Street Pedaler

Hi, y'all, here's a new one.

Sunday afternoon I went out for a late ride. About 9 miles in, I started hearing a HORRIBLE popping/ crunching noise coming from somewhere on my bike (Madone 5.2). It got so loud that I could actually feel it and I was afraid that my frame was about to fail.

I got it to a school parking lot and looked it over best I could and couldn't see anything visibly wrong. Called my friend to pick me up and, on Monday morning, took the bike in to the lbs.

The guys test rode it and heard/ felt what I was talking about but couldn't quite track it down. So I left it there for them to tear down and try to see what's up.

I just spoke with the Mechanic and he told me that the non-drive side bearing in the Bottom Bracket and completely asploded and fell out in chunks and pieces. Nobody at the lbs had ever seen anything like it (which makes me feel pretty unique, lol). They actually took pictures of it! lol.

Anyway, Trek has a new bearing inbound and under warranty and I should have it back Friday evening.

Kind of an odd situation and I thought I'd share.

I_like_cereal

What type of BB?
I had an ISIS that locked on one side due to water and poor seals.

Street Pedaler

Cereal, it's the BB-90

I_like_cereal

Is the 90 the integrated BB or does it have external bearings? I can't keep up with all this new fangled gear.

Either way it is odd.

Seattle Forrest

But your frame is ok, right?

Street Pedaler

Seattle, yeah. The frame is fine and, with the exception of the bearing, the BB is fine, too, thanks. Guess it could have been much worse.

Street Pedaler

Cereal, the BB-90 is the integrated BB.

CraigB

Jethro55, another poster here, has a new Madone that was making a clunking noise with the rotation of the pedals. He took it in, and if my memory is correct, the LBS found that the BB had been assembled without grease of any kind.

Street Pedaler

Craig, I think I remember reading that. Apparently, that wasn't the problem in this particular case. The only explanation they could give me was a defective bearing. Like I said, they'd never seen anything like it, either. I'm just lucky that way, I suppose. lol

Rona

My son did that recently. I pulled apart the BB and little metal pieces came out. Luckily it's just an old fashioned bottom bracket and not a cartridge. New ball bearings and some grease, he was okay.

I never was able to get the drive side BB unfrozen, so when the day comes for a new bottom bracket it's gonna have to go the shop for a pro to deal with.

Haff

Back in my twenties when I was stronger and did more with the bikes I used to destroy bottom brackets at a rate of about 1 every 4 months. Sometimes I would crack a bearing or ten, sometimes I would bend the main shaft, sometimes twist-snap it. But they never lasted long. I started searching everywhere for stronger brackets. Eventually I had a friend of mine who owned his own metal shop custom fab one for me that was easily twice as beefy as anything I could buy. We also modified the bike so it would accept roller bearings (think cylinders) instead of ball bearings. That held for 4 years until I got hit by a truck and had a wheel and my left crank arm, as well as the bottom bracket destroyed. By then my friend had moved west, so I didn't have him to make me a new one. I ended up going back to an off-the-shelf BB again and had to modify the bike back to accept it. Then a couple months later I blew my knee out and didnt touch the bike for a decade. I ride a recumbent now, so that BB is still in there and appears largely intact.

one note.... any imperfection in the metal of any of the bearings, or the surfaces they ride on could lead to a chipped or shattered ball, and once one goes it doesn't take much to destroy the others. Make sure that when they get ready to put the new BB in they clean everything inside down to a spit-polish shine, and they lube everything properly or it will happen again.

squirtdad

if you need to ever do it the sheldon brown hardware store extractor works https://www.sheldonbrown.com/tooltips/bbcups.html

Doohickie

Asploded is one of the coolest words to come out of teh intarwebz.



Just sayin'.

CraigB

It is a fun word, but I've used it longer than the web's been around. In fact, I thought I was the only one until I read it here.

Rona

That was my next step actually, but I gave up on it because by that time I had damaged my knuckles and was getting in a right temper fit. There are times it's just better to take the frame to someone else and cry for help.

zoste

I was wondering what school taught that kind of vocabulary.

Street Pedaler

Now you know.