Bornco

Hi all,

We are considering purchasing a used Burley Rivazza. I just read that Burley's have a proprietary eccentric bottom bracket and it may be very difficult to replace since Burley is out of business. Since we want to ride whatever tandem we purchase for a long, long time do you think this purchase makes sense, or should we keep looking?

Thanks for your help

Bornco

If it helps any, here is the link to where I read this information:
https://www.rodbikes.com/articles/web...les/chaos.html
The information is about halfway down the page under "Out of Business"

Thanks,

Jack

NoTrail

Interesting article. Thanks for posting.

TandemGeek

The early Burley's used a proprietary BB. However, they switched over to ISO standard BB's in the late 90's. The aluminum Burley's like the Rivazza that were introduced in 2002 and produced for Burley by the same company that Trek used to produced their new T1000 / T2000 tandems also introduced in 2002 use ISO BB's. So, BB availability should not be an issue.

For the folks who have the older Burleys, in most cases it's not the BB's that need to be replaced when one starts acting it, just the bearings which can be sourced from many different suppliers. Burley's press-fit BB was actually a brilliant design, it's only shortcoming is that it was "different" from what most shops and bicycle owners are used to dealing with. However, when help is needed for Burley tandems they can call Mel Kornbluh at Tandems East in New Jersey as he bought-out all of Burley's tandem inventory when they exited the business. He has most of the parts needed on hand, e.g., axles, bearings, snap rings, etc. and in the event that there is ever something needed that is no longer available he has sources that either have or can produced just about anything needed to keep those older Burley's rolling.

Bornco

Thanks so much, I had hoped there was more to the story and knew that the folks with the expertise would be on this forum.

Jack

Monoborracho

Bingo.

Been there done that not a problem.

hup

Digging up this older thread with a question about replacing these bearings. Are they pressed into place? Can a semi competent bike tinkerer replace them himself? What is involved in this?
Thanks!
Henry

hup

Bumping this to the top in hopes that someone here will be able to give input on replacing these bearings.
Thx!