I have a CAADX which is BB30. Everyone knows BB30 is the spawn of the Devil and mine needs a good fettle every few hundred miles to remain quiet. I’ve tried bearing compound to glue the bearings in and glue the bearings to the chainset spindle. No dice, re grease every 300-400 miles for silence.

I decided to fit an FSA BB30-BSA sleeve and a 105 chainset for a more permanent solution. Unfortunately, the sleeve won’t fit as there’s a ~1mm machined step up inside the BB shell which stops the sleeve being pressed in.

I’m not keen on the two part 30mm/24mm step down press in adapters as they look like they could replace one squeak with another which leaves the expanding collet (Praxis/Wheels) design as an option.

Anyone fitted these and if so, will they clear the 1mm step within the shell? I.e. what diameter do they step down to once inboard of the bearings?

Any other cunning plans? Ta.

I have a Wheels manufacturing on my main off road bike, no issues or squeaks – just over 2K miles so far

They are supposed to be press fit and have an O ring – I bonded the shell in anyway to make sure and will swap the bearings when they need it.

I’ve just fitted a wheels manufacturing BB92 to my FSer, bloody 60 quid for a BB, never spent that on a BB but then I’ve never had the creaking like that from a screw in. Hopefully this one will last a while.

The single worst bike standard change there is – going from threaded to press fit.

Probably too late now… How long is the driveside part (i.e. far into the shell does it go) and what’s the OD of the threaded part please? Does that make sense?

Got the adaptors to run XT cranks on BB30 and has been silent ever since. The creaking is from the steel axle creaking on the inner race of the bearing. The adaptor and smaller axle separates the issue and so glad I did it, before I binned the bike.

The causes seem to be a subject which raises semi religious zeal…

Some suggest it’s the bearings creaking in the shell, others suggest the spindle creaking inside the bearing and there are reported issues with the plastic 24mm step down adapters creaking….

I’m looking for a permanent solution which doesn’t exchange the existing compromise with another…

Well for me, I have had 500 or so miles of peaceful riding by fitting the adaptors, so for sake of £20 , they have made me enjoy the bike and not sound like a ten quid banger bike.

It’s been a while since i’ve stripped a CAAD BB assembly,so i’m a little rusty on it, but i’m not recalling any steps in the shell, just a circlip for the bearing to seat against.I may be completely wrong on this, but you aren’t confusing these circlips for the step, are you?

Pretty happy BB30 owner here.

In the first year I did change them a couple of times and they have been blamed wrongly for creaks that came from elswhere, pedals, headsets, skewers etc.

The most recent set were fsa (which were on offer from on one ) I used some bearing compound which I had bought for a headset and they’ve now been in for 8000+km without an issue, took the crank out recently to clean the bike and even the drive side is still smooth.

Persevere would be my suggestion?

Yes the creaking noise is caused by the alloy axle moving microscopically and fretting inside the bearing inner races as evidenced by this picture:

The cure is to clean and refit with bearing fit compound. Smear it on the axle on the drive side and inside the bearing on the non-drive side so as to give it the best chance of not being “wiped” off as you reinsert the axle. This has permanently cured the noise on both my and my buddy’s FSA BB30 chainsets in carbon bikes.

You could try one of these: http://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/BBTPBB30/tripeak-bb30-converter

I have the equivalent PF30 sleeve, but not installed it yet. From the installation video I think it’ll accommodate the 1mm step within the shell that you described.

@coatsey. Definitely a step inboard of the driveside circlip. I had both circlips out and the step was still there…..

@globalti. I recall your post on this before and tried that approach. You look like you have some galling on your spindle (!). Mine’s nice and shiny… I think my bearings are creaking in the shell though I can’t prove it.

@towiu.That looks like it’s probably 42mm OD for its full length. She won’t go in Captain…

I’m going to try the Wheels Man. unit as it steps down to 37mm OD 8mm from the driveside so it should clear the machined upstand. I’ll report back…

My superx used to suffer the same issue, replaced bearings with INA items squirt a good amount of grease in before building and no more issues.

Hmmmmm. Dilemma number 3 please. I can get the Wheels Man. thingumybob with Enduro bearings for £40. A pair of decent bearings will cost £20-£25 and they may still creak. I’ve tried cleaning, greasing, glueing the bearings to the crank spindle and glueing the bearings into the shell (‘glue’ as in bearing fit compound). All lasted a bit before creaking again.

Same boat as me Boblo, even Cannondale importers had a go. All failed……. Wheels adaptors worked for me , as said before. Must have fitted a half dozen sets of bearings.

Would the hope screw together bb not work?

I hate pressfit, who’s responsible for it? There’s got to be ‘a guy’ out there, probably keeping his head down 🙂

Dunt look like Hope do a BB30 42MM dia x 68mm long one. I’ll give the Wheels one a go and see how we get on. It’s double guaranteed by Thrustyjust so I’m sure he’ll see me roight if it doesn’t work… 🙂

Just to ask a really stupid question… are you sure it is a true BB30? Some newer Cannondale frames have “BB30” stickers on the downtube when they in fact use a PF30 BB, they refer to anything with a 30mm spindle as “BB30”.

No it’s BB30. Either that, or I’ve got a free pair of circlips and they’ve forgotten the plastic inserts…

Good point though. Make sure you know what you’re on about before buying/bashing or it could get a tad annoying… 🙂

my 2015 Cannondale Super Six Evo 105 has PF30 with Cannondale’s own aluminium alloy cups pressed into the PF30 frame shell, and then BB30 bearings pressed into those cups

Of course after 2 weeks it was creaking like a old door so I ditched the FSA chainset and put a Wheels PF30 BB in there and Wheels nylon adapters for Shimano Ultegra HT2 crank – this stops any metal on metal (bearing to crank axle) contact which prevents fretting corrosion and creaking

If you know Shimano HT2, they designed their system with a nylon top hat on each HT2 bearing to achieve the same aim- a problem with many of the conversion BB is they have an oversized bearing with no nylon top hat, meaning the HT2 axle is against the metal bearing seat.

I’ve had conversion BB’s before and generally found after a few weeks of wet weather or bike washing any grease between crank axle and metal bearing has flushed out, creaking starts, becomes a regular boring maintenance chore to remove and refit with fresh grease

@esher. How’s it held up? Any squeeeeeeks?

Just had another look at the Wheels/BB30 adapter and it doesn’t seem to have any top hats (not even a fedora). Hope this isn’t the start (continuation) of something painful :-/

By comparison my Wheels MFG adapter was the noisiest option I tried and seemed to make BB30 even worse 🙄

Bolleaux Dan, that’s not the most helpful thing you could have posted :-/

Sorry! The cure for me was actually to stick to a BB30 crank and let my LBS loose with their BB30 dark arts. I bought another BB30 bike which came with a Shaminao crank from the factory and this build used a Token metal press in adapter (like this one) which has been very solid too.

Has anyone tried ceramic bearings? Put a set in a customers bike last week, my initial thought was wtf… £200 for bearings! Be interesting to see how they fair..

I’m not convinced it’s the bearings at fault so changing steel balls for ceramic may not fix it.

In my case, I think it’s either the bearing/shell interface, the chainset spindle/bearing interface or maybe the bearings (or all 3…). I’ve tried glueing the bearing into the shell and glueing the bearing to the crank spindle with bearing compound and it creaks again after a few hundred miles. I’ve also had the bearing shields off and regreased the balls/races. I’m certain the retaining bolt is at correct torque as well so don’t think it’s that.

It is a puzzle :-/

I’ve had some cheap ebay bearings in my caadx for a year now,so you’re probably right when you say its not the bearings.