Bottom Bracket Life

[BigBadBrian]

I bought a new Trek 7.3 from Action Bikes in East Cheam in January this year. Since then I've done about 1500-2000 miles on it and the bottom bracket is now clunking and there is quite some side-to-side movement. I took the bike back to the shop on Sunday but they are now refusing to fix it under warranty saying that they would expect the bottom bracket to need replacing after that time due to normal wear and tear. They offered to service the bike and "tighten" the bottom bracket for £55.

Any advice?

 

[Blue Hills]

mm - interesting question - not sure if BBs carry any sort of warranty.

But I'd expect one to last way longer than that.

To get the measure of the standard of person you are talking to at the shop I'd ask what they mean by "tighten".

I'm assuming it's a sealed unit and that the side to side movement is due to the bearings having gone - nothing to tighten.

 

[swee'pea99]

Find a new bike shop. That's appalling - both the failure, at such low mileage, and the crap they're spinning you. BB wear depends on various factors, but I'd expect of the order of five times that mileage before even thinking about failure. As for 'tightening' the bottom bracket, what exactly are they proposing to do? If it's loose, that's clearly a fault in the build, and should certainly be covered under warranty.

I don't know, if it was me I'd be having a pretty firm conversation involving words like 'Trading Standards' and 'legal action'. (Is a bike that fails within six months of normal use 'fit for the purpose for which it was sold'? I'd like to see anyone argue any such thing.) I'd also contact Trek to get their take on it. They would surely not accept that one of their bikes would fail so fundamentally 'due to normal wear & tear' after just six months.

And like I say, find a new bike shop, and tell everyone you know what a bunch of cowboys

Action Bikes in East Cheam
are.

 

[BigBadBrian]

mm - interesting question - not sure if BBs carry any sort of warranty.

But I'd expect one to last way longer than that.

To get the measure of the standard of person you are talking to at the shop I'd ask what they mean by "tighten".

I'm assuming it's a sealed unit and that the side to side movement is due to the bearings having gone - nothing to tighten.

At the first bit of cluncking I took the crank off and tighten the sealed unit into the frame and for a few miles that did the trick but the clunck came back with a vengeance. To stop the mechaninc wasting my time I've asked him to replace the sealed unit which they quoted £50 for. Still not happy that this is needed within 2000 miles and they're not willing to do it under warranty.

 

[BigBadBrian]

Find a new bike shop. That's appalling - both the failure, at such low mileage, and the crap they're spinning you. BB wear depends on various factors, but I'd expect of the order of five times that mileage before even thinking about failure. As for 'tightening' the bottom bracket, what exactly are they proposing to do? If it's loose, that's clearly a fault in the build, and should certainly be covered under warranty.

I don't know, if it was me I'd be having a pretty firm conversation involving words like 'Trading Standards' and 'legal action'. (Is a bike that fails within six months of normal use 'fit for the purpose for which it was sold'? I'd like to see anyone argue any such thing.) I'd also contact Trek to get their take on it. They would surely not accept that one of their bikes would fail so fundamentally 'due to normal wear & tear' after just six months.

And like I say, find a new bike shop, and tell everyone you know what a bunch of cowboys

Action Bikes in East Cheam
are.

Don't know where I am today its Action Bikes in North Sheen. east Cheam was where Tony Hancock lived with Sid James.

 

[RecordAceFromNew]

At the first bit of cluncking I took the crank off and tighten the sealed unit into the frame and for a few miles that did the trick but the clunck came back with a vengeance. To stop the mechaninc wasting my time I've asked him to replace the sealed unit which they quoted £50 for. Still not happy that this is needed within 2000 miles and they're not willing to do it under warranty.

Interesting. IF the bike/chainset is the same as this then according to Shimano the bb is a 123mm UN26, probably for a 68mm bb shell, which you can purchase for the princely sum of £10 incl p&p (not that I would recommend it, un54/55 are better). Given the bike is within warranty period, and given a trained monkey can change it in 15 minutes, £50 is certainly more than a little rich, in my view.

Poor show on their part.

 

[Blue Hills]

Yes I'd spend the money on the Park Big Blue Book of Bike Maintance, the tools and the bit and do it yourself. Maybe a silver lining in this - you'll save heaps in the future doing your own stuff.

 

[Profpointy]

i'd be inclined to put it down to experience and either replace / repair it yourself, or get a decent shop to sort it. By the sound of it your shop doesn't have a clue and / or fobbing you off, so even if you stick it to 'em with trading standards, what sort of job will they actually do under duress? Whilst it's clearly piss-poor , sometimes you actually do better to let it go rather than getting a lot of hassle over a matter of principle. if you walk away at least not a penny more will fall out of your wallet onto their till, but years' worth of bike spend will find it's way into someone else's till.

 

[the_mikey]

I can strongly recommend learning to replace the bottom bracket yourself, or at least find a better local bike shop to do your work for you.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

For £50 I''d want the BB and the tools to replace it. The original BB fitted will not have been of the best quality and 2000 miles is not bad. esp if the bike saw winter use.

 

[BigBadBrian]

Thanks for all your replies. I told the bike shop to replace the bottom bracket with the best one available they're going to charge me £50 for it fitted but at least the bike is ready to take it to Brighton on Saturday night as I won't get the time to do the job myself. I have contacted TREK and logged a comment about the service received from their registered dealer. Needless to say from now on for bikes, parts, service and accessories for me and my partner its a case of anywhere but Action Bikes in North Sheen. I only went there in the first place because they had good stock of TREK bikes to replace the one I liked which was destroyed by a careless driver at a mini-roundabout. From now on Holdsworths in Putney and t'interweb get my trade. You live & learn.

 

[fossyant]

The UN26 is pretty pants. I tend to get the UN54/55. My MTB does chew the UN54 up, but the Fixed hasn't yet in 4 years.

I assume the bearings have 'play'. That's how they usually go. They develop play before any major noises. Some of the clicking can be because the BB has come loose, that requires you to remove cranks, then the the non-drive side locking sleave, then remove the BB from the drive side, re-grease and re-assemble.

 

[swee'pea99]

For £50 I''d want the BB and the tools to replace it. The original BB fitted will not have been of the best quality and 2000 miles is not bad. esp if the bike saw winter use.

2000 miles is terrible. BBs do vary in quality, but no BB should die that quickly - and with a sealed unit, I really can't see how the season comes into the equation. Nor do I understand how Trek get away with fitting a BB that bad to a £500 bike - if they did. You might expect it with some £99.99 BSO from Argos, but not a £500 bike from a proper 'name' maker.

 

[HLaB]

I bought a new Trek 7.3 from Action Bikes in East Cheam in January this year. Since then I've done about 1500-2000 miles on it and the bottom bracket is now clunking and there is quite some side-to-side movement. I took the bike back to the shop on Sunday but they are now refusing to fix it under warranty saying that they would expect the bottom bracket to need replacing after that time due to normal wear and tear. They offered to service the bike and "tighten" the bottom bracket for £55.

Any advice?

The lbs is talking out of their proverbial @ss my kinesis has done 25,000 miles and the bb has only been replaced once and tbh I cant say 100% that was necessary. The Sirrus now on the turbo got replaced after about 10k road miles and Ridgeback (circa 6000miles iirc and cheap Viking fixie (5000miles) have never needed a new BB all those bikes have been exposed to the best of British winters.

 

[MontyVeda]

i spent a tenner on a sealed BB in 2001ish.... no idea what the mileage I've done in that time but well over 2K. I bought a replacement a couple of years ago when it started to creak, but that turned out to be the cranks, as have all subsequent creaks.... I'm still waiting for the BB to actually 'go'.

And the service you received is well shoddy... all too often, LBS means local bull sh!t