hollowtech ii bottom bracket

jim610

hi a couple of months back my crank stated creaking so replaced the old worn hollowtech bottom bracket with a new one.the rear wheel was also making noises as the hub was shot which were replaced with hope hoops an all have been fine till now.
the creak has slowly come back an getting worse its only really under load ie up hills. iv stripped the bike today greased everthing an done a bolt check an found the new bottom bracket bearings to be extreamly rough.iv striped the seals degreased an packed them again they still dont feel great only covered 400-500 odd miles not that hard either.
the bike is well maintained an clean regular not with hose or jet wash an re grease whys it gone like this already are they known for not lasting long?
any better options my old crap sealed ones used to go for years it was always the arms that went?
thanks in advance for any help

nicklouse

did you have the BB sheel faced?

no, get it done.

jim610

no not had the bb faced just had to google it find out what it was would this mess the bearings up sorry for sounding dumb?

The Rookie

Very much so, if the faces aren't square the BB bearing sits at an angle to the axle and that will knacker the bearings nice and fast.....

jim610

thanks il take it for a ride tomorrow see if re packing it with grease an re torqueing it sorted it.if not il get it done phoned a local bike shop they said £20 to face it didnt think of that just presumed it would be square as it threaded in smooth.thanks for the help

The Rookie

The threads being good and the shell faced are totally seperate, my daughters Dirty Jo had the facing so far off it was scary. Shop around, £20 seems a bit high, though cheaper than a new BB every 500 miles!

jim610

Thanks il phone round a couple of others see if i can get it any cheaper.

bennett_346

Out of curiouscity, why aren't shells faced before they leave the factory?

Dirtydog11

bennett_346 wrote:

Out of curiouscity, why aren't shells faced before they leave the factory?

Some are.

cooldad

Either they figure the BB is made to acceptable tolerances, or forget that paint is lumpy.

nicklouse

Dirtydog11 wrote:

bennett_346 wrote:

Out of curiouscity, why aren't shells faced before they leave the factory?

Some are.

many are poorly.

The Rookie

Cost.....if it's not having an external BB why bother, even if it is they may figure the risk of a warranty claim is low enough to not bother.

ilovedirt

400-500 miles sounds pretty ok to me?

The Rookie

The square taper on my commuter has done 2,500 miles......

ThePriory1978

Another facing related query.

When a bottom bracket is faced, does that mean the bottom bracket becomes marginally narrower?

The tolerance between some bikes crank arms and rear chainstays are mighty close in some instances.

ilovedirt

The Beginner wrote:

The square taper on my commuter has done 2,500 miles......

Presumably on the road, not on wet, muddy, gritty singletrack?

The Rookie

If the seals work, then wet and muddy is irrelevant....but it does get coated in a salty spray pretty often (as is evidenced by the state of the exposed parts of the axle). The Powerspline on my MTB did over 1000miles before being removed and that was bought used and only replaced as I was going external bearing.

Facing the shell will of course make it narrower, probably no more than 1.5mm though, my daughters frame was so far out we didn't face it all the way back on the drive side, after removing about 1mm it was faced round about 80% of the circumference.

UncleMonty

The Beginner wrote:

The square taper on my commuter has done 2,500 miles......

My old square tapers lasted ages as well, if fact i can't remeber having to replace one of these BB's because they were rough, the arms always fell off first.

I think square taper is a better design in many ways, I have an extranal BB now but i find the seals to be very poor.

cooldad

Octolink is the best, sealed like square taper, but the splines are much better than a square.

Saying that the BB on my old Spesh is about 25 years old.

benpinnick

cooldad wrote:

Octolink is the best, sealed like square taper, but the splines are much better than a square.

Saying that the BB on my old Spesh is about 25 years old.

Octalink is crud. Bearings are too small (literally the balls) because the axle is too big for a narrow housing, so they wear out quicker than square taper. Thats why it got dropped so fast.

cooldad

Anything is better than faffing with the cotter pins I had when I was a lad (circa 10,000 BC)

The Rookie

Argh cotters......lovely things.....NOT, although I did ride 5 miles home once having lost a pin and found a green stick I managed to wedge in the hole and snap off the excess (not pushing hard on the left pedal, just enough to be able to use the right one again!)...old gas pipe frame Raleigh Hustler.

bennett_346

The Beginner wrote:

If the seals work, then wet and muddy is irrelevant....but it does get coated in a salty spray pretty often (as is evidenced by the state of the exposed parts of the axle).

It's more the repeated heavy impacts that kill them, not the elements they're exposed (or not) to.

ilovedirt

bennett_346 wrote:

The Beginner wrote:

If the seals work, then wet and muddy is irrelevant....but it does get coated in a salty spray pretty often (as is evidenced by the state of the exposed parts of the axle).

It's more the repeated heavy impacts that kill them, not the elements they're exposed (or not) to.

More than likely, 500 miles is quite a lot off road, I doubt many people on here ride more than 100 miles off road a month. Mine tend to last 6 months or so anyway. Not sure how many miles that equates to...

jim610

Thanks for all the help spoke to a couple of local shops which have sugested getting a hope or xt one doin alot of off road are they worth it?
My old sealed square ones lasted year just used to do the arms starting to think there better.

cooldad

I replaced Deore with an XTR (only fancy thing on my bike) and it's lasted a lot longer than the two previous ones. Twice the price or more though so....

101_North

+1 for the XTR BB. Rosebikes have a good deal:

http://www.rosebikes.co.uk/article/shim ... aid:274227

UncleMonty

101_North wrote:

+1 for the XTR BB. Rosebikes have a good deal:

http://www.rosebikes.co.uk/article/shim ... aid:274227

That's a bargain considering the cheapest Deore BB's I've found are £13

cooldad

Seriously cheap.

benpinnick

cooldad wrote:

Seriously cheap.

Wow that's good price! Also, the XTR is black and pimp looking...

ilovedirt

wow, that's crazy cheap!