Cannondale Synapse BB30

roof30

So my two month old Synapse 105 alloy went in to Evans last weekend for its first service...and came out with the dreaded bottom bracket creak. Basically, when I bought the bike I had done my research and asked them to fit a Praxis kit to the bike instead of the BB30 (and they also advised this); upon completing the build they hadn't used the Praxis kit as the cables for the brakes/gears are located directly beneath the bottom bracket and the Praxis kit wouldn't fit without damaging them. Cue plenty of apologies from them, a 105 conversion kit and a new 105 cranket for free (decent of them), plus a refund for the Praxis kit. Mechanic there told me that no other bottom bracket would fit into the bike and that I was stuck with the BB30 (note, it is not the BB30A).

Great, I thought...until this weekend when my bike was returned, having been completely quiet beforehand, with the dreaded BB30 creak. I thought something might be wrong as my bike stank of WD40 when returned - something I never use on my bikes and I wouldn't expect a bike shop to use either. Called Evans today and they've told me to return the bike to them so they can take a look. 'Unlikely to be the bottom bracket' says the (clearly bullsh*tting) guy on the phone, even though it's creaking with more power put through the pedals. I'll ask them to loctite the bearings but don't want to invalidate the bike warranty.

Now not sure what to do. If I get the item below (as others who've had the same issue mentioned) will the conversion cups for the 105 cranket fit - or do I even need them? Will this do away with the BB30 that the bike came with completely? Sorry, bit of a newbie to bottom bracket issues:
https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/bottom-brac ... m/?geoc=US

Many thanks

Secteur

A great many threads here on BB30, but I'd say for every BB30 problem reported here, there's 1000 more running perfectly.

BB30 is fine if installed correctly.

A noise *definitely* coming from the BB is still very possibly not coming from the BB.

I know all this from personal experience (see threads passim).

Install the stock BB30 carefully and properly, and then consider other causes for "bb noise" (in my case it was dry front dropouts, despite the noise *definitely* coming from the BB!).

My BB30(A) is now in its 3rd faultless year, ridden all year around in all weather conditions and hose pipe / mucoff cleaned after every ride, including one BB swap and service done by myself a year ago which was easy with the right tools.

arthur_scrimshaw

From my experience (3 bikes with BB30/a) only one creaked (Boardman CX) and the creaking was down to the NDS crank arm. Remove, clean, regrease, refit. It's a simple job.

svetty

It's hard to comment without knowing what is currently installed in your frame. Does it have a native BB30 BB (SRAM?) with adaptors fitted to allow the use of a 24mm crank spindle? If it is only 2 months old I'd have thought it would have a BB30A BB as the 2016 models had this?

Anyway if you go ahead with an external bearing conversion like the one you have linked to, the crank just fits in the BB once it's fitted with no further adaptors needed.

roof30

Svetty wrote:

It's hard to comment without knowing what is currently installed in your frame. Does it have a native BB30 BB (SRAM?) with adaptors fitted to allow the use of a 24mm crank spindle? If it is only 2 months old I'd have thought it would have a BB30A BB as the 2016 models had this?

Anyway if you go ahead with an external bearing conversion like the one you have linked to, the crank just fits in the BB once it's fitted with no further adaptors needed.

The bottom bracket that came with the bike is an FSA PF BB30, which now has adaptors on so the 105 cranket will fit. Good to hear that if I buy what's in the pic that the crankset will still fit. Hoping the bearings in the new BB will be significantly better than the crappy FSA I seem to be stuck with for the time being.

jgsi

So to sum up, the Evans shop disassembled the bottom bracket - basically 2 bearings and 2 circlips.
Tried to fit a Praxis.
Found out no room in the frame for the internals.
Replaced the same bearings?
Fitted the dodgy ( they are) adapters for running HT?

No matter how good a mechanic is , drifting out bb30 bearings, you is going to do some damage.
Always, always fit new bearings... if only for piece of mind!
Off Ebay they dont cost a great deal.

Doing your own bb30 work at home only costs a few simple tools but takes a bit of patience and the use of YouTube.
...
I had thought Praxis had developed another adapter for tight tolerances?

A shop swapping out a crankset just to make it work is akin to a garage saying, couldnt fit your 19 inch alloys mate, have some 17 inch ones with a plastic cover on them....

roof30

That's pretty much it, yes. They tell me that they didn't touch the bottom bracket last weekend, but the noise is still there. The mechanic did some work to the front mech today, which was experiencing some chain rub, so I'm hoping that when I take it out tomorrow morning this may go some way to having alleviated the noise.

svetty

I don't know who's bearings are used in the KCNC BB you have linked to. Several other companies make equivalent BBs - some are better than others. Hope is a UK company with a good reputation......