Being that my bike is a $130 Wal-Mart bike, now that I’ve got around 200 miles on it, some of the plastic parts are breaking.

The pedals lasted about 50 miles before they broke. Nylon pedals plus 260 pound guy mashing up a hill… well, it makes sense.
I put on some $5 aluminum pedals and they’re holding up well so far.

The brake levers have plastic housing, so the adjustment screws are stripping. There are aluminum spacer nuts that help, but they’re starting to strip out.

Also, my rear derailleur is a Shimano RD-TZ30 (derailer… why must this be French? hrm)… The cable adjustment screw goes into a plastic housing. I’ve had to add a thread spacer, because if I adjust it, it skips threads within a couple of miles. Also, it’s getting harder to keep it adjusted, which means my chain is always clanking. Lastly, I put a Megarange freewheel on for a few hills, and the bottom pully bumps teeth on it.

The “Upgrade” is a Tourney TX35 for $12 prime, or a TX55 for $13 prime, but that’s still mostly plastic. The 300 (Acera/Altus) series has too much plastic in the $28 range, and the 400 (Alvio) has cheap aluminum in a few places.

I broke down and picked up a Deore RD-M591 Rear Dérailleur for $47 prime. This normal cable routing and hang (vs shadow M592 at $60). This is 9-speed compatible (same pull on 5-9 speed, and some 10-speeds).

The Deore brake levers are $30 for the set, and the lower end ones just seem flimsy. On the flip side, the Alivio (M400 series) lever/shifter combos are decent, and are $53. That would get me the option of going to 9-speed cogs, but if something failed, it’s more expensive to swap out. *sigh*