My last touring bike had the 4 tubes butt welded to the BB shell which has no penetrations, other than a grease zirk..

so its half full of grease, and the bearings are lubricated sufficiently for my lifetime ..

We built it from Burly Tandem parts in 1990, the Stoker's BB shell used oversize bearings..



FWIK. SKF were going to drop making them entirely before mr Heine offered to do their distribution work for them,
so it is just him, retail and wholesale.







....

the ISIS standard BB uses really small bearings that don't tend to wear well. If you are a lightweight cyclist you might be ok but as a clydesdale I didn't find they lasted well compared to a standard Shimano outboard bearing BB.
YMMV

I have about 2,000 miles on the SKF ISIS bb on my '89 Schwinn Voyageur. Dropped right in, its working fine.

There was a small burr on the face of the spindle that made installing the crank difficult, I found that odd on such an otherwise quality unit but in light of Seeker's experience with a lemon, maybe they are having QC issues.

Naah, 'nother couple of years in debtors prison for me. Back in the '80's I lived in a small village in Ghana for three years (Peace Corps). I was fairly remote, but Ouagadougou? Now that was the sticks 😀

righto, wasn't sure if you were serious when I realized the name is an actual place.
We have a neighbour from Ghana, but have no idea where she was from within Ghana.

Way back in 1995 I had a 1958 Freespirit cruiser bike. I did not find the loose bearings the ultimate in reliability.
No good for a tour of Africa.

let us type about the bottom bracket shell. The un55 is available world wide, no¡? Is that an english thread 73mm BB¿? Get a frame that uses universal parts. Clue, does shimano sell 90% of bike parts world wide<?

I had my Phil Wood outboard Bottom Bracket on my Fargo for 5 years or more, including,several december trips on the Oregon coast, about 100 nights of the baja divide, lots of 10 and 30 day trips, (before they mapped it), until the bike became so rusty it needed to be sandblasted and repainted. The BB is still good, I plan to put it on my old 95 Mongoose.

Does
https://www.universalcycles.com/shop...8&category=215
also fit disc rotors?

get a modern Bottom bracket and crank set.
or a 1972 bb if you like

So, when it comes time for an uber-quality bb on my current project bike, what should it be, Phil Wood or Chris King?

Given the fact that I'm spending your money for this and not mine, go with the most expensive!

It is very rare in Taobao, China.

OK, is an extra c note for ceramic bearings worth it? I mean a $250 outlay would be a pittance if we were talking motorcycles or cars.

If you're not racing? Not really worth it.

If you're racing? Still not really worth it.



IMHO as far as bottom bracket reliability goes, as long as you're not using press fit ones it's pretty easy to just carry a spare. And even if your bike doesn't use a threaded bottom bracket, I feel like people really exaggerate how quickly BB30 etc. go bad.

If cost is no object, get one of these bottom brackets with a five year warranty.
https://pinion.eu/en/p1-18-gearbox/

I havent a clue, and like I said earlier, the fact that Ive had a 25-30 dollar square taper last ten years or more and at least 20,000km, I really dont have qualms about using these types of ones.

This.

They are so light that if you are really going somewhere remote, carrying an extra is easy. It's also relatively easy to repack them with grease if you need to. Besides that IME, they last longer than just about anything else.:love:

I would stick with good old tried and true JIS Square Taper BB from a quality reputable manufacturer like Phil Wood or SKF or even IRD. If you cannot find a JIS BB you probably won't find any bike parts, finding the right length could be a little harder but you can fudge it if need be but with a quality BB you won't have to worry much.

An external threaded Hollowtech II BB also of quality manufacture would be fine as well as those are becoming more and more easy to find. Phil Wood, Enduro, Wheels Manufacturing, Hope make really top notch after market stuff and Shimano make decent stuff as well which is easy to find or order out if absotutely needed. Avoid pressfit, OctaIsis and avoid GXP or use a top quality BB with GXP and not stock from SRAM/Truvativ.