BB30 help!!

[Pikey]

So here is the issue,

Trying to find the source of an annoying click, pulled out the crankset as usual and found that the drive side bearing felt a bit gritty. Obviously time to think about replacing.

So would you reccomend getting the tools and a press and sorting it myself or would you just pay the lbs to do it?

Also, the bike has done about two thousand miles from new, mostly dry, and I have take. The crankset out and cleaned it regularly. Is this about the expected life for a set of BB30 bearings? If so I might as well buy the tools.

 

[Pikey]

Sorry, should say taken the crankset out regularly.

Fecking auto correct.

 

[02GF74]

special tools - there is a puller, qbout £ 5 that is a T shaped piece of metal, the flat part is manouevred behing the race so it can be tapped out,.

I managed to tap out the race with a drift - be careful of positioning the drift as there is a circlip in the BB which positions the beaing.

as an interim fix, and I have done this myself on BB30 bearing, is to prise of the seal with tiny screwdriver e.g. jeweller's screwdriver, wash out the bearing in paraffin, pack with grease fololwed by replacing the seal. the seal is a metal disc cover in flexible plastic so you would need to be pretty hamfisted to damage it,

 

[smokeysmoo]

special tools - there is a puller, qbout £ 5 that is a T shaped piece of metal, the flat part is manouevred behing the race so it can be tapped out

THIS is the one, easy to use with a little care and attention. I had one of these myself until I tired of BB30 issues so much I converted my CAAD over to HTII, never been happier, and touch wood have not had a single BB related noise since

I also had THIS fitting tool as well which worked a treat when I first changed the bearings.

Remember with BB30, cleanliness is next to Godliness.

 

[Mr Haematocrit]

I have the park tools stuff, great how to on their site as well.

http://www.parktool.com/blog/repair-help/bb30-bearing-system-installation-and-removal

 

[Pikey]

Think for the meantime I'll try and prize the seal off as mentioned above, flush it with gt85 and re pack with Teflon grease, the drop it into the lbs later in the week,it can't cost too much as it doesn't seem major surgery.

Thanks for the recommendations for tools, I'll order these up for next time it happens, lol.

 

[Pikey]

THIS is the one, easy to use with a little care and attention. I had one of these myself until I tired of BB30 issues so much I converted my CAAD over to HTII, never been happier, and touch wood have not had a single BB related noise since

I also had THIS fitting tool as well which worked a treat when I first changed the bearings.

Remember with BB30, cleanliness is next to Godliness.

Think I might end up going down the conversion route eventually, never had an issue (touch wood) with ht2 before.

What converters are the best? Think its gonna be a permanent conversion!

 

[smokeysmoo]

Think I might end up going down the conversion route eventually, never had an issue (touch wood) with ht2 before.

What converters are the best? Think its gonna be a permanent conversion!

I used the FSA one in my first link above. You can also use cups like THESE, or the latest thing seems to be the PRAXIS full on integrated BB conversion.

IMO though, and definitely if you do plan to stick with HTII, would be the FSA one. It's cheap as chips, simple enough to fit, and it works, simple

 

[potsy]

That Praxis looks great, but is it worth nearly £60 compared to the cheap and cheerful FSA one?

 

[smokeysmoo]

That Praxis looks great, but is it worth nearly £60 compared to the cheap and cheerful FSA one?

Not to mention the cheap and cheerful HTII replacement bearings as well?

IMHO, nope

 

[potsy]

Not to mention the cheap and cheerful HTII replacement bearings as well?

IMHO, nope

I'd just gotten the hang of the H2 system and then went and bought a bike with BB30, no problems with it yet but it just doesn't seem as user friendly to maintain/replace.

 

[Howard]

That Praxis looks great, but is it worth nearly £60 compared to the cheap and cheerful FSA one?

The FSA converter is just a BSA threaded shell that presses in instead of the bearings. IIRC you are meant to 'glue' it in with green loctite. It can be removed again from frames with an aluminum sleeve (or pure alu frames, obvs) but once in a carbon frame shouldn't be taken out again if it's glued. Once it's in, you'd need to buy a suitable HTII BB and fit it in the same way you would a BSA frame.

The Praxis one on the other hand is a special sleeve and bottom bracket and from what I can tell, wouldn't have to be glued as the sleeve expands as the drive side cup is screwed in.

It seems like a nice solution, if a bit pricey.

You could also try 'better' BB30 bearings from Enduro or Token - fitted these to my cross bike and they seemed to survive a couple of cross seasons.

In terms of tools, I always just used the wooden handle on a mallet to drift the bearings out. I was using a crank that had a hirth joint, so to press new bearings in I just mounted them on the two halves of the spindle and wound up the fixing bolt. This is effectively how Campag Ultra Torque works, too.

I believe the aspect of BB30 that makes it so finicky is that the bearings are in direct contact with the frame and the BB spindle which leaves little opportunity for sealing. As a concept it was kind of clever, but I don't think it should have been speced on anything but the top end performance bikes.

Tellingly a lot of 'dale's MTBs now use PF30 which isolates the bearings from the frame and spindle in a nylon cup...

 

[Pikey]

Well, the lbs are gonna sort it for the grand sum of forty quid, whilst I fanny about trying to decide whether to buy the tools or converters.

They seemed quite surprised that I had got about 2k miles out of the stock bearings before they went gritty, apparently it's less on average.

Surprises me that cannondale dreamt up a system with such reliability issues really!

 

[smokeysmoo]

Surprises me that cannondale dreamt up a system with such reliability issues really!

Like a lot of innovation it was designed for the pro ranks.

And when your bike is stripped and re-built as often as theirs are it's never going to be a problem.

It's the average Joe that can't/won't/shouldn't have to fettle their bikes to that extent that suffers

 

[NormanD]

2000 miles I got 70 miles out of mine before I replaced them ... I switched them out myself for Sram bearing, but I'm up to and a little above 2000 miles and they are still running smooth ... I bought the removal tool, but I also bought one of THESE I know it'll not get used much, but it's been used for other stuff