Complete noob question... Does anyone have any experience with a "Hope Road Ceramic Bottom Bracket"?

I've got this on my bike and loved the difference it made. I haven't actually ridden the bike as much as I'd like due to injury so I'm a little surprised that I'm already getting noises which are certainly from the bottom bracket.

My question: is there anything I can do to dismantle, clean, and re-grease one of these or am I facing a complete (£100) replacement?

Thanks

Are you sure the noise is from the bearings and not from the cups where they thread or press into the bottom bracket shell?

Their site doesn't show a ceramic BB. https://www.hopetech.com/product/threaded/

This document mentions ceramic type: https://www.hopetech.com/wp-content/...structions.pdf
Check cheap and easy things like pedals, shoelaces and chainring bolts before digging into the bottom bracket, although they certainly can be culprits.

From the sound of it, you need to go to a good LBS (who are a Hope dealer), as you appear out of your depth with this bike, and let them diagnose where this sound is coming from, as it's pretty much impossible other than to guess online.

Also, if you have issues with Hope parts, have you tried contacting them? as from previous experience with them, they are very helpful with support for their products.

Yep. I missed that.

If you work on it this is a good site for the bearings. https://www.enduroforkseals.com/prod...v_bb_bearings/

Ceramic bearings are disposable, a feature you paid extra for.

Yup. To be clear the sound originates from the bottom bracket. Thats not under any question. a
I note HillRider's comment about there being more to a bottom bracket than just ball bearings.

So my question remains whether its pissible to dismantle the bearings to clean / regrease them or if they are just a sealed unit which can only be replaced.

As certain as you are, as a professional mechanic more than half the time a customer comes in thinking they have a creaky bb, it is the pedals, the crank bolts, the chainring bolts, the rear skewer, or something else instead of the BB. BB noise is still moderately common though.

With threaded external BBs, they nearly never make noise unless the cups aren't greased and torqued into the frame adequately or the bearings are blown. When you remove the crank, how do the bearings feel? If they feel significantly rough they should be served or replaced.

On that Hope BB, the bearings are designed to be replaceable. https://www.hopetech.com/wp-content/...structions.pdf It's not clear if you need a bind bearing puller to remove the bearings.Some poking around reveals they are normal 2437 bearings. If you want to stay with ceramic this is still $60-100 to replace because ceramic bearings are stupidly expensive in addition to being mostly worthless. Normal steel bearings will cost you $10-15 each. If you remove your bearings you might try cleaning and repacking them, here are some instructions: https://www.bocabearings.com/general...ng-maintenance . I've done this with mixed results on normal steel bearings, haven't done so on ceramic yet.

"Road bottom bracket" doesn't tell us much. Please tell us the model or type of bottom bracket, or tell us the brand, model and year of bike so we can try to help you.

Hope makes many kinds of bottom brackets. What is it? Threaded or press fit? 30 mm? 41 mm? If you don't know then tell us the make and model of the bike and crankset - maybe someone can tell what bottom bracket the frame/cranks require.

It looks like most of Hope's products use cartridge bearings and in theory, it should be simple to remove the cartridge and replace it with new. Hope shows replacement cartridge bearing part numbers for many of their bottom brackets. Below is an example, but you have to know what you need before you can determine if the part is available.

Another possibility is to buy ceramic replacement cartridges from Enduro. I'm sure they are not inexpensive. Again, you have to know what you have before anyone can tell you if it can be serviced or if replacement parts are available.

This is an example of the Hope documents. Figure out what you have first.




-Tim-

Not practical. Just replace the cartridges with all-steel bearings and you'll be way ahead.

Thank's folks. It looks like the answer is that I'll need to pony up for a replacement. At least you've relieved my concerns that I should have been servicing this by indicating that it's not possible to do so.

I'll take comments about ceramic vs steel under advisement AnkleWork. I do note you're not alone in your opinions.

I will of course double check other items before replacing - The noise is clearly crank / BB related based on it's timing. It's clearly something attached to the frame based on the resonance (carbon) and the fact I've already checked everything else. Even though finding the source of unwanted noises can be tricky, lets not pretend it's rocket science or black magic. A simple process of elimination and a few hours are quite sufficient.

I'm surprised at getting noise from the BB after so few miles, but the bike's had long periods sitting around unused while I was recuperating. Who knows what happened to it in that time.

I quoted it as That's all I've ever known it as. I would have linked it but this forum has a "no URLs the first 10 posts rule". It's been on the bike a couple of years so I guess it's from 2016 maybe 2015.

Apologies. I had assumed google would give you passingly similar results to me. Typing the 5 words above into google, my first results are these:

www dot chainreactioncycles dot com/hope-road-ceramic-bottom-bracket/rp-prod27627
www dot flcuk dot com/components/bottom-brackets/road/p6106s341/hope-road-ceramic-bottom-bracket-gunsmoke-archived.htm
www dot amazon dot com/Hope-Ceramic-Bottom-Bracket-Purple/dp/B071W66HFD
picclick dot co dot uk/Hope-Road-Ceramic-Bottom-Bracket-For-24mm-Crank-322343369159.html
www dot mokeyinternational dot com/item/?id=B071W66HFD

You may be able to access the bearings by just carefully removing the seals with a thin flat blade of your choice. You can then flush them out and add fresh lube and can be done on the bike but removing the BB makes it easier. I'm not sure what the recommended type of lube should be used as full ceramics require something other than the usual grease but it looks like yours are "hybrid" meaning steel races with ceramic balls and grease may or may not be OK. Check out some ceramic bearing sellers for info on lube.

Anyone who wonders why they don't sell them anymore:
(Excerpt from https://road.cc/content/feature/1756...-pros-and-cons)
That's from an industry that over-hypes the merest suggestion of a possibility of an imagined advantage.


And they say a lot of other stuff, none of which matters at all. People will continue to believe only what they want no matter anything else. Human nature hates truth and loves lies.

It will always be easier to believe the jive and spend money than to improve yourself.

If it's the bearings you can replace them with steel bearings. The web site shows how to press out the old ones and press in the new.
In the video the mechanic says that dirt between the outer and inner seal may make noise.

The logical place to look for a "Hope Road Ceramic Bottom Bracket" would be the manufacturer's website but no products with that name appear on either their product page or their technical support page.

I'm sorry you didn't find my attempt to assist helpful but your clarification makes it clear that what you have is serviceable. Service involves replacing the cartridges. You will need QTY 2 Hope part number BBSP108:C. They will be extremely simple to replace.

An alternative is to measure the ID, OD and thickness of the existing Hope cartridges and purchase equivalent bearings from another manufacturer or vendor such as Wheels Manufacturing. Wheels Mfg sells Enduro bearings. These are very high quality. Zero ceramic are ~$45 each and hybrid ceramic are ~$35 each with some lower. Again, they are very simple to replace.

https://wheelsmfg.com/products/beari...-bearings.html

Personally, along with many others both on and off this thread, I would not bother with ceramic. They don't fail from sitting around. ABEC-5 stainless bearings will cost as low as $12 each and stand up to the harshest use for a much longer time.


-Tim-