Any recommendations?

Done Shimano, Raceface all made of cheese and string.

I’ve had a hope ceramic and not touched it for 3 years…. Still smooth too.

I like Hope stainless and Shimano.. never had a problem with either

un54

may well go back to square taper!

My shimano BBs on various bikes for various uses all last for years. User error?

are ‘what BB?’ threads the new ‘what (shoes for) flat pedals/tyres?’ threads?

anyway…

Chris King
Hope
Uberbike
Gusset

(in descending order of blingness/price)

and just in case: AM41’s, dmr v8’s, and on-one smorgasboard’s.

Hope or King

I’ve always gone through bottom brackets like there’s no tomorrow. I bought a P7 last year with standard cheapo Shimano cranks on a square taper bottom bracket. I thought to myself, I’ll definitely upgrade those

But 18 months later, they’re still there, and not a squeek of protest from the BB. God knows how many external BB’s I’b have been through in 18 months. A good few, I’m reckoning!

All these (sometimes stupidly expensive) bottom brackets are a solution for a problem that didn’t exist. Square taper is fine. If I want something a bit more bling, I’ll be buying Middelburn square tapar cranks

bought a un26 square taper about 6 week ago on my tourer.
i have just replaced it this morning…….. 🙁

only a tenner from EBC tho…… 😀

Hope bearings are 2x the cost of an XT b/b from Germany, and mine hasn’t lasted twice as long.

I used to get 3 years+ out of square taper.

Overtightening your Shimano? They last well these days normally.

Biggest advantage Hope has is that they resist hamfistedness so people who kill Shimanos in 5 minutes get better results from them 😉

I went back to my old Octalink chainset on my mtb.

Coming up for 20 months on a Race Face BB in my fatbike and it’s beginning to squeak a bit. Mind you, it’s been pretty harshly treated, what with salt water immersions and so on.

Otherwise, I’ve managed to wear out one GXP and one XTR BB in 8 years and many thousands of miles of cycling. I’d say that was pretty acceptable.

No over tightening, used a Park tools for it as well.
Rode autumn,winter and the supposed spring that was winter…

whats the cause of failure, does a ball bearing dissolve or is wear on the cups?

* wonders if it’s time to mention BB facing…. * 😆

binners – Member

All these (sometimes stupidly expensive) bottom brackets are a solution for a problem that didn’t exist.

1) a gusset bb costs £24
2) i’m hugely grateful that i no longer need to prat about with crank extractors.

rocky mountain – Member

whats the cause of failure, does a ball bearing dissolve or is wear on the cups?

in the dead shimano BB’s i looked in, they had succumbed to water/muck getting past the pathetic seals, the gusset ext24 is very well protected.

Latest XT BB lasted 2 years which I think is reasonable given the bike is ridden in all weathers and the gritty mud round here.

Replaced it with an XTR BB from Rose Bikes (got a spare at the same time). You can fit 3 XTR bottom brackets for the price of a Hope so it makes sense.

Hope 3+ years on 2
Shimano fitted to the missus bike brand new by a competent mechanic (who I trust) properly 6 months in dry dusty Oz.

I got a hope for the new bike.

what Neninja said, can’t be bother wasting money on anything else, though the gusset BB sounds reasonable.

I seem to kill Shimanos after a wet ride.

I am about to try Hope.

When Hollowtech II first came out I did get through a few BB’s. Shimano’s lasted a few months before the drive side bearing went. A race face BB lasted about 10 rides.

I’ve got two Hope stainless BB’s both are getting on for 5 years old and are on the original bearings.

Third bike has a shimano BB and is still going strong.

To be fair I think most external BB’s are pretty good these days. Shimano certainly seemed to have sorted out whatever was killing their BB’s

Not sure I would spend the extra on a new Hope BB these days as the Shimano ones do seem sorted and are very cheap

Hope lasted 3 + years. replaced by a Raceface which has done 18 months pretty happily.

What do you have to do to destroy a BB in one ride?

You can fit 3 XTR bottom brackets for the price of a Hope so it makes sense.

My Hopes last more than 3x longer than properly fitted shimano’s for me. Hope wins hands down.

Hollowtech 1 is the future!

My hope is going on 3 years on original bearings.
Took it off to clean it last week and the bearings still felt new.

3 years on my Hope BB now, and one bearing has finally gone.

Presumably there are other BBs that have double seals these days (Gusset?).

What do you have to do to destroy a BB in one ride?

Not fit it correctly…

Shimano SLX external on my singlespeed – 4 years and counting.

Was that Ocatlink?

I still have the race face deuce xc bb/crankset on my bike as originally fitted in 2008, sparse use as a race bike for 2 years then became my main bike so at least 3 years of hard riding and k’s of miles on it now and it is still fine. If you read the web forums you would assume I would have needed 10 of them by now. Other bikes have had various shimano stuff including road bike that has a shimano exage BB as originally fitted circa 92. The only massive grief I have ever had was cheap square tapper bbs on an old commuter. My personal belief is it’s all down to how they are assembled and fitted.

I did manage to kill a deore in one ride. Not really the correct choice for endurance downhill racing, it felt like it had square bearings in it by the end of the day. Now replaced with Saint! Every non-deore Shimano BB I’ve used has lasted acceptably- not amazingly mind, talking a year or so in an all-weather bike used often, which is not bad.

Oh aye, XTR- not really convinced it’s any better than XT, they’re different when you open them up but the lifespan seems much the same. But Deore is a lot worse.

My EXT24’s on its second set of bearings and might just get its third before we go out to france, but that’s been well over 2 years. But it takes standard bearings so you’re not tied to overpriced replacements like Hope.

I’ve had a lot of luck recently with Shimano BBs. The most recent one (an XTR from Rose) has lasted 2 years of peaks grit and abuse, riding regularly. So I don’t really understand the role for Hope / Chris King in that context.

Maybe my Yeti is better than my old frame because it’s been faced. Maybe that’s the difference 😐

Pedal less?

I’ve gone for an XTR from Rose recently. Did think about Hope but though 3 XTR might out last one Hope

Mikewsmith – it was indeed Octalink and they do square taper as well. I’ve tried several types of outboard bearings and all have failed. I’d much rather have the bearings directly over the BB threads. Seems to make a lot more engineeringy sense especially with soft alloy frames.

2 years and counting on an slx, and that includes all year commuting at 100 miles/week 🙂