rydabent

I am beginning to wonder how many miles is anyone getting out of the newer bikes with sealed hubs and BBs? My Rans Stratus has around 15,000 miles on it. So far I can detect no noise or roughness from the bearings? The wheels and BB turn with absolute smoothness.

Advise.

OshkoshBiker

I only got 3400 miles out of an FSA BB before I installed a Shimano as recommendation from Trek.

HillRider

I've never had sealed bearing hubs but I have had several Shimano sealed bottom brackets including square taper and Octalink and one Campy Chorus square taper cartridge. I've never had one fail, even the BB-6500 Octalink I have with over 38,000 miles (yes, 38 Thousand. It's not a typo.). Most of the others were ridden for 20,000+ miles and replaced only because of crank upgrades, not failures. I also have two high mileage sealed bearing threadless headsets, a Chris King with 33,000 miles and an FSA Orbit with 36,000 miles, miles and they are both still absolutely smooth. I'm still a fan of cup-and-cone hubs but much prefer sealed bearings everywhere else.

deacon mark

Both my bikes external BB have 10000 miles nothing done and spend smooth and free. Wheels the same but I built my own with novatec hubs.

Moral of of story I want a BSA thread bb on my bike no press fit. I don't purposely ride in the rain so generally dry.

Andy_K 

Sounds about right. I've had two FSA MegaExo bottom brackets and they both had a cup go bad in under 3500 miles.

I haven't had a Shimano external BB go bad on me yet, so I can't say what kind of mileage I get from them. I've got about 5300 miles on the Tiagra BB on my daily commuter, including a lot of rainy rides and its still going strong.

I had a set of wheels with SRAM X.9 hubs, not sure what the bearings are except that they are cartridge type. After about 8000 miles one of the rims failed. The hubs still spin like butter. I never needed to service them.

Then there is the Chris King headset on my cyclocross race bike. I bought the bike used and have raced six seasons (over 100 races) with it and I've never felt the need to open it up and even check the condition of the bearings. I should probably do that sometime. There's probably mud in there somewhere, but it still feels smooth.

fietsbob

Sold My Phil freewheel Hub / specialized front hubs wheel set after 10 years of Touring IDK what the total Miles were ..
they were still fine ..
Replaced the original wheels on the SBI expedition, I still have those wheels.. since 1985.

'Newer' is relative .., you got specific range of dates in mind?

travbikeman

My 2015 Specialized Crosstrail Sport only had about 800 miles on it before having to replace the BB. I got The Shimano UN55. Much smoother riding!

Just listen to the old BB: 151031_181514_zpsacgjrj5m.mp4 Video by tdpowers34 | Photobucket

andr0id

My first generation DA and Ultegra external Hollowtech II BB bearings lasted about 3000 miles. The plastic inner sleeves cracked and they were getting rough. My LBS pressed in some Eduro replacement bearings that lasted about 10,000 miles before they got dry.

I have about 3000 miles on BBR60 (Ultegra 6800) and it is still very smooth. I think the latest generation is better.

Same with early PowerTap sealed bearings. They were crap and started grinding in less 3,000 miles.

The new bearings with the 15mm axle seem more robust and have stayed smooth for 6,000 miles.

I also have a Dura Ace 7800 loose ball front hub that I haven't service in about 5 years and it's still smooth as can be. Sometimes I feel guilty about not greasing it, but I kind of want to see how long it will go without touching it.

hueyhoolihan

i've had a couple fail that were used when i bought them, but i can honestly say that in the 20 years i've been buying new bike parts that contain sealed cartridge bearings, and that includes hubs, headsets and bottom brackets, i've never had one fail.

and that's a fact, Jack.

https://youtu.be/J3I97IFc_zU i suppose i should mention that i've been riding in sunny California for the past 20 years, not in the Olympic peninsula.

cyccommute 

I'll tell you when one fails. Don't hold your breath. A couple of the of my bottom brackets, hubs and headsets are between 10,000 and 16,000 miles. They aren't showing any signs of wear yet.

noglider 

The mean time between failures is very high, but some fail prematurely. I was fixing up my kid's friend's bike, and the bottom bracket had high resistance and made loud noises. I brought it to the bike shop, and they said yup, they see that from time to time. It was a cartridge bearing BB, so just swap a replacement in. Chances are, it won't happen to you, and if it does, no big deal.

It's interesting that Shimano still uses loose cup-and-race bearings in their hubs. I'm sure there is a rationale for it.

Joe Minton

The Shimano cup-and-cone hubs can carry heavier loads because of the size of the bearings and races. They also have rather good seals and grease. Then, there is the excellent Shimano quality. Together, these things make for smooth, long-lived hubs.

Joe

Plimogz

I just changed the external BB which came stock on my Deore crankset, after about 3500 miles. I'm going to look into buying some new cartridges to press into the old cups, but considering what a couple of bearings are likely to cost me VS how much Shimano charges for the XT SM-BB70 unit I replaced it with... I dunno.

In the meantime, the XT hubs I built up at the same time as the above mentioned BB, though they have a few less miles than the BB (3000-ish) -- I cleaned and loaded up with new balls and grease this past week-end and are looking and feeling like new, save for a neat and smooth wear-line on the cones. So far so good.

Kimmo 

BTW, most pedals are loose ball... come to think of it, I don't think I've ever found cartridge bearings inside a pedal.

HillRider

Speedplay uses cartridge-type both needle and ball bearing in their pedals. They aren't "sealed" but they are cartridges.

Andrew R Stewart 

Just about all the big brand clipless pedals (excepting Shimano) use cartridge bearings (or bushings). And pedals are, perhaps, the most neglected bearinged part on your bike. Even the lowly bushinged der pulley gets more talk then pedal bearings do.


The second issue I take pause with is the use of the term "fail" when describing parts wearing out. Gosh even humans wear out but you won't hear of knee failures... Andy.

Spoonrobot 

Do you ride in the rain/wet? Hubs are pretty well insulated from rain but the bb gets a pretty constant spray without fenders and even with fenders can get a pretty good soaking from time to time. The grit from damp/wet roads can really reduce the life of a sealed bb.

I had about 12,000 miles on a set of formula sealed hubs and bottom bracket with no issues. Never rode in the rain and they rolled slightly smoother than when they were new but otherwise essentially unchanged.

I've killed a FSA bb in less than 1,000 miles. Mainly due to the 150 or so miles on wet gravel/dirt roads. Bearings were rough and the spindle was loose.

I blasted all lubrication out of another FSA sealed bb after riding it for several hundred cumulative miles in heavy rain. When I finally changed it out it was completely dry and the bearings would hardly turn by hand pressure. I actually saw a significant improvement in speed/perception of effort with a new bb.

noglider 

In the 80's SunTour Superbe pedals had cartridge bearings.

Kimmo 

All the clipless pedals I've disassembled had the same setup: a sleeve with loose-ball cups on each end that's press-fit into the hub body via threaded sleeve. Not that I've disassembled a whole lot of pedals, though...


Definitely neglected in the shop, too...

Kimmo 

I think they had hubs with those too.

DannoXYZ 

I've got over 50k-miles on my Mavic 500/501 hubs. Many, many races in the rain. Never been serviced or bearings replaced.

On the ActionTec BB, original generic bearings lasted about 10k. I suspect the flexible titanium spindle applied some non-radial loads. Anyway, replaced them with SKF bearings and they're still going strong at 25k-miles.

Homebrew01

How can bearings go bad under 4000 miles ?? That's crazy.

rydabent

I might add, I never ride in the wet. I know full well that "sealed bearing" are not truely sealed. They are like a "water proof" watch that now because of truth in advertising is now called water resistant.

HillRider

How do you avoid it unless you only ride infrequently and pick your days carefully? I try to avoid riding my "good" bikes in the rain but do get caught once in a while. I have a "rain bike" for those days when rain seems certain or the roads are still wet.


As you mentioned, sealed bearings aren't sealed enough to be immersible but are very water resistant if some care is taken. Cup-and-cone hubs (Shimano's in particular) well filled with good grease can go thousand and thousands of miles between overhauls with no problems even ridden frequently in the rain. I have a pair of older Dura Ace hubs with over 55,000 miles on the original races and cones, still in excellent condition and used for many, many rainy rides.

BTW, there are truly waterproof watches available, commonly sold as "Divers Watches", that will take full immersion to significant depth with no problems. You just have to know what you are buying.

DannoXYZ 

There are also many types of seals in cartridge bearings: single rubber seals, double rubber seals, metal seals, labyrinth seals, etc.

I'm still fond of the Campy Record BB with the non-contact spirals in the cup. Did a darn good job of keeping the dirt and water out.