I’m getting sick of the rate at which I’m going through Shimano XT BBs, and the fact that the bearings are non-standard sizes so I have to bin the whole thing instead of just replacing the bearings.
Just a standard 6805 2RS no?
I’m eyeing up Hope or possibly Pace replacements but IMO any external BB is going to suffer the same ingress problems regardless of bearing quality, so I want one that uses standard sized bearings if at all possible.
Yup, they all suffer the same way, kind of doesn’t matter the bearing quality (to an extent, wouldn’t put el super cheapo ones in myself) it’s more to do with the sealing… And packing them full of grease, as just about all bearings come bone dry from the factory!
Hency why Chris King designed their BB to be purged with grease regularly (by their grease purge tool you can buy) which prolongs the life massively.
To be fair, buy ANY HT2 BB, lift the seals on the bearings, pack full of grease, and you will get a lot longer life out of it than you would if you don’t. And an XT BB is much cheaper than most of the competition.
FWIW, I’ve had very good success with a Superstar SKF bearinged BB on one of my bikes by just putting a decent amount of grease in the bearings, a BB people have known to last a very short amount of time despite having perhaps the best quality bearings you can buy fitted…