bottom bracket cartridge bearing advice

hard-rider

The bottom bracket bearings on my bike seem to have gone. They make a grinding sound, it's stiff to turn the cranks and there also seems to be a bit of play. The current bearing is a Shimano SM BB51 which judging from the price in comparison to some others seems quite a low end cartridge.

My question is, would it be worth spending a little more and getting a better cartridge? I'm looking at this from the longevity point of view, especially being able to keep water out of the bearings as I ride through quite a few streams during the winter where the cranks get completely submerged. Would a more expensive / different cartridge have water tight bearings? If so I'd appreciate some suggestions.

Thanks

Wooliferkins

If you're immersing the BB on a regular basis then the answer is, MAINTENANCE. Water+metal+oxygen=corrosion. On a reliability front the Shimano cartridge BB's are pretty good. A bit of TLC on a regular basis, ie removal, clean, dry, and refit will be a better investment.

nicklouse

you could or just change a cheaper one more often. the more expensive ones dont last much longer.

estampida

buy whole ones and keep an eye on them

company's like hope use a slightly different design on the internals of the bearing but outside dimensions are as per standards

its to do with the stiffness of the bearing in use (different shape inner race and ball bearing size), so a standard bearing will work but it might have extra flex or not withstand that impact......

but they are cheap so maybe its worth a try, but seems like a massive hassle

cooldad

He's referring to Deore HT11. Which are a bit rubbish. Try an XT or XTR, which have better sealing.
My XTR (the only bit of bling on my bike) has lasted a few years, I was going through Deores in 6 months.
The Germnans have XT for under £15 and XTR under £20.

peter413

cooldad wrote:

He's referring to Deore HT11. Which are a bit rubbish. Try an XT or XTR, which have better sealing.
My XTR (the only bit of bling on my bike) has lasted a few years, I was going through Deores in 6 months.
The Germnans have XT for under £15 and XTR under £20.

This. The Deore on my rigid seized up after the first ride. Admittedly it was very wet but the XT's and XTR's handle that sort of ride on a regular basis with no issues. It did free up after a lot of spinning of the cranks mind but for the extra few pounds I would go for an XTR, mostly because it's a way nicer colour than the XT and they supposedly last that little bit longer.

hard-rider

Thanks guys. I think I'll try the XTR as suggested as it doesn't cost much more.

Wooliferkins wrote:

If you're immersing the BB on a regular basis then the answer is, MAINTENANCE. Water+metal+oxygen=corrosion. On a reliability front the Shimano cartridge BB's are pretty good. A bit of TLC on a regular basis, ie removal, clean, dry, and refit will be a better investment.

I didn't realise that you could service / clean these. It looked sealed and says do not dismantle on it. Anyway for the cost it seems like a lot of hassle messing with it and if it needs replacing every couple of years then it's not a big expense I guess.

cooldad

You can't actually service them, and he's talking about a cartridge BB, which you don't have, you have an external BB.
You can't actually service cartridge BB's anyway.

hard-rider

Just looking at a few of the German sites and see that there seems to be some inconsistency with the descriptions. Some say the set comes with L/R bearings plus spacer tube (the tube between the bearings) plus spacer shims while others just specify the bearings and shims. Are these really packaged in a variety of ways or is it just the descriptions that are inconsistent?

I assume I can I reuse the spacer tube and spacer shims after a clean up if the kit comes without them, right?

cooldad

All the bits come with any BB I've ever bought. But spacers and tube would be reusable.