SRAM can't make Bottom Brackets!!!

Noel PT

Two bikes and two bottom brackets within 6 months!

Its gutting, last month I noticed the BB wasn't to great on my Stumpy and had it replaced/upgraded with a nice new Hope. Only to find out this morning that my Marin's BB is shot too!

SRAM suck!!! Rant over!

supersonic

Has the BB shell been faced?

Anonymous

So on my new bike (that I haven't even got yet) I shouldn't have asked them to swap the existing Shimano 105 groupset (including BB) to SRAM Rival?



:oops:

Noel PT

Factory fitted on Marin and faced on the other.

t0pc4t

supersonic wrote:

Has the BB shell been faced?

I am sort of interested in doing my own bike working and was thinking about getting tools do do my BB on my commuter bike and my MTB eventually.

Does this mean I need to get facing tools as well?

njee20

So on my new bike (that I haven't even got yet) I shouldn't have asked them to swap the existing Shimano 105 groupset (including BB) to SRAM Rival?

No, but only because the ergonomics of SRAM road groups are horrible!

chedabob

t0pc4t wrote:

supersonic wrote:

Has the BB shell been faced?

I am sort of interested in doing my own bike working and was thinking about getting tools do do my BB on my commuter bike and my MTB eventually.

Does this mean I need to get facing tools as well?

No, the facing tools are dead expensive and you won't use them often enough to justify the cost. Take it to Evans or Edinburgh Cycle Coop and pay the £30/whatever to have them do it.

Raymondavalon

They don't last very long, I replace mine myself because two have creaked over the 3 years of having a bike with an external BB

I have the tools and it's a 10 minute job. I bought a Fat Spanner external BB tool for £10 and a decent torque wrench for £30 (Machine Mart)
The SRAM cranks are self extracting so no special tools needed there

The SRAM GXP BB's only cost £23, so it's no big deal. If you want a long lasting BB, look at a Chris King, but they do cost on average of £100, so four times the price and life cycle.. checks and balances IMO

Ransaka

Anyone tried Superstar's new GXP BBs? Thinking it might be on the shopping list for when mine goes.

TickTockTick

I've always been nervous of SRAM chains after some bad experiences a few years back. I now prefer Connex chains. Well Rohloff if I had unlimited money, but Connex is a poor man's Rohloff SLT!

I'm quite happy to use SRAM cassettes though etc.. in fact I rate them highly.. once a particular part has let you down it is hard to buy that part again by same manufacturer.

Raymondavalon

TickTockTick

How did chains & cassttes come into the equation, this is a BB (bottom bracket) discussion...

Noel PT

Truvative/SRAM have the policy that bearing etc aren't warrantied (like many companies) and although I understand their point, its still leaves a me pissed off when I spend a good stack of cash on Trautive Noir and it fails within six months.

Then to have to spend more money on a new Hope BB only to be told I gotta add £15 to that for an adapter. It doesn't seem like value to me, but maybe I expect to much from parts.

My Shimano XT is still running, its on its way out but I have had it on two separate bikes and done endless miles on both! And when it does give up, I can upgrade and not worry about adapters and rubbish.

They are good company and I agree they make excellent components, but they should steer clear of BB and front mechs!

I suppose one has to learn from experience, but it just sucks that we as the consumer have to pay for their learning curve. Twice in my case.

sheepsteeth

i must agree about the sram bottom brackets and extend this opinion towards all sram cranksets, total webboness

Raymondavalon

Noel PT wrote:

Then to have to spend more money on a new Hope BB only to be told I gotta add £15 to that for an adapter. It doesn't seem like value to me, but maybe I expect to much from parts.:

If going with a stainless steel bearing replacement, don't believe that spending your hard earned cash on a Hope brand will bring you any more BB longevity or joy, try Superstar as a cheaper alternative on a stainless steel bearing solution if going that route.
If I remember correctly the Hope BB also requires 'adapters' when used with a GXP BB, just another complication

If you're going the expensive ceramic bearing route, spend the extra on a Chris King BB with ceramic bearings

hoathy

Raymondavalon wrote:

Noel PT wrote:

Then to have to spend more money on a new Hope BB only to be told I gotta add £15 to that for an adapter. It doesn't seem like value to me, but maybe I expect to much from parts.:

If I remember correctly the Hope BB also requires 'adapters' when used with a GXP BB, just another complication

Yes. thats the adapter he mentioned.

weeksy59

My previous SRAM BB i got the best part of 6 months out of.... it then started getting noisy so was replaced 6 weeks ago... i then had the same issues again last week... 5 weeks !!!!! come on... seriously !!!!

I replaced it with Shimano BB and cranks last night.

steve_muzzy

njee20 wrote:

So on my new bike (that I haven't even got yet) I shouldn't have asked them to swap the existing Shimano 105 groupset (including BB) to SRAM Rival?

No, but only because the ergonomics of SRAM road groups are horrible!

I would have happily swqapped you my full rival set up plus ££ for your 105 it sucks

TickTockTick

Raymondavalon wrote:

TickTockTick

How did chains & cassttes come into the equation, this is a BB (bottom bracket) discussion...

Because he implied all SRAM bottom brackets are crap.

hoathy

TickTockTick wrote:

Raymondavalon wrote:

TickTockTick

How did chains & cassttes come into the equation, this is a BB (bottom bracket) discussion...

Because he implied all SRAM bottom brackets are crap.

I'm pretty sure that answer dosen't make sense...

Raymondavalon

Hoathy wrote:

TickTockTick wrote:

Raymondavalon wrote:

TickTockTick

How did chains & cassttes come into the equation, this is a BB (bottom bracket) discussion...

Because he implied all SRAM bottom brackets are crap.

I'm pretty sure that answer dosen't make sense...

+1 on a senseless reply from TickTockTick

I can only assume he's a juvenile troll who wants to get his oar in on subject matter he doesn't seem to understand... plus it seems as if this has now become an SRAM bashing thread anyway..

cee

shimano bottom brackets for the win...

deore for 17 quid or xt for 26 on crc....

spending 70 hard earned sheckles on a hope bb is unnecessary

TickTockTick

cee wrote:

shimano bottom brackets for the win...

deore for 17 quid or xt for 26 on crc....

spending 70 hard earned sheckles on a hope bb is unnecessary

Except it is made in England and not Malaysia and is totally rebuildable and so will last forever... so each time you need bearings it costs less than an XT bb.

A Shimano bb is not rebuildable. It's throwaway.




Without manufacturing this country is dead.

TickTockTick

Raymondavalon wrote:

Hoathy wrote:

TickTockTick wrote:

Raymondavalon wrote:

TickTockTick

How did chains & cassttes come into the equation, this is a BB (bottom bracket) discussion...

Because he implied all SRAM bottom brackets are crap.

I'm pretty sure that answer dosen't make sense...

+1 on a senseless reply from TickTockTick

I can only assume he's a juvenile troll who wants to get his oar in on subject matter he doesn't seem to understand... plus it seems as if this has now become an SRAM bashing thread anyway..

Juvenile troll. My what a charming forum! I live in Reading if you'd ever like to meet me in person and call me silly names. I live by West Reading train station.

The OP was dismissing all SRAM bb's, similarly I have dismissed all SRAM chains. So my point is and was valid, since such dismissal is commonplace in MTB.

Beardface

Never had a problem with SRAM chains myself, I've found them to be brilliant. Currently trying a KMC one, and it seems to be performing nicely! Used to use XT, and found them pretty useless.. rusted too quickly, even with decent maintenance (suppose winter riding would do that to most chains though).

Still, on the subject of BB's, one thing is for sure, I wouldn't bother with the Aerozine BB's that can be had from Superstar.. I've been through 2 of them (different bikes), and they're like cheese. If cheese was also allergic to water.

Shimano/CK (if funds allow) for the win

cee

TickTockTick wrote:

cee wrote:

shimano bottom brackets for the win...

deore for 17 quid or xt for 26 on crc....

spending 70 hard earned sheckles on a hope bb is unnecessary

Except it is made in England and not Malaysia and is totally rebuildable and so will last forever... so each time you need bearings it costs less than an XT bb.

A Shimano bb is not rebuildable. It's throwaway.

Without manufacturing this country is dead.

erm.....you can replace the bearings in a shimano bb cup in exatly the same way as with the hope ones....shimano dont suggest this...but it can be done....you can even buy the nice hope drift to do the job if want....or use an old bearing to drift the new one in...

obviously ...just the cups themselves are machined at Barnoldswick....the bearings are bought from abroad...(swiss made balls...prolly assembled in the far east..)

"Without manufacturing this country is dead"??

are you serious? if that was the case, this country is already dead. I think you will find that the service sector is what this country runs on....earning nearly 80% of GDP....

njee20

If you're going the expensive ceramic bearing route, spend the extra on a Chris King BB with ceramic bearings

King BBs don't have ceramic bearings.

Part of the advantage of ceramic BBs is the lower rolling resistance. King BBs, but virtue of being very well sealed, have plenty of resistance when used with a decent grease. Admittedly you can run a light lube, but then you need to service it far more often. So actually, a significant proportion of people thinking of ceramic bearings are probably not those who would buy a King BB.

Full ceramic FTW, massive outlay, very little friction, clean with hot water and nothing else!

As an aside, I don't get TickTockTick's comment re chains, seems totally irrelevant!

PXR5

Just to defend SRAM a bit, I've got a Truvativ Firex BB set as standard on my RR8.1.
Its a few years old now and done a few thousand miles, no problems so far, i've taken it apart two or three times to clean and regrease otherwise perfect...perhaps i'm the lucky one...

Raymondavalon

cee wrote:

erm.....you can replace the bearings in a shimano bb cup in exatly the same way as with the hope ones....shimano dont suggest this...but it can be done....you can even buy the nice hope drift to do the job if want....or use an old bearing to drift the new one in...

obviously ...just the cups themselves are machined at Barnoldswick....the bearings are bought from abroad...(swiss made balls...prolly assembled in the far east..)

"Without manufacturing this country is dead"??

are you serious? if that was the case, this country is already dead. I think you will find that the service sector is what this country runs on....earning nearly 80% of GDP....

Cee, valid point indeed, I've actually seen replacement bearings for GXP BB's for sale on FleaBay. It makes sense, press the bearing out of the cup, get the number and call your local bearing supplier. Just ensure you buy high quality European or Japanese manufacturerd bearings.

TickTockTick wrote:

Juvenile troll. My what a charming forum! I live in Reading if you'd ever like to meet me in person and call me silly names. I live by West Reading train station.

Pfft.... yet another keyboard warrior.. *note to self.. ignore the troll it's been fed Irn Bru and porridge*

TickTockTick

cee wrote:

TickTockTick wrote:

cee wrote:

shimano bottom brackets for the win...

deore for 17 quid or xt for 26 on crc....

spending 70 hard earned sheckles on a hope bb is unnecessary

Except it is made in England and not Malaysia and is totally rebuildable and so will last forever... so each time you need bearings it costs less than an XT bb.

A Shimano bb is not rebuildable. It's throwaway.

Without manufacturing this country is dead.

erm.....you can replace the bearings in a shimano bb cup in exatly the same way as with the hope ones....shimano dont suggest this...but it can be done....you can even buy the nice hope drift to do the job if want....or use an old bearing to drift the new one in...

obviously ...just the cups themselves are machined at Barnoldswick....the bearings are bought from abroad...(swiss made balls...prolly assembled in the far east..)

"Without manufacturing this country is dead"??

are you serious? if that was the case, this country is already dead. I think you will find that the service sector is what this country runs on....earning nearly 80% of GDP....

Would that be the same GDP that doesn't cover our debt repayment?

I never thought about replacing bearings in Shimano... never crossed my mind.... nice to know.. I guess wherever there is a pressed in bearing, there is potential for replacement.

TickTockTick

njee20 wrote:

If you're going the expensive ceramic bearing route, spend the extra on a Chris King BB with ceramic bearings

King BBs don't have ceramic bearings.

Part of the advantage of ceramic BBs is the lower rolling resistance. King BBs, but virtue of being very well sealed, have plenty of resistance when used with a decent grease. Admittedly you can run a light lube, but then you need to service it far more often. So actually, a significant proportion of people thinking of ceramic bearings are probably not those who would buy a King BB.

Full ceramic FTW, massive outlay, very little friction, clean with hot water and nothing else!

As an aside, I don't get TickTockTick's comment re chains, seems totally irrelevant!

Wasn't irrelevant in my mind. Looking at this thread I might be inclined to not buy a SRAM bb.

njee20

Well that's a reasonable conclusion to make. But how does that relate to their chains, which are held in very high regard by many?