I gave my bike it’s annual clean today as the sun was out. Sadly, there’s play in the BB and more sadly it’s BB30. I’m not too upset as the BB lasted longer than the Avid brakes but would like to know if there any well sealed, long lasting BB30 bearings out there?

Or should I buy the Praxis Works adapter and fit my XT cranks?

I’ve got both a praxis works and a wheels manufacturing angular contact, both work great neither creak and you can replace the bearings easily in both and they both use Enduro bearings. Depends what you want to do.

If you want to keep the BB30 then go for the wheels one if it’s using shimano cranks get the praxis.

HTH

pressfit im guessing?

BB30 press fit into carbon 🙁

Hope have one on the way very soon.

Isn’t that PF30 then?

I have a BB30 and its the best bottom standard IMO, light, stiff cranks, easily replaced readily available bearings.

GUIDE

Praxis works works

It’s definitely BB30. It says so on the cranks and I’ve seen the bearings pressed into the frame with my very own eyes. I knew about the Hope PF30 BB. I realise that I’m just asking “what bearing is best” as far as sticking with BB30 goes.

I doubt there’s much difference among the std stuff.

Id pre fill.

They are all the same really IMO. It is a standard bearing exposed to a fair amount of gunk. It seems to be the quality of the frame that is the biggest influence in bearing life/ squeaks. I’ve used the Cannondale ones before and kept them greased and am now on a fancy pants ceramic BB30 set of bearings that are no different really. Just put in something from a respected manufacturer that doesn’t cost the earth and keep ’em greased and you’ll be fine 😀

PS. I’ve tried various adapters and they all creak at some stage and completely negate one of the cool things about BB30 which is the simplicity and low weight (plus I iz well weightweenie) 😳

Cant remember the bearing number 6806 ?? possibly, you’ll find it by googling or someone may post it. You can then buy them online from bearings r us type places.

You can get various standards going from about £3 to £10 each for SKF or FAG. I’ve only ever used the cheap ones because its all the local bearing shop keeps in stock, they’ve been fine.

What’s good?

A) You get a new one every six months
B) you may never be in danger of having too much cash.

Hth.

Google suggests you are right wilburt

I’m on my second bike with the FSA ceramic bb30 that came with my slk carbon cranks.

Sold the last bike,pulled the bb out and put it in my new bike with k-force cranks.
Added ceramic lube with the supplied syringe and it still feels like new.

Too much preload on any bb will destroy bearings pretty quickly so careful with your install.

It’s definitely BB30. It says so on the cranks and I’ve seen the bearings pressed into the frame with my very own eyes. I knew about the Hope PF30 BB. I realise that I’m just asking “what bearing is best” as far as sticking with BB30 goes.

Without trying to sound condescending, you are somewhat confused. Here’s a couple of pics and an explanation…

A BB30 “Bottom Bracket”

A PF30 Bottom Bracket

The difference between the two is that with BB30, the BB is just a pair of 6806-2RS bearings that sit directly into the frame. With PF30, you have 2 of the same bearings sat inside a pair of cups that press into the frame. BOTH use the same bearing size, and BOTH use BB30 cranks (BB30 came before PF30, and PF30 was created around the BB30 crank standard). So as you will see, the fact that your cranks say “BB30” on them doesn’t mean it’s necessarily a BB30 BB in there. It might still be a PF30.

Basically, you need to work out whether you’ve got just a pair of bearings in the BB that just push in (pretty much by hand) to the BB shell, or whether you have a pair of cups with the bearings pre-inserted, that are then pressed into a slightly larger BB shell.

BB30 bearings don’t tend to last very long. But they’re cheap… Doesn’t cost much to buy a pair of 6806 bearings every few months to be fair. PF30 BB’s use the same bearings, BUT… A PF30 BB is £37 (or more) which is about 3 times as much as a pair of bearings costs generally. Which is generally why PF30 is generally seen as a ballache in comparison to BB30.

The benefit to PF30 is it doesn’t rely on such high manufacturing tolerances by the frame manufacturer as BB30 does. If you’ve got a BB30 frame that the bearings pretty much fall out of when you remove the crank, game over… It’s time for a new frame! PF30 kind’ve allows for much bigger tolerances in the BB shell compared to BB30.

Hope that makes some sense.

Mboy – it’s exactly as the first one. Bearings pressed into the frame, not a cup, seem with my own eyes.

The Praxis conversion kit allows a normal XT crank to be used in a BB30 frame (and PF30 but as I don’t have one I’m not worried about that.
http://praxiscycles.com/conversion-bb/

I’ve knocked the bearings out of my PF30 cups and replaced the bearings (with BB30 ones – they are the same, no?) (the cups were fine). Is this not the done thing??? Seems to be working fine…

What’s good? The constant creaking reminds you that you’re still pedalling?

Endless hours of fun of ‘find the creak’?

Tried cheap bearings, didn’t last long, put some INA ones in and they have been spot on for the past few months. If you do buy cheap it’s worth popping the seals off and getting as much grease in there as you can before popping the seal back on.

The Praxis conversion kit allows a normal XT crank to be used in a BB30 frame (and PF30 but as I don’t have one I’m not worried about that.

To be honest, I’d not bother. Just buy some more 6806-2RS bearings (in fact buy 10 and get em cheaper) and replace often. BB30 works really well, just that the bearings don’t last all that long, but at least it’s cheap to bung some new bearings in and get rid of the creak each time.

The Praxis converter BB is good, but it’s not cheap and you’d have to buy a new crank too.