At the moment i am avoiding anything but regular english BB standard (BSA threaded), had pressfit on my Pivot 429 and luckily they caused no issues, i like to have some back up spares and really CBF'd with all the BB bull$hit. Why does everyone need to make their own size ? I understand going out with a new "standard" for performance tweaks even if some of us think its negligible but BB's are getting out of control.
Conventional threaded
BB90/BB95
PF86/92
BB30
PF30
BBright
BB386 EVO
Threaded external cups.. just not those pressfit BS please....
Have a tendency to strip down bikes frequently - external bb makes things easier and keeping bearings alive with periodic regreasing.
At the moment i am avoiding anything but regular english BB standard (BSA threaded), had pressfit on my Pivot 429 and luckily they caused no issues, i like to have some back up spares and really CBF'd with all the BB bull$hit. Why does everyone need to make their own size ? I understand going out with a new "standard" for performance tweaks even if some of us think its negligible but BB's are getting out of control.
Conventional threaded
BB90/BB95
PF86/92
BB30
PF30
BBright
BB386 EVO
Im using SKF ISIS BB's on 2 bikes and regular hollowtech style external on the other 2, they are all the same BB threads, i can unscrew the ISIS and fit an external in minuets, simplicity.
You look at a frame these days and there a big fu#%in gaping hole where the BB is meant to go... its like, WTF goes in that hole ? .... "oh that would be press fit 30"
Just wondering what you prefer. Internal BB or the External Cups.
I think most everyone is off coarse here, this is the Fat forum and to my knowledge (which is limited btw) there is no bb30 pf30 bb95 etc. It basically depends what crank you want to use, most are using external like the Surly, Raceface, and FSA but there are a few internal like some of the Truvative (junk bb) and the Middleburn which you could use a Phil Woods BB and is pretty kick a$$$$. You can still find a few ISIS bb's as well but in the end the Phil would be the only internal I would go with.
Heaven help the day that the new fatbtike standard is bb30 . I am currently in a spot where I either need to replace my current isis bb or pony up and spend some coin on a nicer external threaded cup bb/crank combo. 36 bucks for the fsa platinum dh bb or 200 for the race face turbine cranks bb....
The obsession of wheels fused with the passion of cycling
I hated ISIS when it was what there was to have. Went through 1 a year, no matter the "quality level." I thought Ex-bearing was a godsend. Easy to work on and trouble free to a much larger degree. I've had Truvative Gigas on both of my Fatties because I've so far resisted the lure of $3-400 crank sets,... and not a lick of trouble with them. Frankly, I'm surprised. They seem to work just fine so far. I know I'm due for a service, but these can be knocked apart and new bearings installed easily. Cheap makes me happy. Works is a bonus!
Most people ply the Well Trodden Path. A few seek a different way, and leave a Trail behind.
- John Hajny, a.k.a. TrailMaker
The SKF ISIS BB's have a 10yr guarantee, run on roller bearings... IMO the sweetest BB on the planet.
Im SKF ISIS/Middleburns on two, If they did them in 100mm wide i would have had one on my fatty too instead of middleburn x-type.
BTW i went through 3 in 1 year, 1 x CB's and 2 x FSA platinum, then splashed out on the SKF, now been about 4 years on one and 2-3yrs on the other. The are a bit exy but worth the extra for the no hassle riding.
Just wondering what you prefer. Internal BB or the External Cups.
My Pugs is rolling on a Phil Wood internal BB and it's been really low maintenance given the conditions the bike has seen. I wouldn't be in any hurry to put an external BB on that bike.
My Pugs is rolling on a Phil Wood internal BB and it's been really low maintenance given the conditions the bike has seen. I wouldn't be in any hurry to put an external BB on that bike.
Anyone know if it's possible to use a Phil Wood on a Moonlander?
I hated ISIS when it was what there was to have. Went through 1 a year, no matter the "quality level." I thought Ex-bearing was a godsend. Easy to work on and trouble free to a much larger degree. I've had Truvative Gigas on both of my Fatties because I've so far resisted the lure of $3-400 crank sets,... and not a lick of trouble with them. Frankly, I'm surprised. They seem to work just fine so far. I know I'm due for a service, but these can be knocked apart and new bearings installed easily. Cheap makes me happy. Works is a bonus!
My Pugs is rolling on a Phil Wood internal BB and it's been really low maintenance given the conditions the bike has seen. I wouldn't be in any hurry to put an external BB on that bike.
its too bad phil doesnt make an isis bb. From what I have read, any isis that fits a Fatty has a relatively short life expectancy.....
The obsession of wheels fused with the passion of cycling
If I read all of that correctly, wow... that's a great deal. Probably not the lightest fanciest shazzamy set of cranks out there, but... I don't spend much time worrying about my cranks as long as they WORK. I might be temped to say it is ever-so-slightly cheezy that they don't come with rings - add $30-40 - but... still seems like a deal I would look at seriously, and ex-bearing no less.
Did I mention that I am a crankset cheapskate?
Like I said, I not only read about but have lived the ISIS annoyance and failure lifestyle. However, the ones on the fatties are trending the opposite for me... so far.
Most people ply the Well Trodden Path. A few seek a different way, and leave a Trail behind.
- John Hajny, a.k.a. TrailMaker
The Specialized Fatboy has a PF30 BB. I've had issues with the PF30 setup on my All-City Mr. Pink, and hate all the possible adapters. I prefer a threaded shell!
I have not had issues with my ISIS Howitzer BB on my fat bike though, and that's with 3 years of hard riding with zero maintenance.
BB30 was a nightmare due to the machining tolerances of the BB shell. If not reamed properly, there would be too much static load on the bearings, and they would not last long. However, PF30, with the pressed in fiber cups work very well, we use it on thousands of bikes every year. Biggest issue is creaking, but that is a matter of greasing the alloy spindle properly. Dry aluminum fretting on dry aluminum will creak (like crazy).
As mentioned above, Specialized will use PF30 when their Mk1 bikes come out.
For our MK3 bikes, we have developed a 100mm PF30 crankset with Samox. The weight saving of the alloy axle is even bigger on a fatbike than a regular MTB, naturally.
Another advantage is that the chainline is real easy to tune. Since the bearings are inboard, we run a 12mm (approx) spacers where the GXP type setups have bearings. That makes it super easy to add/subtract spacers on each side for the perfect chainline. We use a spring washer (like f.ex. FSA do on their road cranks) instead of the clumsy and heavy preload nuts often seen on BB30/PF30.
I hated ISIS when it was what there was to have. Went through 1 a year, no matter the "quality level." I thought Ex-bearing was a godsend. Easy to work on and trouble free to a much larger degree. I've had Truvative Gigas on both of my Fatties because I've so far resisted the lure of $3-400 crank sets,... and not a lick of trouble with them. Frankly, I'm surprised. They seem to work just fine so far. I know I'm due for a service, but these can be knocked apart and new bearings installed easily. Cheap makes me happy. Works is a bonus!
The backstory on that is that shimano patented their octalink splined BB with two outboard bearings and two inboard needle-bearings, allowing for a very durable BB and compact shape. To "compete", the manufacturers that would be later known for ISIS got together and came up with an idea that also used a splined axle, but they didn't have enough space to really put bearings in there, and so started the repeating game of replacing ISIS BBs/bearings. Much later, Tuvativ and others "gave up" and made the ISIS BB into a pseudo-external BB setup with quad bearings, weighed around a pound, but totally solved the problems of the ISIS setup. I had a howitzer BB on two DH bikes in the last few years and never had any problem, but that's kind of what it took to beat that original octalink BB. Of course the octalink didn't last and we moved to much bigger bearings in general that could better deal with the loads, but PF/BB30 seems to be a step back, as the bearings really aren't in there as solidly and there are just too many "loose" parts to eliminate creaking. Press-fits are usually a bad idea, as removing and resetting them wears the interface, so if you get creaking or have to rebuild the bearings often (like I do in the summer environment we have) it makes the problem worse and worse, because more play will lead to even shorter bearing life, etc, more worn surfaces, etc.
Unfortunately, because of the proliferation of carbon bikes, I think BB30 will survive for quite some time, but eventually shimano will come up with a more bullet-proof system/BB for it.
"It's only when you stand over it, you know, when you physically stand over the bike, that then you say 'hey, I don't have much stand over height', you know"-T. Ellsworth
I just want some god damn teflon sealed bearings for the e13 Hive BB. Who's the idiot who designed this crap
The bearings in my e13 BB (XCX crank) appear to be sealed just fine, and I've got close to 2K miles on them with no problems. Maybe they changed the design? Also, have you seen these? EXTERNAL CUP BB30 BOTTOM BRACKET FROM REAL WORLD CYCLING
Kinda pricey, but at least there's an alternative.
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Originally Posted by ozzybmx
