What happends to a bike with high mileage?
10-28-2007, 02:26 AM
#1
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What happends to a bike with high mileage?
other then being older technology, whats the big deal with buying a high mileage bike? with cars, the metal flexes over time becoming less ridged. with bikes you have an engine that could be rebuilt, same as the shocks but what about the frame? most sport bikes come with aluminum frames, far more ridged then steel. I don't know metallurgy enough to say for sure but i would assuming the same flexing would effect aluminum as well. anyone know anything on the subject?
10-28-2007, 08:22 AM
#2
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Re: What happends to a bike with high mileage? (85)
Aluminum/Steel frames will loose there resiliency, but that shouldn't worry you for the most part unless it's a bad design. For me what happens in high millage scooters is that they deteriorate at a faster rate because of an exposure to the elements. Items like an ultra lite wieght frame/rims (specially magnesium rims) should be considered consumables...
10-28-2007, 06:51 PM
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Re: What happends to a bike with high mileage? (85)
<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 85 »</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">other then being older technology, whats the big deal with buying a high mileage bike? with cars, the metal flexes over time becoming less ridged. with bikes you have an engine that could be rebuilt, same as the shocks but what about the frame? most sport bikes come with aluminum frames, far more ridged then steel. I don't know metallurgy enough to say for sure but i would assuming the same flexing would effect aluminum as well. anyone know anything on the subject? </TD></TR></TABLE>
by "rigid", I'll presume that you're referring to modulus of elasticity. In which case, steels are much more rigid than aluminum.
and also, aluminums are more susceptible to failure as a result of fatigue, and do not exhibit a fatigue limit, which means that for a very large number of stress cycles, aluminum can fail at significantly lower stresses than you would expect from looking up the properties in a materials handbook, whereas steels theoretically exhibit some minimum critical fatigue stress after a finite number of cycles.
you can see why careful inspection of airplanes is necessary to locate cracks from fatigue.
referenced to "Strength and Fracture of Engineering solids" by david felbeck.
just so you know I'm not making stuff up.
Modified by tharptroy at 10:16 PM 10/28/2007
by "rigid", I'll presume that you're referring to modulus of elasticity. In which case, steels are much more rigid than aluminum.
and also, aluminums are more susceptible to failure as a result of fatigue, and do not exhibit a fatigue limit, which means that for a very large number of stress cycles, aluminum can fail at significantly lower stresses than you would expect from looking up the properties in a materials handbook, whereas steels theoretically exhibit some minimum critical fatigue stress after a finite number of cycles.
you can see why careful inspection of airplanes is necessary to locate cracks from fatigue.
referenced to "Strength and Fracture of Engineering solids" by david felbeck.
just so you know I'm not making stuff up.
Modified by tharptroy at 10:16 PM 10/28/2007
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10-29-2007, 02:46 PM
#8
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Re: What happends to a bike with high mileage? (tharptroy)
<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by tharptroy »</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
by "rigid", I'll presume that you're referring to modulus of elasticity. In which case, steels are much more rigid than aluminum.
and also, aluminums are more susceptible to failure as a result of fatigue, and do not exhibit a fatigue limit, which means that for a very large number of stress cycles, aluminum can fail at significantly lower stresses than you would expect from looking up the properties in a materials handbook, whereas steels theoretically exhibit some minimum critical fatigue stress after a finite number of cycles.
you can see why careful inspection of airplanes is necessary to locate cracks from fatigue.
referenced to "Strength and Fracture of Engineering solids" by david felbeck.
just so you know I'm not making stuff up.
Modified by tharptroy at 10:16 PM 10/28/2007</TD></TR></TABLE>
I want to disagree with you on Steel being more ridged but perhaps im thinking about it in a different manner.
aluminum has a MUCH lower elasticity then steel but is much stronger then steel per mass measurement and is far more ridged.
by "rigid", I'll presume that you're referring to modulus of elasticity. In which case, steels are much more rigid than aluminum.
and also, aluminums are more susceptible to failure as a result of fatigue, and do not exhibit a fatigue limit, which means that for a very large number of stress cycles, aluminum can fail at significantly lower stresses than you would expect from looking up the properties in a materials handbook, whereas steels theoretically exhibit some minimum critical fatigue stress after a finite number of cycles.
you can see why careful inspection of airplanes is necessary to locate cracks from fatigue.
referenced to "Strength and Fracture of Engineering solids" by david felbeck.
just so you know I'm not making stuff up.
Modified by tharptroy at 10:16 PM 10/28/2007</TD></TR></TABLE>
I want to disagree with you on Steel being more ridged but perhaps im thinking about it in a different manner.
aluminum has a MUCH lower elasticity then steel but is much stronger then steel per mass measurement and is far more ridged.
10-31-2007, 09:21 AM
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Re: What happends to a bike with high mileage? (85)
The modulus of elasticity of a material is a property of said material. Stiffness or "rigidity" is a description of a SPECIFIC BODY of material. Rigidity would be a design parameter of a motorcycle frame (which would not be constant in every part of the frame). If you can get that rigidity (and all other design parameters like size, shape, style, etc) using aluminum then the frame will be lighter. The trend in sportbike frames has been leaning towards less rigidity (for handling) and weight (for many reasons) for racing. Sportbikes that are used to drive on the street do not see the same level of stress as they would on the race track...that is, unless many wheelies are involved
(especially the kind where you sit in the tank and land it that way!) or the bike is crashed badly. I'm sure the factories design the frames to never reach the yield strength of whatever material they're using under normal conditions.
(especially the kind where you sit in the tank and land it that way!) or the bike is crashed badly. I'm sure the factories design the frames to never reach the yield strength of whatever material they're using under normal conditions.
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