Hard wearing, good value functional components thread

I've set myself a challenge with my current build. And that's to create a fixed gear, minimalistic, fun to ride, and extremely functional bicycle. I am right at the beginning really, have a nice frame, some handlebars, cranks, nice brooks saddle and nothing else yet.

The reason for this is that I've had a really hard time deciding on hard wearing, high quality components that will last me years of cycling everywhere I go.

I think a massive part of this difficulty is all the marketing of poor quality products and poorly informed reviews people write. I'm not a hipster, I'm not looking for something pretty to show my mates. I want a bike to be about me, how it rides and how long it lasts.

So I'd like people to reply with components they have found themselves, with evidence and an emphasis on little known or less expensive parts, to be both excellent quality and good value. I've listed the critical parts affecting the ride quality, and those that tend to wear most. I've kicked it off with a headset which has been mentioned a lot on this forum and elsewhere, recommended by many and that's the Shimano 105 headset.

**Headsets
**Shimano 105 threaded headsets - Widely used/tested, recommended by a hell of a lot of riders as a long lasting, hard wearing, good quality headset. Price: ~ £10.

** Bottom brackets
Cranks
Chainrings
Hubs
Rims**

Lots of this is dependent upon installation, maintenance, type of wear and tear inflicted.

These less expensive parts(brands or lower range of pricier brands) have been hard-wearing for me:

Headsets Ritchey, Cane Creek
Bottom brackets Shimano, Campag
Cranks Stronglight, Campag
Chainrings Stronglight, Gebhardt
Hubs DMR, On-One
Rims n/a (never tried 'budget' rims, but think Ambrosio are great VFM)

I don't know, but I thought things like bottom brackets, hubs and possibly headsets, could last forever, with timely maintenance, re-greasing and replacement of bearings. So if something lasts forever, isn't that hard wearing and good value?

Or did you mean, that the time it took to get to the point of necessary maintenance, would be a factor in rating one bottom bracket (for example) over another?

Cranks, chainrings, and rims are more easily quantifiable. One needs only to average the failure rates to get a good picture of overall quality. Sorry if I missed something.

Cup-and-cone bearings last for years and years with regular maintenance (my old 1950 Claud Butler was still on its original BB cups and axle).

A thing to remember with square-taper cranks is that they're not designed to be removed and re-installed as this will eventually enlarge the tapers - so a sealed no-maintenance BB is perhaps a better option than reinstalling every six months.

Steel chainrings last for ages and ages.

Shimano 105 threaded headsets - £10

Where do you get one of these for that much?

They pop up on ebay from time to time, but I think they had a wave of good tried and tested reviews and have become rarer lately. There's a brand new one on Hilary Stone (www.hilarystone.com/headset.html) going for £18 at the moment, but obviously used ones will be much cheaper.