Boardman BB30 problems

adster

Hi All

I'm relatively new to road biking having caught the cycling bug last year. My employer uses the Halford C2W scheme and, after checking reviews, I purchased a Boardman Road Team.
In the 3 months that I've owned it, I have had to have the BB30 bracket replaced twice. Just taken it out tonight and it seems like the bl**dy thing has gone again!!!! So back to Halfords tomorrow (again)

Has anybody else suffered with this problem or am I just really unlucky?

Steve

gaddster

I take it the bearings are failing then?

Fenred

Take a look at the MTB forum, some of the guys with 2011 models sporting the BB30 have had similar issues.

Flamez

In my first month i have had the bearing regreased and today replaced with new, i hope its ok now.....

Fingers crossed.

gaddster

Loctite 641 when refitting. Stops them potentially moving and it's not a permanent bond, tis specifically for use where bearings are to be removed/refitted...

adster

After much wrangling, managed to get the bike replaced. Bit worrying when the comment in th store was "we've got a few in the workshop with the same problem". Fingers crossed that I won't have to revisit them anytime soon.

Jason82

I had it on my cyclocross after owning it less than a week got the whole bike changed and I got the same party line yeah we have had a few of them go recently.

mouth

Almost sounds like a quality control issue to me, for them to be going bad en masse.

sloppyschleckonds

Jason82 wrote:

I had it on my cyclocross after owning it less than a week got the whole bike changed and I got the same party line yeah we have had a few of them go recently.

How are you finding the cyclocrosser?

mrjerome10

i work at halford just to let you know. Don't use loctite it will void your warranty. And yes we have had 5 bikes come back. 3 road team carbon and 2 mtb pro and all boardman with the bb30. The problem is in the bb30 itself as far as we are aware well at my store. we have ordered new bb30 and there's an adapter which we have also ordered. all we are having to do is remove the bb30 and regrease them and tighten up to the recommended torque and that seems to be working. we are still waiting on the adapters to come in incase we have to use them on the boardman that we regreased the bb. so to sum up get your local halfords to remove the bb30 regrease them and torque them properly and that should hopefully be the end.

gaddster

So you're saying the BB30 shell is duff then or you mean the actual chainset spindle? What is this adaptor you speak of?

sloppyschleckonds

mrjerome10 wrote:

i work at halford just to let you know. Don't use loctite it will void your warranty. And yes we have had 5 bikes come back. 3 road team carbon and 2 mtb pro and all boardman with the bb30. The problem is in the bb30 itself as far as we are aware well at my store. we have ordered new bb30 and there's an adapter which we have also ordered. all we are having to do is remove the bb30 and regrease them and tighten up to the recommended torque and that seems to be working. we are still waiting on the adapters to come in incase we have to use them on the boardman that we regreased the bb. so to sum up get your local halfords to remove the bb30 regrease them and torque them properly and that should hopefully be the end.

Useful, is this widespread at Halfords?

Monty Dog

Unless it's down to a bad batch of BB30 bearings, I'd suspect that it's actually poor quality machining/misalignment of the BB shell which no manner of replacement bearings will resolve. Don't understand why using Loctite bearing fit would void any warranty, it's sensible engineering practise and frankly speaks volumes for the skill of Halfords mechanics. Finally BB30 is a pile of cack and the sooner that it is discarded the better, open standards like BB86 are far more sensible.

fludey

Is this restricted to one manufacturer as my felt f75 has a bb30 and fingers crossed no problems as yet....but it's only a week old and only cover 100 miles so far.....if it does go can I retain the same crank and fit a different bb or would it mean swapping everything?

togg

I've got two boardmans with BB30, what is the problem exactly? can you describe what happens, because I haven't been very far on either bike yet

http://www.boardmanbikes.com/road/road_team_carbon.html

http://www.boardmanbikes.com/mtb/ht_pro.html

merak

Monty Dog wrote:

Unless it's down to a bad batch of BB30 bearings, I'd suspect that it's actually poor quality machining/misalignment of the BB shell which no manner of replacement bearings will resolve. Don't understand why using Loctite bearing fit would void any warranty, it's sensible engineering practise and frankly speaks volumes for the skill of Halfords mechanics.

+1

Finally BB30 is a pile of cack and the sooner that it is discarded the better, open standards like BB86 are far more sensible.

I thought BB30 is an open standard. Not disagreeing wiith you but wondering why you think BB86/90 is superior to BB30 and why BB30 is a pile of cack?

And it's unclear from this thread exactly what the problem is and what's being greased and what's being "tightened up to the recommended torque" at Halfords since the BB30 cartridge bearings are a press fit to a stop, not screwed in.

Monty Dog

BB30 was developed by Magic Motorcycle and subsequently acquired by Cannondale and marketed as being the next big thing and is subject to a licence / patent. This was before composites were common in bike part construction and frankly, using aluminium alloy for the transmission of torque is not a sensible material choice. BB86 has always been an 'open' standard and uses the existing 24mm external bearing BB spindle. It also doesn't need cir-clips or high-accuracy machining to make it work - which probably explains the problems above. Furthermore, the narrow Q-factor for BB30 is pretty useless for things like MTB and CX bikes because it's the tyre width that defines the Q-factor. I'm in the process of getting a custom ti CX frame with BB86 because it gives me a combination of good rear wheel clearance and drivetrain rigidity and the option to choose any make of crank I like. As far as I'm aware, my hips haven't got any closer together over the years so I fail to understand the benefit of narrow Q-factor when it compromised frame stiffness and tyre clearance unless I'm trying to break the World hour record.

merak

OK thanks for taking the time to explain your views - as far as I know, whatever its history, BB30 is currently an open standard.

I understand where you're coming from but I'm not completely with you on your criticisms of it from a technical point of view: the machining to ensure the press-in bearings properly align needs to be good but it's not absurdly difficult to achieve and I don't see what the problem with circlips is.

I am partly with you on the pointlessness of reduced Q-factor for mtbs and CX, but expect there to be benefit for road triple set-ups (and possibly road bikes in general provided issues with crank arm to chainstay clearance and chain line can beresolved) - and research does support the notion that minimising Q-factor is worthwhile.

There are other claimed benefits viz stiffness, weight and durability, but I agree with you that they are all marginal and certainly not worth all the hassle if manufacturers can't get the fabrication and assembly right.

James Newton

I've recently bought a Boardman Team Carbon http://www.boardmanbikes.com/road/road_team_carbon.html, had it around a month and I'm also having problems with what seems to be the BB.

There is a cracking/creaking sound coming from the area of the bottom bracket. This happens when I apply pressure to the pedal, but only on the drive side, usually when sprinting and more force is applied.
I've checked all the usual suspects and also loosened off the chainset bolt and torqued back to correct amount.

I'm wondering if this is the same problem? I had planned to ride the bike a few more weeks to see if it beds in. If it's the same known problem I may as well remove the chainset and regrease the bearings myself, unless Halfords are offering replacement bearings immediately?

Legshaver

Has anyone else had this problem with BB30 bearings that seems to be only afflicting Boardman machines?

I don't think that any new bikes arrive at dealers without the bearings already fitted, whatever the make. So if the bearings are failing after only a few miles it can only be because they were not fitted correctly at manufacture, or perhaps the frame design around the bearing housing is faulty. It does seem unlikely I know. BB30 bearings are used on several other bikes and there does not seem to be anyone reporting problems with them. Is it just Boardmans?

I've done nearly 8,000 miles now on my 2009 Cannondale Synapse Carbon, and the bearings run as smoothly today as they have from new. I expect them to remain that way for a good few miles more.

jonathan914

We have had three Boardman cx teams on the cycle to work scheme at our place of work.
Two Creaked very badly from the bottom bracket after about 10 miles,We have re greased them ourselves just to get them home and so far they have been ok.To be honest the bikes are ace and thats the only reason we have tried to sort them ourselves but for £899.00 this kind of problem is a bit poor.We also have a ht pro a hybrid pro and a team road bike on our work scheme all with bb30's and so far we only had problems with the cx bikes.Grease alone seems to stop all the noise and we have only removed the crank greased the axle and re installed.We didnt remove the bearings.

a340driver

Nice to see this is being sorted out under warranty, well done Halfords. My 2010 Team Carbon is still silent after a few thousand miles so it's not every BB30.

hallybally

I have got the Boardman Team Carbon 2011, The BB started creaking after about 400 miles, i took it back to halfords, but they said there was nothing wrong with it, they regreased i all for me, just got it back and its worse than before.....

nicklouse

there has been some issues with the fitting of the bearings on some BB30 bikes. It is a known fact. Take it further hallybally.

meanredspider

My Boardman CX BB effectively failed after 12 miles. On my insistence, Halfords changed it - they were just going to grease it because it had been fitted dry but a bearing that been noisy for almost any period of time is seriously compromised.

Given all the issues, you'd have hoped that Boardman/Halfords would have got on top of it at least by checking bikes before selling them (I only bought my bike a couple of weeks ago). Interestingly, I can't find any contact details for Boardman on their site.

chiark

So... is the root cause that bearings have been fitted dry, as with meanredspider?

Fat-Boy-Roubaix

meanredspider wrote:

My Boardman CX BB effectively failed after 12 miles. On my insistence, Halfords changed it - they were just going to grease it because it had been fitted dry but a bearing that been noisy for almost any period of time is seriously compromised.

Given all the issues, you'd have hoped that Boardman/Halfords would have got on top of it at least by checking bikes before selling them (I only bought my bike a couple of weeks ago). Interestingly, I can't find any contact details for Boardman on their site.

I went in to a local branch looking at the CX Team, asked a few normal questions and then hit the fella with "have you sorted your BB30 problems" a clear answer was no, and that they have been instructed to strip/check/grease every bike at the PDI as the supplying factory had supplied a load not only to Boardman dry.

Now I would have thought that they would have some sort batch number system, and should have stopped selling them, or checked on mass.

hounslow

chiark wrote:

So... is the root cause that bearings have been fitted dry, as with meanredspider?

no. it is because they weren't seated correctly at the factory. whipping the cranks off and re-seating the bearings has made it a non issue at my store. cannot vouch for every store.

chiark

Ah, good to know - cheers Hounslow!

j4m1eb

3 sets of bearing in as many weeks in my CX team, they last about 2 rides.

Halfords are now getting me a new frame - Brilliant bike though,

I won the an Offroad Duathlon at the weekend on it. It's great fun, just need the BB fixed.

JD_76

I was looking at a few of the top end boardman TT bikes in my local LBS and they were not cheap, the quality of the finish though looked poor.

The front derailer was pop rivited to the carbon downtube and the metal rivet heads were painted over (badly) - it looked very shabby & would put me right off a 5k bike.

Zipp wheels were nice though.