Your latest bike purchase?

[TwoWheelsDC]

@hozn 108443 wrote:

I hope you have better luck than @Dirt or myself had with those BBs. I was thinking this was going to be the best long-term solution, but mine was completely destroyed after 9k miles, which included complete regressing (using their $70 grease fitting tool!!) every 2-3k miles. And then they were going ti replace it for me, but it had welded itself to my frame during that time (note: use anti-seize! grease is not sufficient if you won’t be taking it out and regressing it every few thousand miles) so the threads were destroyed. I threw it in the trash and went back to regular cartridge bearing BBs.

On the other hand, they do look nice. You could get a red Hope BB or one of those fancy Enduro cartridge bearing BBs, which also come in red. I have no idea why CK thought that cartridge bearings were a bad idea…

And of course, you are welcome to borrow (or probably have) my grease port tool for that CK BB should you decide to keep it.

I think Dirt’s experiences with those was worse than mine.

Well, I suspect it’s not going to see nearly as much abuse from me as it would from you (it’d take at least 3 years for me to put 9k on that bike), so we’ll see how it works out. I’ve not been impressed with the GXP BB that came with the crankset and what I’ve read seems to back that up…so at this point I’m excited for any upgrade.

[hozn]

Yeah, it is true that 9k is a lot of miles. But you do have to regrease them to get more life than a standard GXP BB, so they aren’t too much less maintenance (and they cost 4-5x as much as a GXP BB). So far the best solution for me has been standard GXP (or Shimano) cups with Enduro bearings.

[Harry Meatmotor]

@TwoWheelsDC 108444 wrote:

Well, I suspect it’s not going to see nearly as much abuse from me as it would from you (it’d take at least 3 years for me to put 9k on that bike), so we’ll see how it works out. I’ve not been impressed with the GXP BB that came with the crankset and what I’ve read seems to back that up…so at this point I’m excited for any upgrade.

counterpoint – I’ve got about 15k miles on mine and zero issues.

[hozn]

@Harry Meatmotor 108455 wrote:

counterpoint – I’ve got about 15k miles on mine and zero issues.

I am glad there is a counterpoint, as it was hard to fathom CK making such junk. Are those all-weather miles? Do you repack the grease on a (shorter) schedule?

[Harry Meatmotor]

@hozn 108458 wrote:

I am glad there is a counterpoint, as it was hard to fathom CK making such junk. Are those all-weather miles? Do you repack the grease on a (shorter) schedule?

only mostly nice weather – haven’t touched it other than to swap cranksets a couple times, which really isn’t doing much with the BB per se. on my commuter bike I’ve been running cheapo sram GXP bb’s and got about 9k miles of abuse out of the first. second bb is doing fine with about 3k on it so far. So maybe I tend to be “nice” to my bottom brackets. YMMV.

[hozn]

Yeah, I think you are in a special BB category. I am envious! I get the life of a cassette out of a BB, maybe a little more, but never more than 5k that I can remember. I have little tolerance for clicking and creaking sounds, though. I think I weigh more than you, though, if I remember right, so likely that is a factor. And it is possible I get more life out of my nicer-weather road bike, though it is starting to click and it hasn’t been quite 3k miles, I don’t think.

I am sure you used anti-seize on the CK BB, but you might want to consider reapplying. It really did completely destroy the threads trying to remove mine after ~ 1 year (granted, I only used grease and it was a ti frame).

[TwoWheelsDC]

Aw yissss! I guess I’ll have to wait and see how well this holds up over the next few thousand miles, but for now it’s a huge improvement over the lanky GXP BB. Much smoother through the pedal stroke and much quieter, but I can tell the biggest difference when backpedaling. It also looks awesome.

[DismalScientist]

Where’s the road salt?

[TwoWheelsDC]

@DismalScientist 109058 wrote:

Where’s the road salt?

Gave it a sponge bath when I had it taken apart. It was caked in salt since it spent 10 hours on the top of the car driving through the snowy mess back from NC.

[mstone]

Snow, schmo. The roads are surrounded by a literal haze of suspended salt dust–I look forward to some precipitation to clean things up.

[Starduster]

The Trek got something new:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]7914[/ATTACH]

For the first time since my commuting days with The Bicycle Exchange, fenders. For a more civilized experience when it rains. These are by SKS Germany. Called Commuter II on the packaging, they appear on the SKS site as Bluemels. SKS has of course taken over the highly regarded ESGE Chromoplastics fenders, but earlier, they aquired the British brand Bluemels. (Bailey Garfield @ Papillon Cycles had thought that the brand disappeared forever.) Same laminated plastic over aluminum construction, at a lower price point comparable (or under) to the Planet Bike Hardcore fenders. Still has the emergency quick release on the front wheel. My experience will testify that is important.

Available at Papillon Cycles and elsewhere.

[dkel]

Nearly that time:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]7981[/ATTACH]

3700 miles on the current chain, and it’s pretty near .75: I’d call that a good run. I will probably wait to make the swap until I have time to take off the cassette and really clean it, though as I’ve never done that before, nor do I have the tools required, that may be a longer wait than I’d like.

[hozn]

That is good — I am lucky if I can get 3.7k out of 2 chains! I replace them (shortly) after they measure 0.50, though.

[dbb]

@dkel 109857 wrote:

Nearly that time:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]7981[/ATTACH]

3700 miles on the current chain, and it’s pretty near .75: I’d call that a good run. I will probably wait to make the swap until I have time to take off the cassette and really clean it, though as I’ve never done that before, nor do I have the tools required, that may be a longer wait than I’d like.

I have a chain whip wrench and a cassette tool if you want to meet at FCCII. There are likely to be closer tools to you as well. Your call.

[dkel]

@hozn 109859 wrote:

That is good — I am lucky if I can get 3.7k out of 2 chains! I replace them (shortly) after they measure 0.50, though.

Why so early? Also, do you think it’s worth the effort taking the cassette off and thoroughly degreasing it?

[Author]

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