Grasschopper

So I have a Salsa Warbird AL which uses a BB86 pressfit bottom bracket and I run Shimano cranks. My stock BB has started creaking and I'm not going to both to just pop the stock on out and grease and replace as it will just creek again down the road. So looking at BBInfinite and Wheels Mfg BBs as a replacement.

ANyone actually used/installed both and have thoughts on one vs the other?

Metaluna

I assume you're talking about the "creak proof" version of the Wheels BB with the two halves that screw together (they do make a more conventional BB with separate press-fit cups). Unfortunately, I have no experience with the BBInfinite (looks nice though), but I have the Wheels thread-together BB on a carbon frame and have had no issues after maybe ~2000 miles. This was installed on a brand-new frame however, so it's possible I would also be having no issues had I used a conventional BB, at least not yet.

So while I've had good luck with this BB, there is one aspect of the design that I have concerns about. Maybe someone with more mechanical knowledge can comment. From what I've heard about press-fitting in general, you kind of want to limit the number of times you assemble and remove the pressed in cups, so as not to cause excessive wear on the frame. With the Wheels BB, one of the cups gets pressed in in the conventional way, which is fine. But the other cup (NDS I think?) gets installed by threading it into the DS cup and then screwing the whole assembly together, which draws the NDS cup into the frame, effectively pressing it into the BB shell. It seems to me, and maybe I'm thinking about this incorrectly, that this rotating action is going to cause a lot of extra sliding contact between the cup and the frame as it screws into place -- much more than the frame would see if the cup was just pressed straight in the conventional way. So I don't know if this design is going to cause more wear on that side of the BB shell than a conventional BB. Then again if your BB is already creaking, the shell might already be a little out of spec so it doesn't matter. The BBInfinite looks like it might have similar issues, since you have to press the entire module all the way in from one side.

In my case it looks like I'm going to have to remove the Wheels BB temporarily as I need to get at the internal cable routing and this particular frame doesn't allow access with the BB in place. Wheels doesn't supply any instructions on how to remove this thing. I have some ideas, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it goes smoothly.

Grasschopper

Yes correct the creak proof, thread together version of the Wheels Mfg BB is what I'm looking at. I would think that all you have to do to get to one side (hopefully that's all you need to access your cabling, and I may have this issue as well) is to remove the NDS cup.

The issue with constantly pressing bearings in IS why I want to go this route as well as better bearing alignment in general and squeak elimination. Its funny I have BB86 on my 2012 Giant Defy Advanced as well and it has never ever made a peep even after getting caught in several downpours. This Warbird is creaking away after less than 1,000 miles.

From a mechanical standpoint the twisting of the cups in and out is causing no more wear than pressing them in...I wouldn't worry about that at all.

Le Mechanic

I like the Wheels MFG version. I had a pressfit 30 to GXP bottom bracket from Wheels MFG I used for 2 seasons and never once had to touch it. I ended up selling that bike and my current road bike came with a BB86 BBInfinite BB installed. So far I havent had any issues with it, but on a few bikes I've repaired, the BBInfinite started to migrate out of the frame. They are both good, but if you ever have to remove it from the frame, the Wheels MFG BB is WAY easier to get out.