BB30 BB

bikeit65

Are the bearings in a BB30 bottom bracket serviceable?

sungod

you can clean/grease them

there'll be seals, but these can be removed/refitted as long as it's done carefully use a sharp pick to lift the seals

there's an fsa video on youtube that shows the whole process

keef66

They aren't designed to be, the intention being that once worn out they are simply replaced. The bumf that came with my CR1 says of the press-fit Shimano BB, don't reuse them once driven out of the BB in case extracting them has in some way damaged them.

Then again there will be enterprising DIYers who can tell you how to get at them and eke a bit more life from them

Bozman

At £12 a pair from a bearing and transmission outlet it's hardly worth it.

smidsy

Buy a box of 20 - your gonna need them.

mitchgixer6

smidsy wrote:

Buy a box of 20 - your gonna need them.

Care to elaborate? Any evidence that BB30 bearings wear faster than any other type?

johnmiosh

My CR1 press fit just died after 1200 mainly dry miles. Any tips on replacing? The recommended tools add up to a fortune; what is actually necessary?

smidsy

mitchgixer6 wrote:

smidsy wrote:

Buy a box of 20 - your gonna need them.

Care to elaborate? Any evidence that BB30 bearings wear faster than any other type?

The issue of water ingress is well known. Water and bearings is not a good mix.

Bozman

smidsy wrote:

mitchgixer6 wrote:

smidsy wrote:

Buy a box of 20 - your gonna need them.

Care to elaborate? Any evidence that BB30 bearings wear faster than any other type?

The issue of water ingress is well known. Water and bearings is not a good mix.

I had a Focus Izalco with BB30 for about 15mths and in the time I went through three pairs of bearings, the Izalco was used as my second bike and probably only covered a couple of thousand miles. I soon learnt to strip the crank out once a month or after every other wet ride and grease everything, after a wet spell during the winter one set of bearings lasted about 400 miles before I had rusty water coming out of them(there was a drain hole in the bottom of the BB too).
I've never had this issue with any other BB, octalink, HTII, Megaexo and now GXP, all of the mentioned have lasted for thousands of miles without an issue.

sungod

sram is clear about their bearings needing to be serviced, it's a quick job, mine are in their third year, lots of wet rides, still ok

smidsy

sungod wrote:

sram is clear about the problem and tell you that you need to strip, clean and grease the stupid thing every few months. It's a job that is not needed with a proper BB. Mine are in their third year after lots of work, but I tell myself it is OK

FTFY

sungod

15 minutes every 2-3 months

if that's your idea of lots of effort your bike must be a complete pile of crap with so little maintenance

yet you have plenty of time to spend trolling

smidsy

If people just admitted the fact that press fit BB's are not as good a system it would be fine, but they do not. Instead they come up with mitigations to justify them.

They may be stiffer but the fact is they are a maintenance nightmare.

sungod

mine are fine

unlike you i don't claim ultimate knowledge of bearings, and speak only from experience

mine aren't a nightmare, therefore you are factually wrong

if you could produce reliable figures for total bb30 population and failure rate, you might have something relevant to say

but you don't

smidsy

Since when was the definition of trolling 'I have a different opinion to you'.

My opinion is based on evidence. You simply choose to ignore the myriad of posts on here on the subject.

Anyway we have clearly opposing views and this seems like a sensible place to accept that and move on.

acidstrato

Personally, I've had 1 set of Sram bearings fitted to my bike since I built it 12months ago, done atleast 2500 miles done in them, 700 miles in 1 week in Majorca back in April and all I had to do was oil my chain the day after it rained.

one thing I will say though is that the spacer cups I use with my crankset have a rubber seal on the inside face which may (or may not) protect the dust seal from water a little bit

bikeit65

Okay so i got the bearings out, they seem fine, i put in a new set anyway, there was no grease in between the frame and the bearings at all.
what a job it was to get the chainring crank arm out from the bottom bracket, it took some amount of hammering with a rubber mallet, at one point i was going to give up,
after removing both cranks i tapped the bearings out with the Park tool BBT 30, removed the circlips, i give them and the bottom bracket area a good cleaning, re greased the inner side of the frame where the bearings sit, greased where the circlips sit in the little groove.
when i was putting the new bearings back in i must have been doing something wrong as one bearing went in no bother but the other bearing kept going into the frame top side first this happened about five times, so in the end i tapped gently the first few mm of the bearing into the frame square using a very small hammer then used the tool to press the bearing in further, i will finish the job tomorrow and report back.

robbo2011

How long did this all take you? 15 minutes?

You'll have to do this every 2-3 months according to Sungod. Sounds like great fun!

metronome

Bikeit65 wrote:

...when i was putting the new bearings back in i must have been doing something wrong as one bearing went in no bother but the other bearing kept going into the frame top side first this happened about five times, so in the end i tapped gently the first few mm of the bearing into the frame square using a very small hammer then used the tool to press the bearing in further...

The same happened when I installed new bb30 bearings a few weeks ago. I was using a home brew press + instillation cups supplied with the Park tool. All good though, worked a treat.