Installed a Chris King road bottom bracket on my Surly Cross Check.....

Used one metal spacer per bearing cup as it gave me the best looking chainline. Most applications are 2 spacers on drive side, one on the other? non-drive?

Did not use the thin plastic spindle spacers at all. Didn't use them before, didn't see the need now.

**The Problem**

When I tighten the cranks down (Bontrager GXP) the BB becomes VERY stiff w/ only a few pounds of pressure.

Any ideas?

Thanks a bunch.

Aaron

Traditional square taper, right? Internally threaded, I suppose... hmm.

Seems pretty odd; I can only suggest trying to adjust the BB with the cranks on, if possible.

And I wouldn't worry so much about chainline as ensuring each pedal is the same distance from the centreline.

It's internally threaded. Actually, this is it:

https://rbikes.com/product/bontrager-...34-50922-1.htm

Pedals same distnance from centerline? I didn't know that. Thank you.

I'll keep pluggin away.

Ah, that's one of the new-style ones... haven't worked on one, so I'm not much help.

Although it makes the binding less puzzling... maybe your BB is too wide for the crank spindle? Try leaving out one or both of the spacers and see if it still happens.

Easiest way to centre your cranks is to compare the distance on each side from the back of the pedal to the chainstay.

Interesting.

I'll measure using that method when I return from work...does sound easy/logical.


I had to ask myself why in the world I needed to use provided Chris King spacers to begin with?? It's clearly stated in the CK destruction manual that their BB cups are identicle in width to Shimano outboards. Am i answering my own question here?

LOL, you may have just done that, by the sound of it

Have you faced the BB shell?

+1....if not, you need to. External bearing bb's need the faces of the bb shell to be pretty much perfectly parallel to each other.

I have not, but it didn't seem to matter with the Shimano outboards.

Nice thought, BTW! That's why I'm here...

Follow the installation instructions carefully.

When a crank using external bearings binds it is usually because the faces on the BB shell on the frame are not parallel. This is - as mentioned - corrected by facing the shell. This can be achieved at home with the right touch, but take it to a shop to have it done correctly.

It can happen that you do not have binding in the original BB but do with a new one for a couple of different reasons. The original install may have been binding but you may not have noticed it because you didn't install it and as time went on the bearings wore out enough to no longer feel like it was binding. Also BB cups with tighter tollerancing seem to fit tighter. Probably a tighter interface with the crank spindle.

Also - not the first instalation difficulty I have heard of from a CK external BB. Recently a local pro cross rider almost missed out on his race because of installation trouble....resulting in having to chase and face the BB to solve.

The Bontrager is a relabeled Truvativ, isn't it? CK bb isn't compatible with Truvativ external cranks AFAIK, only the Shimano style (FSA, Raceface). There are some gxp adapters from Hope I believe.

A chase & face seems far more important/meaningful now...

Thank you.

Ya know....I think you're right.

Jeez! Now I need to spring for a crankset...the little lady isn't going to like this. Thank goodness she has good cheer this time of year!

Or just get some bearings that fit, try enduroforkseals.com

As mentioned above, Facing the BB shell might be the problem, and that's definitely the symptom you would get. I just put a CK BB in a 2001 Spectrum frame, but didn't have the shell faced as I know Merlin meticulously faces all the BB shells of the Ti frames they weld. What I *did* do though, was take a single-edged Razor blade and scrape off any of the Thick Imron paint that was on the external face of the BB shell. I did similarly with an emery board on my 2001 GF Hoo Koo E Koo that I converted to Shimano outboard bearing. I even took that frame to one of the best bike shops in the Boston area to pay to have the BB shell faced and they wouldn't take my money. They told me Gary Fisher frames have their BB shells faced meticulously at the factory and the frame didn't need it. I was kind of skeptical, because I would think 2001 was right in the heart of the cartridge bottom bracket era where facing doesn't matter a bit, but it seemed to go together well without it.

Also as mentioned above, CK BBs are only for Shimano cranks and there is both a Shimano Road Specific and Shimano MTB Specific BB, you need to use the right one for the Crankset you choose. For a the 68mm Shell on my Spectrum and an Ultegra SL Compact crank, I obtained the best chainline with one spacer on the non-drive side.

Nice BBs with lockrings each side have been around for a while, and just about every older non-cartridge BB could do with a faced BB, since the right cup generally has a flange and the left uses a lockring.