Starting to hate BB30
 

Crackle...crackle...crackle...creak...creak...crackle...

Ah, the lovely sounds coming from my bottom bracket with every push on the left crankarm. As it turns out, the bikeforums archives, and the RBR archives, and nearly every other forum is riddled with old threads regarding this problem. I'll add mine to the pile for the sake of Google and those searching for their next bike.

Why do I have BB30? Not because I believed any of the marketing BS about it being stiffer-lighter-better-faster-stronger-etc. I have it simply because I liked that CAAD9, and the bottom bracket seemed to work the same as all the others. Therefore, I can't be blamed for suspending my skepticism regarding a "solution" in search of a problem. I can, however, blame Cannondale for selling me a bike with a crappy bottom bracket.

The Bike: Cannondale CAAD9. SRAM Force BB30 crank.

I have inspected the chainring bolts, the seatpost, the saddle rails, the saddle, the pedals. Rode it with different pedals, different saddle. Still; crackle...creak...crackle...creak. Took apart, cleaned, re-greased everything. Still the same. The axial pre-load (i.e the "wave washer") is compressed appropriately.

By way of comparison, my oldest bottom bracket is a Shimano HTII outboard bearing. It's served countless thousands of miles for 6 years, in all weather during commuting duty. Still spinning smoothly and silently. The square taper that I had on a bike I sold was also smooth-as-silk. The BB30 is roughly two years old, and all the miles have been in fair weather, as it's mounted on my "for-fun" road bike.

I am not impressed.

There are adapters made to convert BB30 frames to use 1.37” x 24T English thread.
Here's one: http://www.fullspeedahead.com/produc...d-Adapter-68mm

I might need to get one of those.

What I'm most irate about is the fact that it's nearly impossible for me to remedy my BB30 issues. I do all my own wrenching, and I'm good at it. There are just a few very expensive and low-use tools that I don't own, one of which is a headset press. Considering that (so far) my press-in headsets have been install-and-forget items, this has not impacted my life in any way.

With a Shimano HTII bottom bracket, if the thing completely breaks down I can simply use my very inexpensive wrench to remove it, and in under a minute have a new one screwed on. With BB30, the bearings have to be "punched" out, and new ones laboriously installed with a headset press. In other words, I have to pay a shop for a labor-intensive repair on a part that, by all accounts, is going to fail on me in the same way in the near future.

Seriously, if they were going to manufacture something as apparently failure prone as the BB30 bottom bracket, they should have made it a snap to remove/replace. Why is my most durable bottom bracket system the one I can also replace the fastest?

I just use a piece of threaded rod and a couple of nuts with fence washers as a headset press. I suppose something similar could be used for BB30 bearings. I guess I'll find out eventually; I have a Cannondale Synapse with the original BB30 crank, and so far the bearings have been pretty darn reliable- no problems for about 10,000 miles and they still spin smooth.

That's what we usually do at our shop when we get a noisy bb30 in. I think the noise is usually at the bottom bracket shell/bearing interface. We grease the heck out of the shell and re-install the bearings, and it almost always stops the noise....for the time being, at least.

FWIW, we've been much more impressed with the newer PressFit 30 bb's. We've had zero noise issues with them, and they seem to be quite durable.

IMO BB30 is just another example of where "new and improved" is only half true.

Will the PressFit 30s work with my SRAM Force BB30 crank in that CAAD9 frame? That might be worth pursuing if they do.

The crank would work in a PressFit 30 frame, but unfortunately a PressFit 30 bottom bracket is a completely different standard than BB30, so no, you can't put a PressFit 30 bb in your frame. The bore in the frame's bb shell is 42mm in diameter for BB30, 46mm for PressFit 30. The PressFit 30 bearings are the same size as BB30, and are designed for a 30mm spindle like BB30, but the bearings are encased in a nylon shell, and that's why they require the slightly larger diameter bore in the frame than BB30, to make room for the nylon casing. More and more frame makers are going away from BB30 and going to PressFit 30 because the frame tolerances aren't so absolutely critical like they are with BB30. The fact that the bearings are encased also makes for a better seal; again, we believe these bearings hold up very well.

I'm honestly starting to get a little bit bitter that this "system" was sold to me.

Given the fact that the frame is stuck with it unless I put in a sleeve adapter, I think that Cannondale should either be responsible for bearing the cost of the upkeep, or should give me a frame with a traditionally threaded bottom bracket shell.

Except that it's Cannondale, and all their better frames have this crap bottom bracket. Maybe it's time to put it on e-bay.

I hear ya. For myself, if I were looking for a frame, I would avoid one that uses BB30. Even if you want a pressed-in, oversized bottom bracket system, there are definitely better options than BB30, IMO.

I'd try coating the inside of the BB with something other than grease, like a thin coat of some sort of rubbery paint or something.

Or you could try thin sticky tape on the outside of the bearings... whatever it takes to make that BB STFU would be fine in my book.

Was just at the LBS and helped them repair a noisy BB30. I think it's a Terrible system, no reason not to use threaded BB's.

Anyone use one of these: KCNC BB30 adapter?

I can't quite tell how it works, but it looks a bit like an HTII bottom bracket designed to press into the BB30 shell.

Also this Praxis version that expands as it is tightened: http://shop.praxis-works.com/BB30-Co...mm-68-2001.htm

Whew! $80 on that one! I think that I'd be better off with the $20 FSA sleeve or the KCNC for $40.

A search of the forums shows only one person who has used the KCNC one, and he said his bearings failed at 2K miles. Not good.

Here's another question: Will the adapter creak in the BB shell the way the current BB does? If so, then it's a non-starter, and the frame is destined for e-bay.

Loc Tite the bearings in, so they don't move in their site ?

there are several compounds some made for that purpose

+1
Just an opportunity to sell a whole set of new parts.

If you add red loctite to the mating surfaces of that FSA adapter, it probably won't creak. You won't be able to remove it from your frame anymore, either.

I am puzzled, though, by your action: you knew better, and you still bought a frame with a BB30? That seems irrational, to me.

I didn't "know better". I didn't buy the marketing regarding its supposed superiority to existing systems. I did, however, assume that it would at least work reliably; and that to me is the true measure of success of a bottom bracket.

I bought a bike that I liked that happened to come with a different bottom bracket. Now that I own said bottom bracket and know more about its manifold failings, I'm starting to like the bike it is attached to a little less.

Well, hopefully the FSA adapter will make it into a frame you can fully like.

Also, there's this, to possibly help you along.

They even mention using Loctite 609!

That's what I've heard about adapters in general (no first hand experience). The purpose of the adapter is to use old threaded bottom brackets, not fix squeaking. BB30 has held me back from getting a CAAD10.

Hmmm...

I could try this method, which should only run me about $40 in tools. http://www.pinkbike.com/news/Tech-Tu...cket-2012.html

I had a crackle and pop noise coming from the BB30 bottom bracket on my 2012 Synapse. I removed the crank and found a little dirt and sand inside the shell. I cleaned out the shell and the bearing contact surfaces (on the crank and the bearings themselves). Then I greased the bearing contact surfaces and put it back together. The sound was gone. This was an easy job only taking about 15 minutes.

I did not remove the bearings themselves from the BB shell though. If the procedure that I performed did not stop the noise my next step would have been to remove the bearings and check and clean the BB shell and bearing surfaces where they meet, grease and put back together.

Have you pulled the crank and/or bearings and cleaned and greased everything?