dhender02

To make a long story short, I purchased a Felt Z85 this October. I have ridden it about 400 miles now. Anyway, two weeks ago did a club ride in DE, that was misty raining the entire ride. I also drove home about an hour with the bike on the rack in such weather condition. The following Saturday about halfway through my 40 mile ride I started hearing a clunking sound coming from crank area, but it was sporadic and intermittent. After the ride, I took my bike to the LBS where I purchased it and he torque the crank. The next day (Sunday) I did another 40 mile ride again with no issue. Now fast forward to yesterday 6 days since my last ride, the noise returned. This time it was consistent, and it always happened when the left pedal was at the top of the rotation. Took it back to my LBS he removed the BB, cleaned, grease, and pack it. Told me the BB had a lot of crud & dirt in it. In addition, he said that riding & hauling it in the rain probably contributed heavily to the problem. This doesn't make sense since I've only ridden it 400 miles, and I only ride on asphalt roads. Also i have a Trek FX 2.3 hybrid that I've owned for over 2 years and 1000+ miles but never had a problem with BB. Heck, i didn't even know what a BB was until yesterday!

My question, is this possible that my BB could be this dirty, this fast, to cause an issue based on the type riding I do (mainly a weekend riding 12-40miles on asphalt)?

10 Wheels

Did you see the dirt?

dhender02

Naw, I left the bike with him and came back several hours later...

10 Wheels

My Felt F-80 lasted 18,000 miles before the BB went bad.

dhender02

My BB wasn't bad, just needed to be cleaned, greased, and re-pack, only after 400 miles or so. Not normal, right? Is there something I should be doing to prevent this from happening again?

Big Lebowski

I too have a 2013 Felt Z85. I had issues with the rear hub, but not the bottom bracket,

As for dirt in there after under 500 miles, no that's not normal. Perhaps whoever assembled the bike the first time did not use a torque wrench to properly set it.

dhender02

Ahh haa! When I took my bike back for the 100 miles break-in checkup it was re-torque while i waited. I recalled saying I was surprise how much he had to torque it... it was as though the screw was loose!! Compared to when it was torqued 300 miles later (just a couple weeks ago when it was making the clucking sound intermittently), it was just slightly, if any, torqued. I bet that was the culprit! The majority of the dirt/crud probably was picked up during my first 100 miles when the torque was loose. So maybe it took another 300 miles and/or the misty rain ride I did a few weeks ago finally caused the dirt/crud to clump together to start making noises... Thanks Big Lebowski!!

reddog3

By the nature of it's design BB30 bottom bracket bearings can be damaged from the outset due to improper shell tolerances and installation procedures, Compound that with the FSA OEM bearing quality (not) and it's possible some work needs to be done early. I've seen some not last 400 miles, and others which roll along for a good long time. An overhaul using a good bearing (like Enduro Abec5) and checking to insure tolerances meet the "BB30 Standard" and proper install procedures will cure your ills. BTW- the "BB30 Standard" is published online so the mechanic will know what tolerances are required.

dhender02

Thanks for the info!!

tahoeeddie

i hope that you have gotten this fixed... but there are a couple of things that i thought i might mention, and maybe they might be helpful. from what i understand about bb30, they are pressed bearings. so there shouldn't be any loose parts. i'm not sure what the LBS was doing when you said that they were torquing the bb. where they pressing it tighter? this seems like an odd thing to do. i would imagine that they might pull the seals off, clean and grease the bearings. but additional torque seems puzzling to me. if the bearings were not pressed in squarely, or somehow manufactured improperly, they might not fit snuggly into the BB of your bike. likewise, if there was some defect on the frame in the BB, then it could cause bearings to not seat properly. but you'd know this right away. i've had experience with cheap bottom brackets, and in my experience they need to be replaced more often than the cartridge bottom brackets. but they do perform better (stiffer). anyway, i hope that you have resolved this problem and it won't rear it's ugly head again for a while... maybe a year or so. 400 miles should not require a maintenance checkpoint. maybe every couple of months you'll want to service it. and then replace every so often. i've seen maintenance guides that say to replace the BB every 6 months (i think that's overkill). i've had bikes that i never replaced the BB (over 10 years), and bikes where i have to replace them every 9 months.

hueyhoolihan

i would think that most of the problem was related to the hauling in the rain than anything else... a lot depends on how exposed the BB is to the elements.