Bottom Bracket Life

[raleighnut]

Talking of BB's - as we've had a pathetic amount of rain; its seen hubs 'washed' of grease AND now the BB ;/ which hasnt made me very happy! I've a GXP variant c.set/bb combo & got it apart earlier and discovered its possible to grease these upon levering the seal off with a sharp knife.

Question: how is it the plastic sheath that fit between the crank & the RH Cup - and acts as a seal: seems to space away from the cup/frame upon fitting even tho its pressed in as far as I can get it ! Its this 'gap' that i feel has let the rain into it. I'm astounded by the life of this GXP bb type...id expect far longer !!!! I truly regret not getting a campag c.set as the cartridge units are easier to fit.

Its not so much a point of preventing water getting in as letting it drain away afterwards throw away the plaggy bit and make cleaning regreasing the bottom bracket a regular (yearly?) maintenance task What I also do is to rotate the cranks a quarter turn each time as the case hardening nowadays is crap, In order to know the orientation of the crank on first disassembly I make a small mark with a hacksaw on the end of the shaft and then (having noted) where it is rotate clockwise on assembly. Grease does contain soap so it will always wash away

 

[lay]

I see your point but ive taken the SRAM Apex cranks off and replaced them with my spare cranks and a svelte TA Ti BB which has cassette bearings (lighter) so, so long SRAM - the cranks are ok; as for the BB's = back to the drawing board.