How quick do people go through bb’s?
Lots people complain in our shoop that their bb has worn out in a year, I’ve gone through them in a matter of months before. Do other people just buy new ones and get on with it, or do you complain?

I usually complain that I’ve not been riding my bike enough if it takes a year to wear out.

hope

Proper pre-load and a shitload of extra grease before I put it on and my Saint one has done about a year and is still running smooth.

slx has lasted me two years of 70 miles/week all weather off road/canal path commuting, plus 40ish miles week weekend riding. In that time I’ve gone through 4 chains, 2 front rings and 2 cassettes so pretty satisfied with the BB.

Octalink in main bike, 3 years, mega miles and still smooth. When i does finaly go i am going to replace it with another Octalink.

4 years from the XTs on my bikes.

3 bearing in 4 years on my hope.

In correct pre load is a great way to accelerate the wear on your BB in my experience.

I usually use cheap Deores which last me a year – anywhere between 500-1000 miles.

I treated meself after Xmas with a Chris King that Evans were selling 35% off – 300 miles already this year, seems to be holding up!

External BB’s have an inherent design fault, the none drive side BB (9 out of ten time goes 1st) suffers from what is thrown up by the front tyre (water being the main culprit). The drive side BB has a lot of protection from this from chain rings/spider/chain, so suffers less from water ingress. Which is the most common and quickest way to **** the bearings. Because the none drive side bearings usually go 1st, there is a common misconception that the bearing preload is too much, and caused by numpty fitting. My personal opinion is, “thats B*^”0cks. The preload nut on the none drive side exerts equal force on the bearings of both sides by pushing the none drive side arm in and pulling the drive side arm towards it ! the forces applied by this little nut are minimal compared to the pedalling forces applied through these bearings. What you need is a protective shield on the none drive side (like this) to keep the crap out 😉

Internal BB is the answer. They last forever by comparison to external BB’s.

Went back to square taper internal BB about 3 years ago with some nice Middleburn cranks.

External bb’s are crap.