Having had HT2 on my mtb’s for years and having little issues I seem to be having the opposite on my road bike.
The chainset is a 105 compact, the bearings (last two sets) are shimano R800. The frame is faced and the instillation is (in my experience) correct. Full length mud guards with a flap.
The problem is creaking and poor life span. I’m getting about 3k km out of a set before the creaking and clicking drives me mad and I change them out. The last set lasted a little longer with a re pack of marine grease. The current set started to click after 700km. Re greased and they are silent for the time being. I noticed in the last strip that the axle appears to be getting a witness mark on the non drive side were the bearing is situated. This surprised me as the shimano bearing uses a plastic insert. The wear seems superficial as the dia was 24.98 but it is still wear.
I had considered hope as an alternative but thought the steel bearing on the axle would be even worse?
After having SQ taper middleburns on my other bike, I am struggling to see the benefit of sticking with HT2.
What’s your experience with Road HT2?

Almost infinite lifespan. Like years/thousands and thousands of miles.

Too much preload would be my guess without seeing the bike.

As above always worth being gentle with preload.

Was it faced by the factory/you/shop?. I wouldn’t trust factory facing personally, if it’s painted then it’s not faced properly. My mate killed a HL2 BB in two weeks on a brand new bike, turns out it was about 2mm out in width on just one half of one side of the shell :S (that’s the worst I’ve seen on a new bike though).

I couldn’t ever prevent road HT2 making noises. Tried everything. Three chainsets, torque wrench, the works, tested on multiple frames with multiple pedals and so on. No idea why, but it was a no from me.

Converted to GXP. Silent, easier to install and remove, never had a problem.

Square taper obviously still rocks. It’s just a wee bit heavier.

YMMV, obvs.

The frame was faced and chased on initial build by my LBS. I watched the guy do it.
My experience is that I’m an engineer.
Pre load is very light using a park tool hand held thingamabob.
My ht 2 mtb bb last forever which is the confusing thing.
I am under the assumption that all shimano HT2 bb’s are the same? Just different shades and weight?
Would a hope be any better?
Try a different chain set seems the straight forward option, but if I’m going to do that I may as well go back to SQ taper.

4 bikes in the household with road HT2, two with Ultegra, two with 105 chainsets.
BBs are the cheapest ones they do, as I am tight. Two carbon frames (one with push fit to BSA adapter) & two alu.
No issues with any of them and the newest one is just over a year old.

My experience is that I’m an engineer.

Boom. All other advice is now 100% irrelevant.

Like Scotroutes mine last thousands of miles, on all my bikes, always have.

What’s your experience with Road HT2?

Thousands and thousands of miles.
I currently have a Hope one that just refuses to die, the 105 version before that lasted well over 5000 miles and is still good enough for my turbo bike.

Similar experience – no issues with any ht2 road BB, they just last and last.

I’ve got a Hope HT2 BB on my work bike, which is ridden all year round and it has behaved perfectly for the best part of two years now.

No issues here either, changed one BB in about 6 years on the winter bike…ridiculously cheap and long lasting.

Are the pinch bolts correctly torqued?

Pre load is very light using a park tool hand held thingamabob.

Not enough preload allowing a little bit of play?

My commuter is on it’s second HT2 BB from new, 12500+ miles so far, first one was replaced when it started developing play, new one is still going strong. No noise from either ever.

Same with me, they last ages.

I have literally no preload on the bearings though, I do it up, then back right off.

I often get clicking but it *always* comes from the pedals.

Are you sure it’s BB wear that is causing the noise.

The HTII BB on my Inbred gets similarly noisy & it seems to be due to dust/dirt/crud working its way in between the spacers & the BB shell.

A 10 min ‘remove, clean & replace’ will restore it to silence for another X months until it starts again.

Not had it with any other HTII installation; only on my Inbred.

As an engineer you must understand that HT2 is a fundamentally flawed design. Facing the bottom bracket only assures that the faces of the bearings are co-planar, they could still be on a different axis, which will kill them.

Got HT2 on the MTB and they last pretty well. Got GXP on the commuter and they generally need replacing every 2000 miles. In theory I prefer GXP as you torque them up to a specific tightness, as opposed to HT2 which is “finger tight” for the preload. Unfortunately SRAM GXP bearings seem to be made of cheese.

One thing I’ve found is that intermittent use rather than regular frequent use seems to kill BB bearings quicker. Guess any water gets to pool in there and work on a specific part of the bearing longer.