hope stainless or token ceramic bottom bracket. about the same money. what would you buy??? or is a waste and just get a shimano £22 job???

Yes I'm wondering this too

come on you lot! answers please!

Never had a problem with good ol' Shimanos meself. (I'm sure someone will be along soon that has though)

Edit: 2.5 years is reasonable for an XTR? + the XT in my Handjob is over 3 years old.

I'm not sure what the benefits of a ceramic bearing is. It costs more. Ceramic bearings in industry are for high temperature application as far as I am aware. I have had a hope ceramic BB for just over 1 year and the non drive side now needs replacing. I will replace it with a steel bearing

The Token ceramic bearings appear to spin incredibly freely. This probably means there's no seals to drag, so they last 3 seconds. I'd have one though.

i don`t think hope is any better than shimano.Although hope do replace them without any questions asked

I've got a Hope SS in my Demo7 and it's been faultless so far.

no defo`s yet then, as always six of one and half a dozen of the others. i suppose its down to how much crap gets thrown over it and how often. as above ceramic bearings are for high temp situations so its probably bling for blings sake? not good to see a hope ceramic knackered after a year, but what sort of use was that seeing?? probably going to go for XTR 31.99 delivered on FEEbay

Go Shimano.

didnt stir as much deep thought as i presumed, if no one is going to lay the law down. shimano it is!

Shimano is about £25, Hope about £70 so your break even point is if the Hope lasts about 3 times as long. I get about 2 1/2 years from a Shimano, so Hope is not looking to be a good bet for me.

i've got two hope stainless jobbies, i like tham and think definitely longer lasting than shimano BB's.
in my experience however, making any HTII BB last for a good length of time involves stripping out the seals and regreasing the bearings at fairly regular intervals- especially if you rack up the miles and/or ride in the wet a lot.

i have just bathed my bb bearings in white spirit to completely remove the old brown sludge and repacked them with grease and they are better than they have ever been. like the old days of bearings and cups just a little trickier getting seals off without breaking them. cost 50 pence worth of materials. the best bottom bracket you can get!!!

replace the bearings in your shimano cups, its really easy; I got 5 bearings (plenty for spares) for £9 off ebay and before anyone says they will be really sh*te i reckon they will be a similar spec to the shimano ones.

i been using an acros ceramic bb on my demo9 for 2yrs now and its still going strong