nikos

So I just picked up a Fetish frame on ebay about a month ago, and had Eriks Bikes add all my ultegra components from my cracked litespeed. Anywho, the mech working on it had issues with reinstalling my old bb and stated I should get a new one, ok did that. So, got the bike back - and the cranks were loose. Took it in, the same mech tightened them and he found the cranks to be loose again. Another mech came over and found that he did not have the cranks in the right threaded position for the bb - but reassurred me that there was no stripped areas. However, when the original mech put my old bb in, he told me that the cranks appeared to be bent when rotating - which they never were bent in the first place, and not now with the new bb cassette. Long story sum up. I now notice that once every 15-20 minutes on a ride, I get a clunk noise coming from the bb, and it really kicks in when out of the saddle and the bike leaning left, the tap tap noise in the pedal stroke will last 2-3 minutes? Am I looking at a potential stripped bb, or just something loose from just being built up? I have 150 hard road miles in - with many climbs.

roughrider504

Are your bearings well greased? I have never heard a problem like this one. But with my experences with noisy clicking bbs, most of the time its the bearings. Did you check your carriers to make sure there pretty tight?

fmw

I would stay away from those mechanics, to be sure. Assuming you don't want to do this stuff yourself, go find another mechanic and ask him to chase the threads on your BB shell and reinstall the BB and cranks. If he knows what he's doing, he'll know right away if the bad mechanics stripped anything. There is always the chance that the BB and/or cranks were installed without enough torque. They need to be pretty tight. Good luck.

trifrank

could you tell me about your litespeed. i was forwarned about stress cracks but i didn't listen and built up a 2001 vortex.

nikos

Im still learning about the bottom bracket. I can do most everything, but dont have the tools yet for that portion of the job. I plan on doing all my work in the future. Ill check with a different shop - Eriks did the job for free since I purchased my litespeed from them and had the bad luck with the frame.
About the litespeed, it cracked right behind the bb on the opposite side chainstay. My litespeed was the 2002 Hyperion - aluminum/carbon/ti enhanced seatstays. Funny this is, I did a google search and found two other owners of the same frame, with the exact same crack! Litespeed did nothing, the only response we got was a possible crash reinbursement type deal - maybe....and that not being much, on top of that, aluminum frames are now out at litespeed. So, maybe a hundred or so for the trouble and having to put that towards.....what a 1,500-3,000 frame? The aluminum frames have a 3 year warranty from Litespeed - so Im basically out of luck. However, the crack is a known problem, and still no real componsation from litespeed that would be financially realistic for me.