Bottom brackets best to worst?

The Rookie

One of my bikes still has a Shimano XT square taper with the cup and cones and diddy rubber seals in the screw in cup's.....

arthur_scrimshaw

Father Jack wrote:

It's a shame as a new bike I'm considering (Boardman CX Team) is nice but the BB is crap press fit. So are the new road bikes and flat bar road bikes/fast hybrids. To stick with sqaure taper I'd need to look at lower range bikes, CX Comp instead of CX Team.

My round the year commuter bike for two years was a CX, did 10000 miles on it (including a Jogle) and got through 3 sets of BB30 bearings. By the end of it I could change a set of bearings in 15 minutes, including clean down. Don't let it put you off if it's the bike you want.

UndercoverElephant

I've had square taper BBs that died after a very short time, only a few hundred miles (On my Day One it got so badly rusted in there it took several days of soaking in penetrating oil, two snapped breaker bars and a length of scaffold to remove) and I've had press-fit's which have remained creak free for a long while (not the Shimano one that came with the CR1). My favourite is HT2, but not the FSA one that came with the Pinnacle, nor the Shimano ones.

The Hope BB that's now on the Pinnacle is a constant joy to use.

keef66

Had an Octalink, possibly LX, on my rigid MTB, that was still running smoothly after 10 years of various kinds of abuse, when the bike got nicked.
Some cheapo square taper job in my son's Saracen MTB gave out after a year of paper rounds.
My road bike had a 105 HT2 external BB that developed a slight click after a couple of years of all weather riding, replaced that with an Ultegra one that's still silent after 7 years of mainly winter / wet riding. (The original 105 one is still functional; I keep it in the spares drawer just in case...)
The Shimano press-fit BB86 that came fitted to my CR1 is smooth / silent / creak-free after 3 years, but that's all been fair weather riding so hardly a stern test.

So overall, I'd say it's pot luck.

secretsam

TGOTB wrote:

My least favourite would be anything with cotter pins. I'll never forget the sensation of riding along with one loose crank. Ugh!

Ah, memories. When I started cycling back in the mid-80s, cotter pins were old tech even then. But now, many Shimano left hand cranks seem to have a bolt which surely does the same function?

Apparently, my bike has BSA...

penguin_of_death

Father Jack wrote:

It's a shame as a new bike I'm considering (Boardman CX Team) is nice but the BB is crap press fit. So are the new road bikes and flat bar road bikes/fast hybrids. To stick with sqaure taper I'd need to look at lower range bikes, CX Comp instead of CX Team.

I have a CX team and a Carrera, both with BB30, both used for several years, both with no problems.
With ones I have worked on they can be noisy when new and settling in, but pulling the crank out and retorquing it after a couple of weeks solves it nearly every time.

roger_merriman

of the three bikes I have 07 model MTB hard tail, which came with a Truvativ Powerspline which lasted until summer of 2013, it's replacement some generic part which is still going strong.

a giant trance with a Shimano Press Fit which has been fine for the last two and half years

and one very cheap CX bike (2015 model) with a "Cartridge" bottom bracket no problems.

I tend to go though headsets far more often.

pastryboy

Square taper ones last for ages but if they get stuck they can be absolute hell. Hollowtech II don't last long but, as above, very cheap and easy to replace - did have one get stuck though.

supersonic

I've got a 20 year old UN50 square taper in the Zaskar LE, has been through a quite a bit. ISIS and Octalink didn't seem to last as long (and especially Powerdrive and Powerspline) - the bigger axles meant smaller bearings. As for all the two piece cup systems, tolerances are crucial for alignment - I've seen some frames so badly faced that the axle wouldn't push through!

itboffin

My campag record square taper has to be the smoothest BB I've ever used and just last forever, never had a crankarm fall off and never needed to worry about delicate torque settings

father_jack

I didn't realise BB30 is push fit as well. What a crock...