BB30

davoj

Hey guys,

I am sure this has come up before but my BB30 has started to creak (loudly) for the 2nd time this year, My local bike shop has now replaced the bearings twice in 5 months.

I have done about 5000km since January and the weather hasn't been great but this is crazy if this has to be done on a regular basis, this is the first time having a BB30 so this problem is new to me but from what i am reading this is a regular occurrence or is it?

Also excluding replacing the bearings & Lube/Oiling (short term fixing) than what else can i do?

Cheers

nicklouse

get a KCNC conversion BB and fit a set of 24mm axeled cranks. (shimano)

smidsy

davoj wrote:

Hey guys,

I am sure this has come up before.

In which case a few minutes with the search function would yield quicker results to your question.

viewtopic.php?f=40004&t=12914575&p=18332749&hilit=bb30#p18332777

PS: it has come up before.

IMO BB30 is generally poorly executed and you are best avoiding it.

davoj

smidsy wrote:

davoj wrote:

Hey guys,

I am sure this has come up before.

In which case a few minutes with the search function would yield quicker results to your question.

viewtopic.php?f=40004&t=12914575&p=18332749&hilit=bb30#p18332777

PS: it has come up before.

IMO BB30 is generally poorly executed and you are best avoiding it.

Good work Smidsy!!

PS: see it easier for you to do the work for me :-)

Monty Dog

It's likely down to micro-movements of the bearings due to poorly machined BB housing. Loctite 641 Bearing Fit is a semi-permanent engineering adhesive which will hold them more firmly in place - non-engineering types consider this herecy, but if it's good enough for aero-engines...

smidsy

Surely you mean engineering types. Non engineering types would not even know about it and if they did they would not know enough to question its use :-)

jgsi

What is the frame out of interest?
If it is creaking beyond sorting out, I'd also probably go the conversion route
alternative http://www.fullspeedahead.com/products/ ... apter-68mm
You get green loctite 609 with this

davoj

JGSI wrote:

What is the frame out of interest?
If it is creaking beyond sorting out, I'd also probably go the conversion route
alternative http://www.fullspeedahead.com/products/ ... apter-68mm
You get green loctite 609 with this

The Frame is a Bianchi sempre. I was chatting to the mechanic earlier and he was saying that a chap has already had 3 sets of bearings replaced already this year, he informed me that with the weather we are having and the use they are getting that is seems to be the norm with the BB30.

Also I asked him him did he have the BB30 and he smiled and said "no way"! I didn't realise they would cause this much hassle and cost and will stay away from it in the future.

Thanks for all the feedback and tips.

davoj

Someone mentioned on another forum that a lot of water travels down the seat post and this cause the majority of the creaking so just thrown this idea out there but could you seal the seat post water resistant silicone?

I am sure that this is a bad idea but thinking of ideas on how to decrease the amount of replacements I would have to do each year.

sungod

what monty dog says re the poor machining

as for multiple replacement of bearings, it can be down to poor maintenance, these bearings are not waterproof, the seals will keep out lumps of crud, but not water, riding in the rain without mudguards will result in water going down the seat tube, pooling in the bb shell and washing out the grease

if i know i'll be doing a really wet ride i stick a bit of plastic film over the top of the tube and secure it with a rubber band, even on non-bb30 frames it stops water and crud getting in, which with conventional bb fittings can eventually result in corrosion and seized threads

but i still had plenty of surprise soakings without doing this, resulting in lots of water in the bb shell, my (sram) bearings came with clear instructions on how often to regrease them, i follow the instructions, it takes 15 minutes every few months, it's a trivial task, i ride in all weathers, bearings are still doing fine after years and tens of thousands of km

i also remember to invert my bikes, bb30 or otherwise, after a wet ride to let them drain out, some people seem to prefer keeping a portable swamp inside the bike!

davoj

sungod wrote:

what monty dog says re the poor machining

as for multiple replacement of bearings, it can be down to poor maintenance, these bearings are not waterproof, the seals will keep out lumps of crud, but not water, riding in the rain without mudguards will result in water going down the seat tube, pooling in the bb shell and washing out the grease

if i know i'll be doing a really wet ride i stick a bit of plastic film over the top of the tube and secure it with a rubber band, even on non-bb30 frames it stops water and crud getting in, which with conventional bb fittings can eventually result in corrosion and seized threads

but i still had plenty of surprise soakings without doing this, resulting in lots of water in the bb shell, my (sram) bearings came with clear instructions on how often to regrease them, i follow the instructions, it takes 15 minutes every few months, it's a trivial task, i ride in all weathers, bearings are still doing fine after years and tens of thousands of km

i also remember to invert my bikes, bb30 or otherwise, after a wet ride to let them drain out, some people seem to prefer keeping a portable swamp inside the bike!

Thanks will try some of those methods.

gaddster

The fsa press in shell thing mentioned above is a pretty permanent conversion, if you like the convenience and easy removal of any conversion then something like the Praxis or rotor converters might be worth looking at.

ddarkeh

+1 for Praxis, i've had it for a couple of months now and no issues and I didn't like the idea of pressing in something permanent (although there are methods of removing those), obviously 2 months isn't a long time but previously I had creaking within 1 month. Only downside to Praxis conversion is they only make it currently for hollowtech cranks and it's quite expensive

Ben6899

Just a note on water ingress. The Starley I have ordered (R1) comes with a rubber sheath which fits over the seat post / seat tube / collar to stop water ingress. I think that's quite a neat idea and one which could be easily replicated with a length of old inner tube.