School me on BB 30 please (+11spd freehub Q)

JonEdwards

So I'm looking at buying a frame that comes with a BB30 setup. I've not played with one of these before, but most of what I've heard from an mtbing background is not good, especially regarding sealing.

This will be my "one" roadbike, so whilst it will be my summer wonderbike, it also needs to be able to cope with wet gritty Peaks winter roads without throwing a tantrum (don't tend to ride when it's raining too much, but do as soon as its stopped!)

I need a new groupset too, but haven't made up my mind which way to swing yet - it'll be top end 11spd. I'm most familar with Campag, have used SRAM a bit, not touched Shimano in donkeys years, but the new hood shapes suit me a lot better and I might be able to swing a bargainous deal on DA9000...

Crank comaptibility:-
Campag - use dedicated push in cups that then take the Ultratorque bearings?
Shimano - either use the BB30 bearing with push in adaptors to 24mm axle, or use a Praxis BB30->24mm BB (preferred option)?
SRAM. Use dedicated BB30 cranks, (lighter, stiffer in theory), but then no option to use anything else other than BB30 if BB30 bearings are pants? (or could use GXP cranks with the Praxis BB, as per shimano)

...and then, if I'm buying a new groupset, I'm alsmost certainly going to go 11spd, so freewheels...:-

I currently have an aging pair of Ksyrium SLs with a Campag freehub body.
That should take an 11spd Campag cassette straight off?
Can I fit an 11spd Shimano/SRAM freehub body without having to redish the wheel? (I think I can...?)

Cheers all!

Jon

majormantra

Without wishing to start a groupset war, 9000 is beautiful. It's what I recently bought after becoming a bit disillusioned with my Campag stuff.

(Shameless plus, see: http://thesetbackpost.com/mechanics/campag-fails/)

If you want 99% of the performance of 9000 without the bling and with a small weight penalty, 6800 is great value.

For cranks, the Praxis>Shimano option looks the most belt and braces but it's not the cheapest. I've just bought a PF30 frame (similar to BB30, not the same) and I'm going to try a Tripeak PF30>BSA adapter so I can use standard BBs. We'll see how well it works.

Your Ksyriums will take 11 speed Campag and will not need redishing if you get a Shimano freehub.

JonEdwards

Thanks.

I certainly don't "need" DA, but I'm on old Record at the mo, and anything less feels like a backwards step (yes, yes, I know...!!), and whilst Ultegra would be functionally fine, I just thing the chainsets look truly, truly terrible! (the DA ones aren't great, but they don't look near so clodhopping)

majormantra

It's a matter of taste, but I like the 6800 chainset and I LOVE the 9000 one...

spanner239

Firstly that is one sweet looking bike, love the Archetype rims.

With campag and BB30 you also have the new Over Torque cranks which look a lot easier to set up and adjust but come at a bit of a price premium over the Chorus/Record equivalents. You will need the specific tools additionally.

I can't help thinking that BB30 is a bit of a pain for your average cyclist who likes to do all their own maintenance.

Monty Dog

Unless you are fitting BB30 cranks, don't bother with a BB30 frame IMO. Many frame manufacturers are dropping BB30 because it's such a crock - I read a write-up of a guy with a $5,000 custom Moots frame that was giving him grief - if it doesn't work for Moots, there's little hope for anyone else.

ben-----

A couple of questions:

1. How much did that Scott bike cost?

2. I bought a new Cannondale Supersix 3 Ultegra at the end of the summer which has: FSA SL-K LIGHT CARBON BB30. Because the weather turned just around the time I got it I haven't used it at all. It remains brand new. Since buying it I see lots of bad talk about BB30. I can't stand the idea of having bought an expensive nice bike, problems developing due to a basic design flaw, and having to spend money and time to possibly fix it. The question is, should I sell the bike before I use it?

One more, not exactly bike related:

3. How much of a cut do eBay take from a buy-it-now fixed price listing?

majormantra

1. Err, I'd rather not work it out. But it's less you think - the frame was a replacement from Scott after my original Addict cracked. The groupset was from Merlin, the wheels I built myself and the finishing kit was mostly bought at trade or scrounged.

2. Selling it without ever using it seems a bit mad. If you do everything right (which may include installing your bearings with loctite) you may not have issues. But BB30 is not great IMO.

3. Don't know but it's all on the site somewhere. Don't forget to account for Paypal fees.

spanner239

MajorMantra wrote:

3. Don't know but it's all on the site somewhere. Don't forget to account for Paypal fees.

Buy it now is 10% as for any other auction plus about 3.5% if buyer pays by paypal! Don't forget they also now charge a final value fee on the postage as well.

ben-----

> 1. Err, I'd rather not work it out. But it's less you think - the frame was a replacement from Scott after my original Addict cracked. The groupset was from Merlin, the wheels I built myself and the finishing kit was mostly bought at trade or scrounged.

Yeah, but roughly?

> 2. Selling it without ever using it seems a bit mad. If you do everything right (which may include installing your bearings with loctite) you may not have issues. But BB30 is not great IMO.

Well there's a fair possibility I could sell it without any loss. So it's not necessarily mad. "If you do everything right (which may include installing your bearings with loctite)" sounds really unpleasant, something I could really do without.

> Buy it now is 10% as for any other auction plus about 3.5% if buyer pays by paypal! Don't forget they also now charge a final value fee on the postage as well.

Blimey.

majormantra

Everything except the (free to me) frame would be in the region of £1700 at a guess.

I think the frames used to be about £1400 but it's not a current model so it's hard to compare. If you bought the new Addict they're doing framesets at £1700, but buying a complete bike is usually much better value.

rowlers

when I got my Felt F1, I too was concerned about BB30, but all my research led me to believe that whilst it isn't the greatest invention since sliced bread, it doesn't have the issues that many suggest. The majority of issues seemed to be PF30, which is often confused with BB30.
So far (touching lots of wood!) I've had no issues with Chorus UT with Campagnolo cups.

sungod

mine's fine, ride all weathers

but there are two problems that can arise...

• if the bearings and/or bb shell and/or crank spindle are out of tolerance then there's a real chance of creaking or adverse wear, with bb30 there's no room for sloppy engineering
  
  my frame is xcr, in 2010 cinelli lovingly machined that chunky stainless steel bb shell to the required standard, so my bb30 is perfectly fine, it was implemented correctly
  
  but there seem to be plenty of cf frames with problems, given that carbonsports say cf bearing seats in hubs can't be made to the same tolerance as metal ones, it seems reasonable to assume the same applies to cf bb shells
  
  that's not a bb30 problem, that's a frame manufacturer unable to make a frame to the required standard, in which case they should've chosen something they can handle rather than inflict problems on their customers
  
  the workaround is use retaining compound, not ideal as it complicates servicing, but there's at least one manufacturers that says it must be used, imho that simply means they know their product is not up to the required standard so they're bodging it
  
  pf30 and it's variants try to resolve the tolerance issue by using relatively squidgy (compared to the bearing race) plastic cups to hold the bearings
  
• 
  if water gets in the bb shell, it'll seep past the bearing seals and wash out the grease, not ideal for the uk!
  
  i used to handle the water problem by regreasing every 2-3 months, but found if i cover the top of the seat post for wet rides it stops water getting in, i had a check at 6 months, i reckon a year between greasings will be ok now - i'm still on the 2010 bearings (sram red), still smoooooooooth

paulmon

I have BB30 on my Caad and I had to replace the bearings after a couple of months. However since then I have had no problems. I've made a point of keeping on top of maintenance and have a spare set of bearings in my garage just in case. Maintenance is easy as long as u have the removal/insertion tool which costs about £25

As for cranks FSA SL-K come as OEM on a lot of bikes with BB30. I bought a set brand new on eBay for £170.

shazzz

I've had the same Cannondale BB30 frame (Six13) for nine years now. Ridden it in all weathers, incl torrential downpours.

First set of bearings lasted over seven years. They were only replaced because the cranks failed (the aluminium nut for the pedal de-bonded from the carbon crank, nothing to do with the BB) and the replacement cranks (FSA SL-K) came with new bearings.

Second set of bearings only lasted about six months, but I am convinced that is because the shop fitted them incorrectly. I replaced the bearings and removed a couple of very thin spacers that came with the cranks and the LBS had used, but weren't actually necessary to eliminate play in the cranks.

Third BB still going strong after a year of use in all weather.

I don't do any particular maintenance on the BB. I may remove the cranks and regrease everything in the spring given the amount of rain we've had this year. The BB shell does have a drain hole (as part of the cable guide) so that helps keep things dry.

I wouldn't worry about the stories your hear around BB30. Having said that, I wouldn't buy a BB30 frame and not use a BB30 chainset - seems a waste of time!