It was more than just a bearing.
When I went to pull my cranks to replace the bb bearings, I noticed the lockring was hanging loose. Only problem is my bb doesn't have a lockring. The flange had sheared off the cup, leaving the remainder flush with the shell.
Removed the other cup, pulled the spindle, and found the drive side cartridge bearing had completely disintegrated. Yet there was no signs of rust or corrosion?
A trip to the hardware store netted me nothing to remove the now flange-less cup.
My solution; carefully applied violent force. I hammered an old bb tool into the spline-less cup and was able to unscrew the it.
So what gives? How is it that a man who shops in the boy's department keeps destroying cranks and bottom brackets?
Fortunately for me, I seem to always have good luck when it comes to hunting down cranks on ebay. Found a XT Hollowtech II set and bottom bracket for $100. I had a set of those before; loved the stiffness, but felt the bb bearing wore too quickly, but maybe with the precision machining of the Phil Wood EBB insert, they'll last longer. One thing I'm pretty sure of, no matter what the bearing life is, I'm pretty certain they won't implode on me.
2 comments:
Is that an ISIS BB? I have a 68 X 113 sitting around that I got with some frame or other. Race Face and pretty smooth. Let me know if you can make use of it and it is yours. I have nothing in ISIS. manicmtbr at aol dot dom.
No, it's not just you, although that BB injury gets a solid '10' for sheer inventiveness and style.
The wonders of ISIS. :) It might be that the drive side cup was overtightened on installation, which might have weakened the flange a little and hurt the bearings a bit - although I found ISIS BBs lasted very little time generally.
You should have more luck with HT II. I've found the Phil Wood replacement bearings pressed into my XT HT II cups have stayed smooth and generally lovely - it's a little cheaper than buying brand new cups, and so far seems to work pretty well.
Post a Comment