Facing and Chasing BB

John Wh

Hi All,

Recently bought and On-One Inbred frame to build a new bike (my first build). Came unstuck pretty much right away by ruining my BB cup. After a little search, it looks like I need my BB shell chasing and facing.

Phoned about 5 LBS who all told me none of them do it. One tried to sell me a bottom bracket recovery unit as the last 3 threads he did all failed (2 alloy, 1 steel).

Apart from spending hundreds on tools and having a go myself, what other options have I got? Really disappointed that it wasn't done before shipping.

I live around the Wigan area if anyone knows who can do it.

cooldad

How did you ruin the cup?
Although any decent LBS should be able to do it. Weird

John Wh

It was screwing in with a bit of force, but when I tried to unscrew it was nearly impossible. Looks like all the threads have been flattened or warped on the cup.

I took my time to make sure I wasn't cross threading too. I think there's a distinct lack of decent LBS where I live. That's why I started a tool collection and wanted to do my own build.

The Rookie

I have 4 LBS, 3 have chasing and facing tools, just keep ringing round!

John Wh

I'll just try more further afield I guess. Just seems such a common thing to have done, yet 5 of the shops wouldn't touch it.

** Just phoned another shop (Buy a Bike) in Preston. The guy on the phone told me no one really does it anymore! Something to do with safety legislation?

Seriously it can't be this hard to find someone who does it?

John Wh

Here are some pics of what has happened. Tried the drive-side cup, but can't even get it started without considerable force.

cooldad

You do know that drive side is reverse thread?

John Wh

Yeah, first thing I checked. The Bb cups are labeled with the thread direction and which side they belong to

John Wh

Bit of an update.

Finally managed to find a place who can do this for me. Tarty Bikes in Preston were very helpful over the phone, so I'm driving down on Friday with the promise of a brew and about 15-20 minutes of my time!

Surprised me that pretty much all of my LBS wouldn't entertain it. One of them tried to sell me a Bottom Bracket Recovery unit. I had a search but couldn't find any info on those.

Hopefully this is the only issue my first build will contain. Will be doing a thread on it when I get it started

The Rookie

I suspect the recovery unit is the 2 bearings that screw into each other with no threading into the BB shell, though I've only ever seen those as square tapered BB's.

oodboo

My local LBS done mine recently, wasn't damaged to start with though, I was just changing form a internal BB to external. They charged me £25.

The Rookie

Cripes, we got charged £10 for my daughters (the BB shell was unfaced, and nowhere near square!).

oodboo

Yeah, I thought it was a bit steep at the time and questioned him. Apparently the £1000 tool they use to do it needs new blades often and this is taken into account for pricing the job. Yeah right, their website says they only use Park tools so it's a £450 (rrp and don't tell me bike shops pay rrp for their tools) tool and sharpening costs $25 or something. Needless to say I'll not be using them again. If he just left it at "well that how much we charge" then I'd probably go back but the excuses have put me off.

The Rookie

Yup, £450 tool and when used on Al it rarely needs sharpening, if it was a steel frame then maybe it does take something out of it...lies leave a worse taste in the mouth than profiteering!

Chunkers1980

Makes this look like good value.

http://www.superstarcomponents.com/en/b ... g-tool.htm

chuase05

I charge a basic cost of £10 for a face and chase if its just a frame but i do up the cost if i have to remove old chainsets and bbs so £25 is a fair charge

John Wh

The price for mine is £5.00 apparently. Will leave a tip if it's a good job though as that seems very cheap.

I was tempted to buy the tool, but skint myself this month collecting bits for the build. It's amazing how many little bits go into a scratch build!

SnydleyWhiplash

I noticed the recent article on the Enduro BB conversions. Wheels MFG. makes a similar outboard 24mm BB for PF30 frames.

I installed it with some difficulty because the shell was a tight fit even though it was a new frame. It did not just screw right together like the instructions suggested. It would have been a lot easier if I chased the shell.

The Rookie

Different frame size, the thread chacing tool won't work on that.

John Wh

Tarty Bikes were excellent. Chased it in 5 mins and it's all sorted now!