Nice idea. Here are some feature thoughts:

- Modify the mileage based on rider weight and wattage (depends on the type of part).

- Forums/recommendations for replacement options. Ex. my chain needs replacement, should I get another of the same or a different one?

-Prompts to check an item for wear, and what to look for. Ex. my brake pads are at their mileage limit, what should I measure to see if they need replacing?

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ECMGN Therapy Silicon Valley:
Depression, Neurocognitive problems, Dementias (Testing and Evaluation), Trauma and PTSD, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

Thanks for the feedback!

I'm not sure that mileage for these things would depend on wattage that strongly, I'd have to think about that. Currently, we have default values, but all of the service intervals are user configurable (or disable-able) because, you know, YMMV. Certainly brand and model of chain, for instance, would factor into that life strongly, as well as day-to-day upkeep.

Recommendations are very interesting to me. I'd like to get some maintenance content up for the 4 items we've started with (chain, cables, bar tape and brake pads) with how-to do the maintenance itself, and how to get more mileage out of each part respectively. I'm not sure I need to reinvent the wheel with the social aspect (Strava and forums like this are already really good at that).

Point 3 is a great idea, I'll at least prototype that for sure.

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Pedal Wrencher: The Strava-Powered Check Engine Light for your Bike

Components like brake pads and cables and bar tape do not need to be replaced based on mileage.

Perfect world, you're totally right, but for those that would forget otherwise, or maybe aren't doing their own maintenance, the thinking is that a gentle reminder that is in the ballpark of when it should be replaced is an improvement. In real practice, it might mean that you should check your brake pads every X miles, not necessarily replace them. Or you could only turn on notifications for chains. Or you are already on top of things and you just ride.

That's an interesting viewpoint though, if you are already on top of your bike maintenance, you check for wear periodically, can identify it when it happens, and know how to replace the parts, is there anything a service like this can do to help that process? My first reaction is probably not, but I'll think on that some.

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Pedal Wrencher: The Strava-Powered Check Engine Light for your Bike

I get enough text messages already so dont need more. I think that this is an example of people going nuts with apps to the point that creative individuals come up with solutions for problems that dont exist. For example, I can check a chainwith this tool in seconds:

Why do I need to complicate things by using a freaking phone to do this?????

I also dont need to #$%& phone to tell me when to replace tires when I can just take a peek at wear indicators.


For brake pads, again, I can just simply eyeball them to see when they need to be replaced....


I go on, but you get the idea. Just when you thought the smart phone controlled bike lock could not be topped for creativity (to be polite), along comes this peice of work. I guess some day, an idividual will create an app that can tell us the optimum time to go to the bathroom based on the data you enter from your food tracking app, but like with this app, the question that should be asked is if such an app is necessary rather than asking how it can be improved.

Wattage is a "like to have." You may find that items like chains and BBs wear more when ridden at higher wattage (more tension on the chain, more load on the BB bearings).

This is the same way that a 200lb rider won't get the same mileage from tires as a 110lb one.

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ECMGN Therapy Silicon Valley:
Depression, Neurocognitive problems, Dementias (Testing and Evaluation), Trauma and PTSD, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

I can probably do some experimentation with the data and see if generally higher wattage riders are replacing more often, but I would suspect that things like model of chain, weather, quality of lubricant, ect. have a bigger impact (though wattage surely does have some), and those are totally obscured to me.

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http://www.pedalwrencher.com

Pedal Wrencher: The Strava-Powered Check Engine Light for your Bike

I have that chain checker. Personally, it'd be nice to be reminded when to use it; the same way my car reminds me about service intervals. My phone is a nice place to aggregate these things.

There are lots of people who replace their chain too often, and those that wait until their shifting has gone to hell before they swap it.

The app's not for everyone; fortunately no one is forced to use it.

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ECMGN Therapy Silicon Valley:
Depression, Neurocognitive problems, Dementias (Testing and Evaluation), Trauma and PTSD, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

Agreed, lots of variables you can't account for yet. It's just factoring in for what you can. That's why I look at it as inspection intervals vs. replacement intervals.. Road surface can have a huge impact on tire life. Weather can do the same for bearings. Here in Cali my bike almost never gets wet; in Ohio it got road salt every winter/spring.

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ECMGN Therapy Silicon Valley:
Depression, Neurocognitive problems, Dementias (Testing and Evaluation), Trauma and PTSD, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

I'm with Bull Winkle on this. It is not too hard. Keep your chain clean. Eyeball your tires and brake pads once in a while. Check for chain stretch. If your shifting gets crappy, check cables. There is so much variability that knowing mileage is not going to do anything for you. There was a big difference in riding the wet, sandy roads of the Florida panhandle and the clean, dry roads of Southern Maryland for example. Any APP that you design is probably going to be more wrong than right.

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Simplify, Train, Live

I'm not sure that mileage on it's own tells you very much about component wear, I'm thinking brakes in particular. If I lived in Florida I wouldn't be using my brakes very much, but for the same mileage living in West Yorkshire, UK, I am constantly up and down hills across the valleys and the Pennines and for the same distance I'd wager my brakes are going to be a lot thinner.

Likewise, I'm probably going to re-grease my Speedplays more often than somebody from LA because my bike gets rained on all the time. And replacing the chain is a seasonal thing for me, I do it after the Winter.

I think sometimes the only way to know when to replace something is to inspect it..

Maybe take into account the weather? Rainy ride wears out a bike a lot more than a sunny ride.
For pads, take into account elevation: more likely to brake on hilly ride than on flat.

for me, it would not work because a) I do quite a lot of riding indoors and my Suunto refuses to upload data to Strava without gps data; b) I don't always track which bike I use, so you would not know how far I have been on a particular bike. I also swap wheels, and that is not recorded either. Maybe for people with simpler setup and little experience in bike maintenance it would be a good addition. One the other hand, my friends in this situation just bring their bike once a year to the LBS

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Francois-Xavier Li @FrancoisLi
"We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing." George Bernard Shaw
http://www.swimrunfrance.fr
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Also weather and road surface is a factor.

I have cycled a lot in three countries:

1/ Ireland. Bad road surfaces and lots of rain. BB, chain, tires and break pads need to be replaced very often. Wheel rims even wear down to the point of collapse.

2/ Italy. Generally good road surface, no rain but lots of long steep climbs. Break pads & cables, tires, rims and chain needs to be replaced quite often.

3/ Sweden. Winter bike - falls apart pretty quickly without regular maintenance because of the grit used to make the snow less sloppy.
Summer bike - runs forever without maintenance because of the good roads, no hills and almost no need for breaking.

Also you would have to factor in crashes, if you race, etc...

Great idea but almost impossible to make it any more useful than a simple heuristic.

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So mileage of course is going to be different person to person, which is why people can set their own service intervals, it's not enforced as exactly X miles for all riders everywhere.

I've found most people do change those, not many are using the default values.

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Pedal Wrencher: The Strava-Powered Check Engine Light for your Bike