Have a Sram X01 cranes which came with the bike and a GXP BB.

GXP BB seems naff bearing wise and they have that inner collar on the bearing.

Hope and Chris King are great but they are just bearings in an external shell?

Can I fit an XT HT2 BB with adaptors? XT much cheaper. I’m confused about what fits?

Fit the hope with a GXP adaptor from hope will last really well. The XT might work right with the adaptor but who knows.
Hope and CK have better seals, possibly better tolerances etc.

Slightly off topic re the original question, I went through the same scenario as you.

GXP bb failed really quickly. Regreased the bearings and it came back to life briefly.

Swapped for an Uber Bikes gxp bb.

Mine has lasted a lot better than the original gxp bracket and not needed re greasing yet.

I had a GXP BB last about 6 months of occasional riding. Replaced it with a Hope BB with adapter about when I started MTBing regularly – which ended up on its third frame and third set of cranks before it needed new bearings (about six years on). Never regreased the original bearings either.

For the Sram cranks you’ll have to use a GXP BB, or another BB with adapters such as Hope.
My GXP BB has been in a year so far and still feels smooth, maybe I’m just lucky.
Hope BB is good quality and worth the investment, just remove it if you ever sell the bike, I sold mine with the frame and kind of wished I hadn’t 😐

my hope gpx bb with adaptors on a sram crank has lasted nearly 3 years so far, so i recommend them.
The stock bb at £20 or whatever they were back then seem far to cheap to me to even bother trying.

Anyone got any good tips for getting a hope gxp adaptor back out of a hope bb? I’ve tried but can’t separate the 2 pieces at all.

thin bladeed screwdriver between the 2 bits, it wasnt tight at all.

Never have issues with GXP BBs. The bearings are standard cartridge bearings. The problems have mainly been the outer seal / dust caps. Particularly the drive side which tended to work its way out. Rubber o-rings in the gap on the drive side sorts that out, but I’ve found the new BBs hold the cap in better anyway.

But regardless, it’s a £20 replacement. I go through them once a year or two and no hassle to replace the BB. Assuming threaded. If you’ve got push fit, then god help you.

Problem is GXP BB’s take the axial load all on the NDS bearing (hence the extended inner race), the bearing also has a circlip on the outside to stop the bearing from coming out.

The drive side bearing also tends to get forced out of the shell too via precession (it’s not precession but I don’t know what else you’d call it) so have a circlip too.

No one else seems to but the f***ing circlip in their BB. And the plastic top hats stop the whole thing creaking.

Basically, the best options seem to replace the BB for £20 every so often, I don’t find them too band now, they’ve improved from the original ones. Or buy shimano (the best option).

I went the Hope route on my Pugsley after going through loads of SRAM BBs . The Hope has been good but that axial load isn’t ideal. A friend has had the NDS bearing slide out of the Hope shell whilst riding along. I have used a SRAM NDS with a shimano DS and that worked ok without the plastic hat problems that the SRAM suffered from.

If Shimano did a fat bike chainset I’d go for one.

thisisnotaspoon – Member
Problem is GXP BB’s take the axial load all on the NDS bearing (hence the extended inner race), the bearing also has a circlip on the outside to stop the bearing from coming out.

The drive side bearing also tends to get forced out of the shell too via precession (it’s not precession but I don’t know what else you’d call it) so have a circlip too.
No circlip on the hope one. Bearings never fallen out in about 6000km overall on GXP setups over a couple of bikes. Also not seen that happen on any other GXP type bikes – with the advent of SRAM winning at 11sp here they are quite popular.