What do you think about BB30?

yoonhocoleshin

I am going to buy Canondale Caad10.
It use BB30.


so, My friend say to me, " Don't even think about buying BB30 untill you're dead"
Because It makes a noise.
So I can't decide.

What do you think about BB30?

nawty

It's fine, and as people are learning to fit them properly the creaking is less of an issue. My CAAD10 creaked for a bit, I tightened it and no more creaking.

Bozman

There's a little(a lot)more maintenance involved plus I found that it doesn't really like the rain and in the end I came to the conclusion that I wouldn't buy another frame with BB30.
But, have you read a bad review of the CAAD10?

herzog

No issues to date (2 years of regular use and counting).

nawty

Bozman wrote:

There's a little(a lot)more maintenance involved plus I found that it doesn't really like the rain and in the end I came to the conclusion that I wouldn't buy another frame with BB30.
But, have you read a bad review of the CAAD10?

Yep, that brings back memories, my BB30 didn't like the rain either but a good scrub afterwards sorted it out. Annoying at the time though.

Still, I love my CAAD10

Grill

Went through 2 sets on my old winter bike in three months. Have over 7,000 on my Shimano PF86 BB and still going strong. Still a fan of threaded BBs.

How Far is too Far

Got 3 bikes with BB30 one with well over 10,000 miles on original bearings. Another bike needed new bearing after 4,000 miles. Some times they do creak but a quick strip down and grease up has cured it for me.

Rich...

hanhamreds

1007 miles and mine started creaking and clicking , LBS have stripped and re-greased - I'm not convinced but time will tell.

yoonhocoleshin

Bozman wrote:

There's a little(a lot)more maintenance involved plus I found that it doesn't really like the rain and in the end I came to the conclusion that I wouldn't buy another frame with BB30.
But, have you read a bad review of the CAAD10?

I also agree that CAAD10 is good bike and good frame.
So I 'm thinkig about buying CAAD10 but, I have read a bad review of BB30.

so I am just considering whether to buy or not.
anyway! Thank you for your advice!

But, maybe I will buy CAAD10

Thanks!

yoonhocoleshin

Thanks for your advices!!!

sungod

properly manufactured and installed, bb30 is fine, but poor quality bb shell and/or bearings, or badly installed and you'll have woes

fwiw i'm still on the first set of bearings at c. 30,000km (sram bearings)

i ride it year round, so plenty of wet rides, which washes out the grease (water gets in via the seat tube, pools in the bb shell), so regular regreasing is needed in those conditions unless you can stop the water getting in, if you don't ride in the wet you can run way longer

IrishMac

My bike has BB30, the first crank on it, a new FSA Gossamer creaked when I put the power down on the right side, tried tightening either side etc to no avail.
I've since changed cranks, (double to compact,) putting an old Gossamer crank, (different decals,) keeping the same bearings and now there's a different creak altogether but it only happens once in a blue moon.
I find that this helps with stopping water ingress into the seat tube: http://bit.ly/1sZD2HT
I think there's still a lot to be said for 'old' threaded bottom brackets, Shimano haven't made a BB30 compatible design yet as far as I know.
Cannondale originally designed the BB30 to be a closed system where they controlled the manufacturing of the bottom crank, the bearings and the crank.Now however, everyone and their mums are using it, BB30, or more so, press-fit bearing require quite tight manufacturing tolerances, think it's 1/8th of a millimetre or something, to ensure that it doesn't creak and what not, but with cheaper frames being made, those tolerance aren't met. To cure this, manufacturers use plastic cups which can tolerate bigger discrepancies in the bb shell, these cups will sound good for a while but then start to bugger up, if you can replace them with aluminium cups and make sure the bb shell is perfectly round then you can get a good system which won't make a sound.

If I had a choice though, I wouldn't go for BB30

MisterMuncher

I like BB30. I've been riding the hell out of an alloy Synapse, which one would assume given it's price is at the lower end of the manufacturing quality scale, and it's been entirely fine. It's certainly given me less hassle than any FSA external BB I've ever used, and that's with both on a fairly regular maintenence schedule. It's a job of two minutes to pop the crank out, clean up the shell, shaft, regrease and reassemble.

If you do decide to convert down, don't for the love of all that is holy use the press-in sleeve. They're reasonably effective at what the do, but if you change your mind down the line, they're a proper bugger to get out.

maddog 2

generally, if you had the choice, I would go for a non-BB30 frame over the other designs. Reliability, frame tolerances, water ingress and less crank choice being the major issues.

But the CAAD 10 is a good frame so it's a closer call. Just get ready to replace bearings, which isn't any harder than a pressfit setup.

Tjgoodhew

I have BB30 on my Caad8 and have had a lot of issues with constant creaking and clicking and it drives me mad. Its been in the LBS 3 times to be fiddled with. The last visit the bearings were replaced and has been fine for the past 800 miles until Saturday where it seems as tho the creaks and clicks are returning.

From my experience it seems to be a setup that needs regular maintenance and you cant just fit and forget.

I personally wouldn't buy a BB30 bike again regardless of how good the frame is

yoonhocoleshin

IrishMac wrote:

My bike has BB30, the first crank on it, a new FSA Gossamer creaked when I put the power down on the right side, tried tightening either side etc to no avail.
I've since changed cranks, (double to compact,) putting an old Gossamer crank, (different decals,) keeping the same bearings and now there's a different creak altogether but it only happens once in a blue moon.
I find that this helps with stopping water ingress into the seat tube: http://bit.ly/1sZD2HT
I think there's still a lot to be said for 'old' threaded bottom brackets, Shimano haven't made a BB30 compatible design yet as far as I know.
Cannondale originally designed the BB30 to be a closed system where they controlled the manufacturing of the bottom crank, the bearings and the crank.Now however, everyone and their mums are using it, BB30, or more so, press-fit bearing require quite tight manufacturing tolerances, think it's 1/8th of a millimetre or something, to ensure that it doesn't creak and what not, but with cheaper frames being made, those tolerance aren't met. To cure this, manufacturers use plastic cups which can tolerate bigger discrepancies in the bb shell, these cups will sound good for a while but then start to bugger up, if you can replace them with aluminium cups and make sure the bb shell is perfectly round then you can get a good system which won't make a sound.

If I had a choice though, I wouldn't go for BB30

Thank you for you advice.

Maybe I think my mind changed....

I'm not good at rapairing.

and I think It make me irritating.

So I might rethink about buying BB30 frame.

Thanks! :!:

IrishMac

Yeah it's a pity, there are some top quality BB30 frames out there, it's just the BB that's the issue.
I haven't heard anything bad about frames that come with the Rotor cranks or the upper grade gruppo manufacturers

Monty Dog

FWIW Cannondale didn't design BB30, it was designed by a company called Magic Motorcycle who were then bought by Cannondale - it was not designed for volume production i.e. it doesn't cope with typical production tolerances (variations in dimensions). It's also a disaster for year-round riding as water ingress down the seattube collects in the BB immersing the bearings. With most other BBs - the bearings are a few mm higher.

loismustdie

Monty Dog wrote:

FWIW Cannondale didn't design BB30, it was designed by a company called Magic Motorcycle who were then bought by Cannondale - it was not designed for volume production i.e. it doesn't cope with typical production tolerances (variations in dimensions). It's also a disaster for year-round riding as water ingress down the seattube collects in the BB immersing the bearings. With most other BBs - the bearings are a few mm higher.

Agreed - I have BB30 on my winter bike (not my first choice, but I got a very good deal). I went through the first set of bearings in a couple of weeks of wet riding and whilst my previous Hollowtech 2 winter bike would have let water in, the BB bearings would have coped fine. It was also a pain having to buy the tools to replace the bearings.

Since then I sealed the frame to keep as much water out as possible and in fairness the second set of bearings has lasted really well, including river crossings and riding through BB deep floods. When I fitted the second set of bearings I didn't install the plastic sleeve which goes between them so I could dry out the BB shell. That said, that's only how well previous designs of BB have performed and I don't really see any performance benefit from BB30 in the real world, it's not easier to fit/maintain and if it is stiffer I really can't tell.

Would I buy again? Yes, if for example I was getting a good deal or wanted a particular frame, but all things being equal I wouldn't buy BB30 again.

cswitch

I have found with all press fit bikes I've had - bb30 / press fit bb86 the bearings don't stay as smooth for as long. As for creaking I think typically with correct installation and with BB30 use of loctite (retaining compound not thread lock) creaking is not an issue.