If I buy a power tool I want to know what it can handle so I don’t damage it. If I don’t know then fear will come in and steal my liberty and enjoyment and will end up using it to a much smaller capacity than it is safely capable of
That's a fairly good comparison, I've frequently used power tools well beyond what they were intended for, I've never had one fail to do the job, but I'm pretty sure I've shortened the life of a couple.
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You’ve painted a good picture there . With things like tools we have a good grasp of what they can cope with and can easily gauge their life expectancy. Can see and feel them wear and break down. If we use them to hard they can break. But when we break them we really learn their limitations which is often a positive as we gain confidence in knowing how far we can push it before failure.
Once you’ve killed one lawnmower you know how high to set the cutting height the second time without stressing the motor
But with an expensive bike we don’t have the luxury of safely taking it past it’s limitations until failure. with abuse(knowingly or unknowingly ), we know when we are crossing the line and will eventually reap the abuse we’ve sown
As you’ve said , “ I’ve never had one fail to do the job , but I’m pretty sure I’ve shortened the life of a couple “
Yeah, when I’m ploughing through the long grass with mower and hear that motor struggling I know that can’t be good long term. It will last a long time , but still die early band don’t know when, and when it does it will very likely not hurt me and be undramatic . Can’t say that for a bike when your on it and the straw finally breaks the camels back
