Hi,

Looking for some advice as above really. I am running an XT outside bearing BB and the bearings have gone.

Which bearings do I need to buy to replace tehm. I was looking at the Hope bearings on CRC for £28, is this good value, are these the ones I need?

Thanks in anticipation.

Jim

Afraid they won’t fit as they run direct on the axle. Shimano bearings have a 61805-2RS code, however, unless something’s changed recently, they are a different width to those available from bearing suppliers(one is 6mm, one is 7mm, not sure which is which).

As coatesy says, shimano ones are 6mm standard ones are 7mm. Hope are made to their own dimensions. The shimano ones also have custom lips and grooves to hold shields and tophats.

Could you not just knock them in and do away with the top hats

(delete)

I think BETD might do some replacement bearings but maybe pricey.

Oddly i’ve been pondering this recently too.
Hope bearings wont fit Shimano cups, but they will fit, for example Superstar cups….
No reason why they wouldn’t work. Do hopes have top hats etc??

Thanks for the adivce, I presume if the Hope bearings don’t fit that I need to get hold of the ‘special’ Shimano bearings?

Where can you get these, is it cheaper to buy new cups as well?

Jim

Check BETD – they’ll fit enduro bearings (or whatever)

I’ve been running BETD bearings in a XT BB for 6 months now, been ok so far. They are enduro bearings that run direct on the axle so you can do away with the top hat. £20 if you fit them yourself, easy job too.

Shimano prices mean it’ll always be cheaper to get a whole new bb jim. Only about 25 or if you think you might need some chainrings soon then buy a whole chainset now.

betd enduro bearings seem good so far. if you send them the bb they were fitting them for free….

Hmmm,

A whole different question now. BETD Enduro bearings £20 plus postage, or new BB from Shimano £25?

Any thoughts, are the BETD bearings really worth it?

Cheers,

Jim

I bet you the price of an XT BB that this lasts longer than an XT BB, nanielson.

Wow,

Fancy seeing you on here! You reckon that’ll be better than XT, i’ll take your qword for it, will it work with XT cranks or just the Blackspire?

Ta.

Jim

Looks like the Blackspire will work with the XT cranks, another option was the raceface, but was sold out on crc. You can buy all the spares for Raceface to change out just the bearings in future.

Jim

Enduro bearings work out at about £15 per pair when you order 3 pairs from Real World Cycling in the USA (it’s the postage that requires the purchasing of 3 pairs to make it viable). Both my bikes have the non drive side bearing replaced with an Enduro one.

sv
Are you saying that the non drive side bearings fail but the drive side last?
This is what I have found and so have put a LizardSkin head set protector around mine in an atempt to stop the cack getting to it.

Imp999 – yes both mine failed in the same way. The drive side bearings were still smooth and clean, now hoping the Enduro seal cover thing works better than the Shimano approach.

My non-drive-side bearings seem to die quicker as well. Maybe it’s because the drive-side are shielded by the chainrings. Realised I used to lean the bike to the non-drive-side when drying after hosing down and thought that could also be a cause so now remove seatpost and tip upside down to drain.

Any ideas what bearings are in those Blackspire BBs? 7mm 61805-2RS? Full compliment or caged?

Matt

I’ve been using Enduro bearings for a while now and all good so far, the balls are much bigger so in theory should last longer. Some people say they and hope style one are no good as the bearings run directly on the axle, but that’s how bearings are designed to run, but if they do start to go change them sooner rather than later.

2 of these

and

2 of these

will fit xt bb cups

Anyone else using the Blackspire BB? i had one of their chain rings and i wasn’t too impressed with the lifespan of it. Anyone know if the BB’s are any different………
🙂

ash – Member

I bet you the price of an XT BB that this lasts longer than an XT BB, nanielson.
Looks identical to a SuperStar HTII BB including the pink threadlock and clear centre sleeve….

Klunk – Member

2 of these

and

2 of these

will fit xt bb cups
but the bearings are 7mm wide, shimano one’s are 6mm……

but the bearings are 7mm wide, shimano one’s are 6mm……

true, the shimano bearings are 6 mm wide but they have an external 1mm thick bearing seal which “combines” with the top hat. The 7mm bearings in combination with the “conventional” top hat I linked to fit fine.

Out of interest, do the PW ones sit directly on the axle a’la Hope or do they have a plastic seat between the inner race and axle like shimano, only i cant quite work it out from the photo linked?

the phil woods have 25mm internal diameter and need the top hat to shim them to the 24mm of the axle.