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Old 01-27-13, 10:26 AM
  #25  
Campag4life
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Opportunity meet demand. That is what you are seeing in the industry and will be seeing moving forward. Where are aftermarket bike companies putting their R&D? Where they believe the future is. I agree. PF30 is the future...not BB30. This is all in the face of PF30 being more technically challenged compared to BB30 as of now. That is changing however. If PF30 is done right however it is better than BB30 and cheaper to make...at least the frameset. The simple fact is...a short 6mm press for BB30 bearings isn't a solid support when a combination of vertical and lateral forces are applied to bearings due to the pedal stroke...and hence the advent of Loctite to mitigate this moment aka lateral torque. A PF30 BB can be much more stable. So how is PF30 evolving? Longer press and integrated bearings. Why do most PF30 BB's fail? Delrin bushings come loose due to short press into BB and BB30 bearings start to creep and move in Delrin bushings. New aftermarket designs like C-bear, now Chris King and even Praxis collet BB design maintaining Delrin bushings is much more robust. What do they all have in common? Integrated bearings. Bearings can't break free from press into Delrin bushings...instead they are captured in place and not a pure press. Further, a longer press into pure carbon 46mm ID PF30 shell is much more robust than short press of Delrin bushings which tend to come loose and why Specialized now specs Delring bushings be 'epoxied' in place.

My prediction is...in the next 5 years you will see a move away from BB30 and in favor of PF30. This will put the emphasis on BB design which we are already seeing. There is no reason for mfr's to toil with insert molding alloy cups into carbon BB's as with BB30 and then precision machining aka aligning bores for good cylindricity. A single 46mm carbon ID hole aka PF30 is all that is necessary. The rest is left to the BB design for robustness. This is where bike makers have stumbled and the aftermarket is picking up the pace to make a more reliable BB.
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