waning rides leading up to the failure, I noticed my shoes lost a lot of stiffness. I guess this is typical, but tearing the shoes apart is not a normal occurrence.
Result: I ended up with some Sidi Dominator 5 shoes. 1 year 8 months of use out of a pair of shoes is decent enough. I hope the Sidis will last at least 2 years. Still, upgraditis has me eying the Dragon 2 SRS already...