Started with a little bit of play last ride, no clicking.

Lasted about a year on some of the grittiest terrain and a fair amount of use. Is this acceptable today? Got an old heap of a Schwinn, BB must have lasted 5+ years before it developed play.

Hope? Doesn’t that mean having to swap out crank too? I need to get better with the spanners…

The Raceface X-type BB is “Shimano” compatible, so a Hope will do it.

Hope will be compatible, but is 4x more than a shimano XTR from Rose bikes (also compatibe with race face). Hope might last about 4x longer though. I prefer to use the shimano ones and replace approximatley annualy/18 months/2 years as I think it’s probably better VFM in the long term.

IME it tends to be one really bad ride/weekend/week that kills them off eventualy, so at least with cheeper/disposable ones you get 4 nasty days/weekends/weeks whereas the hope could go in the first year if the conditions were really bad! Got a Chris king (second hand) on my SS which is also lovely, but eyewarteringly expensive.

Change the bearings in the Raceface – Kaesae

A lump of edam will be better than a Raceface BB, IMO

Hope FTW

Change the bearings in the Raceface – Kaesae

I probably should do this and upgrade rather than £25+ a time in BBs. I’m lazy though.

Is Rose bikes the place to go for BBs? Looked on the usual suspects and bikediscount.de

EDIT £90 for a Chris King oowee. Hope at £65ish is a good deal if it does last 4 times longer than RaceFace would.

Got a Hope ceramic 4 years ago, used with RaceFace cranks. Remove, clean, replace every 3 months or so, more if weather really bad, takes about half an hour, still spins smooth as anything.

I have neglected the RaceFace, just reading so many ‘like cheese’ reports on here and elsewhere is putting me off buying the same again.

Oh before anyone says it my bike’s never seen a pressure washer.

I’ve had a few raceface BBs. 2 have been fine, one was awful. Wouldn’t buy another from choice but partly because Rose bikes sells Shimano ones dirt cheap.

So in conclusion:

Shimano if you want to replace it annualy for ~£15
Hope if you want to have to take it appart every 3 months, but it’ll last 4+ years, but cost 4x more in the first place.

Something like this

http://www.rosebikes.co.uk/article/shimano-xtr-bottom-bracket-cups-hollowtech-ii-sm-bb90/aid:274227

Then will I be able to do this?

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSzQsDacwDI[/video]

Just to counteract the “made of cheese” theory, my RF team issue BB has been in for 18months, ridden through all kinds of wet & gritty shite and still spins as smooth as a smooth thing.

It’s never been taken off & cleaned/greased since I fitted it. I’d have another to be fair

Mine’s been good til now steve and it’s had a hard 12 months with 😳 no maintenance.

Or these

http://www.rosebikes.co.uk/article/shimano-bottom-bracket-cups-hollowtech-ii-sm-bb80/aid:330942

bllllllllllllllling

I had a RaceFace Evolve crank with Xtype BB. it was 18 months before i noticed the wear in the bearings.

I replaced it with a hope BB as i already had the headset, and finishing kit and it was Red. Ive taken the hope cups out once when i replaced the frame a year after and they still looked brand new, Still using it. haven’t used the bike for a while after travelling and having a job overseas. but i know when i get back to ride it it will be silky smooth.

that rose bike, shimano deal is awesome!

I think BB80 and BB90 are the same (because BB50/BB60/BB70 are deore, slx, XT) 80 is XTR, so 90 is the yumeva (sp?), so like XTR but blinger, wish I’d seen it now, just bought 2 grey XTR’s!

Have had a Chris King on my bike for a very long time and completely forgot I had it. Says it all really.

RaceFace BBs are awful, it took me six months during the summer of 2006 to kill mine. 2006 was a particularly dry summer too.

Within eighteen months the splines on my Evolve XC cranks died too. They began to loosen themselves within a few minutes of riding and no amount of retightening would cure it.

The best strategy to prolong the shelf life of RaceFace cranks is to leave them on the shelf and fit either Truvativ or preferably Shimano alternatives instead if you want to do any actual riding. Lesson learned the expensive way here, won’t be troubling RaceFace’s sales dept anytime soon. 🙁

My RF went for well over 2 years before the Wyre forest mud finally killed it.

Replaced with a Hope stainless which is still going strong 2 years on, little to no maintenance on either.

I killed a RF X-type BB with half a lap of the Whinlatter Enduro last year.
My record though was an RF ISIS BB which lasted 1 1/2 hours in the Peak…

+1 Hope Stainless Steel

So it looks like Shimano for about £16 then.

RaceFace sounds like luck of the draw with maybe 25% having good fortune.

I’d like to go Hope but don’t have the pennies right now.

Thanks for all your advice peeps.

Ordered the XTR because the others have sold out, only to receive an email from someone at Rose bikes 5 minutes later saying XTR BB and RaceFace evolve cranks aren’t compatible.

Hope the STW massive is right and Herr Schmitt isn’t

Well I’m running Deus cranks in a XTR BB with no issues, just folow the (Race Face) instructions carefully (and be prepared to order a few spacers off CRC if it needs them).

Yeah I thought I might have to do that notaspoony

I’ve had no problems running a couple of set of RF Atlas cranks on a whole range of BBs, including both Shimano road and mtb ones. As thisisnotaspoon said, follow the instructions and be careful with your spacers!

RaceFace instructions, where might I find them? Watched a few vids on spacing on YouToob.

http://www.raceface.com/installation-instructions/

Probably this one to be precise?
http://www.raceface.com/instructions/CRANKS/Evolve%20XC%20%2705-%2707_XTYPE-Crankset.pdf

Thanks jonathan.

This is a discussion about bearing quality no more, any cups will be fine in my experience. I used a shimano deore bb on my raceface cranks after the bearings went tits up. After that I bought a job lot of the enduro bearings in a fit of recycling and have had zero issues with them so far.

But that shimano at rose bikes for 16 euros is way cheaper than the enduros. Looks like a winner every time.

I like RF cranks and normally just install them with the supplied BB knowing I will be replacing it within 6 months or so. I fitted a Hope Ceramic BB with my RF Deus cranks two years ago and it still runs very smooth. I have had it serviced twice in that time, no issues either time. Shimano XT/XTR also very good, I just prefer the Hope.