BSA English Thread 68mm or BB30 and why?

rgjcpu

History: Last bike I had was a 1980 Schwinn Deluxe Varsity; I put well over 1500 miles on this bike. This bike did it all: road, cyclocross, gravel grinding and curb jumping. The bike was solid and virtually indestructible… Fast forward 30+ years and now I want to get back into biking.

I want to build a carbon cyclocross bike. I have not purchased the frameset but I have zeroed in on one (http://flyxii.com/en/products/flx-fr-603.html ).

Question: Which bottom bracket should I go with, BSA English Thread 68mm or BB30 and why? I am leaning towards the BSA 68mm because common tools can be used to service this assembly.

Thanks

trek_dan

My preference would always be BSA for Cyclocross just for ease/quickness of replacement. BB30 would also been fine as long as installed properly, but get the slightest bit of dust/water inside and it'll squeak like mad.

keef66

I am leaning towards the BSA 68mm because common tools can be used to service this assembly.

I think you've just answered your own question...

I have a pressfit Shimano BB86 on one bike and a conventional threaded HT2 BB on the other. According to Shimano, I cannot remove the former without damaging it, so for a committed tinkerer like me I far prefer the threaded BB arrangement.

Don't get me wrong, the pressfit BB is still working perfectly after 3 years, but that may be because it's in a fair weather road bike. For CX I think you'd be right to go for the ease of servicing / replacement that the threaded BB gives.

VamP

BSA!

If you're going Chinese, have a look at the iplay IP105D frame. A lad in our league has a pair and really likes them - they look good too. If I was considering a disc frame they'd be on my shortlist.

You also get to choose between BB30 and BSA on the iplay.

iron-clover

BSA all the way. In the muck and grime the BSA BBs will have a lower chance of getting stuff in where it will cause creaks, and is also easier to replace.

The BB30 on my CaadX started creaking after around 500 miles of mostly road use!

jgsi

iron-clover wrote:

BSA all the way. In the muck and grime the BSA BBs will have a lower chance of getting stuff in where it will cause creaks, and is also easier to replace.

The BB30 on my CaadX started creaking after around 500 miles of mostly road use!

I bet 80 % of those rides were in normal Uk weather... wet... dirty and cold..?

Did you ever look inside the BB area to see how much water and grit got in, thus basically destroying the bearings from inside? Did you ever clean it up?
Pressfit need more TLC, end of.

Paul 8v

On a crossbike? Standard BB. I've had nothing but problems with my pressfit one. Stupid idea on a crossbike and I wouldn't have bought it had I known what a problem it would be. Looking at converting it to a standard one at the moment