Rambler

Alright, I took my Kona back because I thought I had fuxored it, but it turns out it was already mangled or something. The guys there regreased and lubed my bottom bracket, and it was fine. It's acting up again with creaking noises and the pedals actually can move up and down. When it was regreased and cleaned and **** it was fine afterwards. Stiff as a nail.

Anyway, how much is one in canadian prices? I don't think it's worth it for me to drive down to Toronto again to get them to warranty me a new one. Too much aggravation and gas money. And it's pissing me off to no end. A week after they did everything it started again.

Granted I was driving in the water on a sandy beach, but **** that, I've done it on all my previous bikes. And they were junkers.

Thanks for the info.

Maelstrom 

I assume jack**** pedals? They are crap. Lasted me two weeks. (is it the pedal or the cranks that move up and down)

Is there movement in the bb or just creaking? Also you can't really fix a bb. If it blew they probably did what they could but replacing it is a best bet.

www.bikeroom.com

Look at fsa bb's. Awesome, strong and cheap.

Cornish_Rdr_UK

Usually if a BB starts Creaking, then its a sign that its on the way out, and will need replacing...

Look at Raceface if u can afford that and as A2 said, FSA are good

a2psyklnut

You need some more coffee (or tea) something with more caffeine. Maelstrom said it, not me, but heck I'll take the credit for it if Mael doesn't mind.

I'm using the Truvative Gigapipe on my bike. No problems as of yet. I've had it since around December or Jan. can't remember.

L8R

Raiyn

Y-O-U is it that hard? You've been asked nicely before. </offtopic>
Truvativ makes an excellent BB in my opinion

Cornish_Rdr_UK

Sorry Raiyn

And yeh, Truvativ make a good BB, im running Truvativ BB and cranks on my bike atm, and after a year, they are now starting to go..

And A2, i knew i forgot my coffee Sorry Mael

Rambler

Hmm ok, thanks guys. The pedal cranks are moving up and down, but the movement to me is derived from the crank. I assumed the BB was on the way out when I first took it in and that's what I wanted replaced, but then the guys just regreased it, cleaned it out and then put it all back together and it worked fine.

Well... now it's doing it again and rawr, it's making me mad. I guess I'll just buy a new one depending upon how much it is. I mean hell, why not upgrade it now anyway as I don't want the new one I get warranted on it to blow away again.

The thing that upsets me the most is that it's been less than two months since the original purchase and the thing is shot. Yar matey.

I'm going to take it apart and make sure it's the bottom bracket though that needs to be replaced.

Creaking is a sympton of BB outage, what possibly else is? I'd like to try and match up some problems to ensure myself that I'm creating the fix. I'm not sure what else the bike dudes did when I took it back. Whether they also adjusted and tightened other crap on me or something.

Maelstrom 

The interface between the crank arm and bb might be a little loose. Some are known to creak.

Rambler

What are FSA bb's? I see some Shimano integrated BB's listing for 50 bucks. Anything cheaper? And is that what I need? I figure going in person is best as I'm sort of clueless about this. Have never had to replace a BB before, or really anything on a bike except the front fork.

Oh, and just to sound repetative, when it creaks, it moves at the same time. At first it's minor creaking, then after more use it turns into movement and creaking that is quite loud and basically creaks all the time.

Rambler

Hmm, so I would require a new one? What exactly does this mean?

Man, I thought I knew some stuff about bikes. :/

Maelstrom 

FSA is a brand. I prefer them to Shimano. I assume you have an isis bottom bracket which means you need to stick to Isis bb's. FSA and truvativ make good ones.

50$ cdn will get you a good solid bb.

The interface is simply where the bottom braket has a male end that sticks into the female end of the crank which is then tightened with a bolt. If it is slightly loose it will creak and move.

Maelstrom 

BTW The bb you need will depend on the crank/bb type you have. Do you know off hand?

Maelstrom 

These are all ISIS.

https://www.bikeroom.com/items.asp?Cc=1045

Rambler

I have no idea, I wish I did. I'm going to rip everything apart this weekend and check out what's going on in there and see if I can eyeball a problem. I should have done this right from the get go but I figured those guys would just hook me up with a new BB or something.

Thanks for the info., I'll reply later with some updated news as to what's going on with my bike. 50 bucks eh, meah! I guess if it's going to be much better than the stock one that came with it I should just go for it.

Maelstrom 

Take the cranks off and spin the spline by hand. Try and move the spline by hand. Thats one way to see...

late

If you want cheap, you want Shimano. Get up to 50-80 bucks and everybody makes a very nice BB. My Fuji needed a BB, and my LBS forgot to order it, and gave me a really, really smooth one at cost. At cost it was still 50 bucks, I think it was a Raceface, but I'm not sure.
Prob could find out. It's the old style square axle, you prob don't have that. Was surpised i noticed a difference.

mindbogger

Do you have a Kona Firemountian?

If you do, you have a square tapered BB. Those are usually under 50 dollars for pretty decent. Look for Shimanos with the model UN. Those are square tapered.

I am assumeing you have this bike, but if you don't, let us know which model to see what kind of BB you have (ISIS, Square tapered, octalink and so on..)

Rambler

Yeah, Kona Fire Mountain. Man, you guys are great, I really appreciate this.

Maelstrom 

Square Taper....go replace it with isis and you won't have any problems. But since you might not have the cash...I don't know what to do. I hate square taper

late

Square taper is fine. You get quality parts, the stuff lasts like crazy.
I don't know about your area, but around here there's tons of people on 30 year old bikes. I know one guy who said his Phil Wood BB was on it's third bike. Also, there's not much point in spending serious money for an ISIS conversion on a $350 Mtn bike. You'd be better off saving for a new one. But I could see getting a decent BB for it.

khuon

I'm on my 5th year with my RaceFace TurbineLP cranks and RaceFace Taperlock BB. They're holding up fine. I would like to go to ISIS or even X-Drive and maybe some day I will but my current setup has not given me cause to do any replacements.

Maelstrom 

I stripped square taper in about a week. I left it on cause I had no cash and turned it into a circle within a month. This was on a basic commuter bike. Square taper and I get along about as well as xc wheelsets

khuon

Well, that must explain it since I get along quite fine with XC wheels.

late

I am a big heavy guy that used to be a hiker and backpacker. When I was Mtn biking I was also hiking and had massive legs. Properly installed, square taper is not going to cause any problems if it's good quality stuff.

Rambler

My bike cost me 750 Canadian, not 350! Stupid American crap being much cheaper because of a higher output ratio.

Anyway, didn't get a chance to check out my BB this weekend, hopefully I'll get around to it soon though. I'm thinking a square taper thingy should be fine, as I don't do anything that hardcore, just the usual stuff. I do a lot of hopping around on it though, but never had any problems with my last BB's on my other bikes.