Comment by wiether
First, this is what OP said:
> Even avid cyclists could never hit the kilometres travelled by your average car user in a year.
And you tell it yourself:
> Sure, there are some
So, if OP really thinks that no cyclist can ride more than what an average motorists drive a year, then even "but a truly tiny proportion" would appear as a surprise to them.
Also, just looking at my Strava right now, amongst the 30 friends that I follow (I'm picky on my follows), more than a third are on their way to ride more than 25k this year. The most advanced is going to reach 23k by the end of the day based on his current numbers and habbits.
How, where and when you ride your bike will be a huge factor in how much wear it gets. For instance, my commuter' chain usually get less than half the mileage that my road bike' chain get because city is dirty, I ride no matter the weather, don't clean the chain after each ride and keep putting strong torque since I constantly have to stop and start. Same goes for brake pads: when I commute I hardly do 200m without having to brake, whereas I can go for 20km without having to touch my brakes on my road bike.
> So, if OP really thinks that no cyclist can ride more than what an average motorists drive a year, then even "but a truly tiny proportion" would appear as a surprise to them.
I said an avid cyclist, which is quite undefined so fair enough. What I meant was an enthusiast still, not a sport rider or someone you could consider an amateur athlete (many road riders).
Road riding gets you a lot of KMs and hours in the saddle too, like you said in quite a specific wear pattern. I ride for hours on my MTB and my commuter but would never come close to the hours and KMs of road riding, and I will be replacing my MTB sprocket and brake pads much sooner than my commuter.
I think we're more or less on the same page though, and since all cities and cultures are a bit different we could be talking past eachother without specifics at which point my general comments go out the window anyway.