dr_lha

Let me say that I don't think people on this forum who are criticizing BB30 are all offering up square taper as the alternative. Other BB technologies are available.

That said, I've owned 5 bikes with square taper bottom brackets and none of them ever had an issue. The one I still own is still going strong after 16 years and I've never replaced the BB.

roadwarrior

I'll add, since the bb is larger, you can incrementally expand the down tube size, seat tube and chain stays which adds efficiency to the bike, typically without adding weight. You lose less in the translation of your pedaling and what is being transferred to the rear wheel. to offset the additional stiffness, many companies have added seat and/or chain stay shaping to keep a comfortable ride.

Personally, it works for me without issue, and when I take it apart to service and clean that part of my bike it's maybe a 10-15 minute ordeal. I truly do not care if people do not like it. I'm not being rude, I just do not get the bickering about what is best. If you don't like it don't ride it, but you will be hard pressed anymore, in the nice road bike arena to not find some iteration of this on bikes. BB somethingorother is on most mid and higher range bikes.

velociraptor

Love it or hate it, BB30 (and its variants) is becoming ubiquitous on new bikes.

Personally, I'm in the love column. But then, I'm not intimidated by it in the slightest.

As mentioned before, if the square-taper luddites are really bothered by it, all they have to do is install a sleeve. [shrug]

Fly2High

According to Specialized, my 2014 Secteur Sport has the following:
BOTTOM BRACKET
FSA, square taper, sealed cartridge bearings


Is this a BB30? If it is not, what is it or how do I determine what it is? Either way it was making noise and now seems quiet so I am gearing up to get the tools so as to havea look and lubricate accordingly.

thanks

Frank

Campag4life

Frank,
If you have smart phone or $20 digital camera, a simple picture of the crank posted here where it attaches to the bottom bracket will identify what crank and bottom bracket you have. If the description is...square taper than you likely have an English threaded BB also referred to as BSA bottom bracket. A picture will identify what you have.

Lazyass

It's not a BB30. You need this tool:

Park Tool BBT-22 Bottom Bracket Tool

And these are the instructions:

https://www.fullspeedahead.com/wp-con..._201111142.pdf

Campag4life

What you write is spot on but to add, there is nothing about BB30 that mandates a large ball shaped BB that increases stiffness and chainstay section strength which increases pedaling efficiency as you explain. The same could be applied to an English threaded BB. Just historically this isn't as prevalent. Bike makers almost concurrently discovered that a stiffer BB30 and bigger BB juncture to the chainstays creates a sportier bike.
My favorite bike for example has the same size BB as PF30 and BB30 on other high end Specialized bikes but happens to be English threaded.

English Threaded with large spherical BB below:

Fly2High

I'll take a picture but I have nothing sticking out the sides of my frame as in the picture above for the bearings. they appear to be flush with the frame.

Thank you guys.

Much appreciated.

Frank

Lazyass

Yeah, you have a square taper bottom bracket with 20 splines. They are flush with the frame. I showed you the instructions and the tool you need. You also need a crank puller to remove your cranks.

Campag4life

Frank,
I think you may have been misled by the picture I posted. What you see is likely the same bottom bracket that you have on your bike...English threaded..but what you see are Campy threaded cups screwed into the bottom bracket. This is called an external bearing bottom bracket. So the bikes can have similar geometry but the crank attachment is different. What you have is a threaded cartridge BB which is threaded inside the bottom bracket. That is why it is flush. The bearings are inside the BB shell.
If you post a pic, this will confirm it. If you want to change your bottom bracket or move to a more modern external bearing crank, this is easily accomplished with your frameset.

rpenmanparker 

@Campag4life, do you think the small difference between BB30 and PF30 is important enough to affect frame choice, other things being equal? Or say, one really likes a BB30 frame a lot and a PF30 frame a little less, is the BB difference enough to make one go for the latter? Thanks.

Campag4life

Hi Robert,
Given a choice, I would prefer BB30 all day long. Specialized came to this conclusion with some egg on their face after 5 years of trying to make PF30 work which gave them further market diversity with their flagship S-works bikes. So they walked away from a design difference that makes their S-works frames more common with their Pro and Expert models. This isn't easy for a manufacturer so no doubt the reason(s) were compelling and they are. It is much more difficult to control two interfaces than one. In the case of PF30, getting bearings to stay put inside plastic bushings was a challenge. Further getting a plastic bushing to stay in place by just a press fit to a virgin carbon shell was daunting as well and why they opted for epoxy in the end. Way more trouble than its worth. With BB30 the alloy cups are insert molded into the carbon...they are bonded in place. So an owner only has to control one surface interface...bearings into a alloy cup which is already bonded to a frame. Even after 100 bearing replacements and with a slip fit, Loctite will keep bearings dead quiet. BB30 is a beautiful design in its simplicity and PF30 not so much.

But for those with PF30 and there are a lot of them out there among elite race bikes, Praxis with their ingenuity addressed the weakness of PF30 and BB30 for those that don't like to glue bearings. Their expanding collet BSA sleeve is a god send for PF30 owners. Its a brilliant design. Keep in mind that Campy UT and Shimano DA cranks were designed for English threaded BB and neither company ever relented. Campy did come out with a BB30 crank and even with longer spindle to fit wider shell press fit offspring but both companies stayed true to their almost 10 year old external bearing BSA crank designs. The Praxis BB which I consider the bike product of the year because of its innovation will regress any BB30 or PF30 BB to BSA and allow both Campy and Shimano cranks to bolt flawlessly. So the landscape has changed. PF30 is now no longer a problem and IMO should not be a disincentive to purchasing any PF30 frameset.
HTH

Paul Barnard

My mechanical aptitude is frighteningly bad. That said, I have a bike I built from the frame up all by myself. I did have someone seat my fork bearing race. I had a good friend who showed me many years ago how to to basic bike maintenance. I learn best from demonstration. So when I was first referred to Park Tools website a few years ago, I wasn't expecting it to be easy or particularly helpful for me. Man was I wrong. They have dumbed it down beautifully for me. Since BB30 seems to be the way things are going, I'll probably buy the tools I need to install and service it. Thanks for your patience with me. I know it can be frustrating having the same conversation repeatedly over the years, but rest assured you haven't wasted your breath with me.

kevmk81

My first 4 or 5 times I had the LBS replace the bearings on my BB30 CAAD10 & reinstall. Now I just take the BB apart myself, re-grease, and reinstall. Made the recommended tool, and use a torque wrench to get the cranks installed to the proper torque. I've been running the same bearings for a while now! I work on the BB maybe once every 3,000 miles or so. Or roughly once every 4 months. Only takes about half an hour or so - for me. Ironically, my BB overhauls last longer than the bike shop's BB overhauls. That being said, I'm still happy with my BB30 frame. And I have to agree, the wetter/nastier conditions I ride in, the frequency of BB overhauls go up. Oh well. I don't mind taking some time and working on my bike.

rpenmanparker 

Thanks. Are there no bare carbon BB30 bottom bracket shells? Do they all have the metal inserts? I guess I didn't realize that.

Campag4life

Good luck Paul. Websites like Park Tool and youtube videos are an amazing aid for the home mechanic. Rest assured, nobody knows it all but the collective knowledge of the web is powerful.
I had a weird thing happen at my condo the other day. The ceramic soap dish fell off the tiled shower stall wall of all things. Place was built in 2007. Never seen this happen before. Wasn't sure what the best adhesive was...so googled ceramic soap dish installation...mine broke when it hit the tub...and up came an excellent video. Plaster of Paris of all things is the go to adhesive. I thought something like liquid nails would be preferred but no. Just got done installing the new one after mixing up the powder Plaster of Paris. Felt like I was in art school. Youtube is an amazing resource of knowledge.

Campag4life

BB30 is by definition 30 mm alloy cups bonded to a carbon shell. Virtually all virgin carbon shells aka PF30 are 46mm I.D.
There is a myriad of other derivative wider shell versions of BB30 and PF30 as well.

loimpact

FWIW, while I'm pretty sure the sound wasn't coming from some of the other common places, I didn't want to just write off the pedals so I removed, cleaned & regreased them. Tick is still there so almost certainly BB.

A couple things I wanted to cover for my sake & the sake of the thread:

1.) To be sure....the Loctite "Green" we speak of appears to be 609, yes? (Not any other 600 or 500 series or 290)

2.) I think the BBT-30.3 tool is a good idea, if for nothing more than the bushings for the installation part. And I'm not opposed to buying Park's HHP3 as I'm sure it's a nice tool......BUT.....is there a great/best combination of common hardware components to make a nice homemade version???

And any other tips/tricks/suggestions for the job much appreciated.

rpenmanparker 

You can start with a threaded rod and nuts that fit it. Some humongous washers. But you will need (? or just benefit from) some properly sized adapters to snug into the BB30 bearings, but press on their outer edge. All this stuff can be had on ebay for not too much money. And the rod part doubles for installing non-integrated headset cups. But honestly, the DIY kits on ebay contain it all and don't cost much. No sense trying to put it together yourself. And then the Park kit on ebay is under $40, all inclusive. Hard to beat.

Park: park bb30 tool | eBay

Here is a mixed list with both Park and DIY models of the tool: park bb30 tool | eBay

Here are the adapters, only, in case you want to make your own rod and nut setup: https://www.ebay.com/itm/BB30-Bottom-...item46373a4c0f

Campag4life

Very good advice.
PS: and Loctite 609 is preferred. Some also use adhesion promoter...but at least use alcohol to clean mating surfaces.

Fly2High

Thanks. you hit the nail on the head. You can see the slots for the above tool to key into. Anyway to know which threads I have? Sorry to hijack the thread.



Much appreciated.

Campag4life

Fly2,
You have what is called an "English Threaded" BB which has been a 30 year BB standard. The most common BB design. You can fit a variety of different BB's and cranks to your bike. One of the most common for example is an Ultegra or Shimano crank with screw in BB halves with captured bearings. The bearings reside outside and not inside the BB shell like you have.

PS: if you remove your chain and spin the crank and it is crunchy for example, you have no recourse other than to change the entire cartridge within the BB shell. The primary reason why this BB type is abandoned on race bikes is because of the size of the bearings and the spindle diameter...plus just the bearings alone can't be changed. There are many 'external bearing' cranks that can be fitted to your BB if you want to move away from square taper.

loimpact

Thanks for the links. I hadn't thought of ebay right off but MAN that's a ton of stuff available there. I'm darn tempted to order the big tool just cuz it's so friggin nice looking but I should probably just do a homemade. The bbt30.3 though is definitely a no brainer. That's good money spent for sure.

And thanks for the suggestion of alcohol, too, Campag to prep the surfaces! Good idea, for sure!

dr_lha

The homemade tool is fine for purpose. I don't see much point in buying the fancy Park tool unless you're going to be putting in a lot of BBs and Headsets. I made the one shown on the pinkbike website for a few bucks at the local Home Depot. Add into that the bbt30.3 and you've got everything you need. My last BB30 overhaul I used rubbing alcohol to clean out the shell, pressed in the bearings one at a time with my home made tool (with loctite 609 applied), and finished the job in less than 30 mins, and 1000 miles later I'm creak free still (which is more than I can say for the factory install, or the LBS repair of the factory install).

loimpact

Tools ordered up & will make a Depot trip for the press hardware......

What about the bearings & 609?

Searching shows a lot of folks fighting to find 609 locally. (pretty much online only?)

I'm try Fastenal/Grainger in the morning for something local.

Also, generic bearing supply not showing me ABEC-5 bearings of *any* size that I can see right off. I realize I'm shopping generic vs bike-specific in this case, but is there a specific part#/size I should be looking for?

TIA

(EDIT: Actually found what appears to be 6806-2RS as bearing of choice? Dang, friggin' local bearing house shows $15each!!! Pffft! Still up for suggestions)