Evening all,

Recently fitted a Hope Press Fit Bottom Bracket (PF46 73-30mm / Steel Bearings / For 73mm Full Width).

Fitted on to a Specialized Camber Evo. Fitting went well with the Hope tool but the non-drive side bearing felt notchy. I thought it may loosen up and have ridden about 100 miles on it and in the meantime called Hope.

Hope reckoned either the bearing or the frame was outside tolerance and offered to check the bearing if i returned it. Anyway, I just dismantled it all and the bearing had nearly siezed. I’ve cleaned and regreased but it is reluctant to turn.

It seems my options are:

– Remove and refit (requires some whacking with a drift and potentially knackering the bearing).
– Remove and replace (won’t help if the frame is wonky).
– Remove and buy the version with the external cups (another 80 quids).
– Forget about it and replace when it bleeds ball bearings everywhere (risk wearing the crank spindle and getting stranded on the trail).

Or has anyone got any pearls of wisdom?

Cheers!

P.S i should add that on fitting the bearing in question took quite a lot of turns of the Hope tool to get in. It never quite felt like it had seated correctly but i can’t see how it could be wonky as the tool has a flat face.

Bearing out atm? Fire it back to Hope I’d say

I have seen exactly the same thing happen with a Lynskey frame, infact a 2015 and 2016 model. We also tried two of the Hope bottom brackets and determined it was definitely the frame was causing the problem. It was almosst like the bearing was being squashed in the frame which was stopping it from spinning freely.

You could feel a ridge on the inside of the bb shell from the welding which seemed to be the problem.

We solved it by fitting a BB with external bearings and had no issues.

Righto… New bearing ordered. I’ll fit and see how it feels. If its still crap I’ll remove the hope cups and examine the frame with a dremmel.

If it still don’t work I’ll buy the external cup version and try not to think about the 80 quid wasted on the original.

If that doesn’t work I’ll sell the bikes and take up windsurfing or bog snorkelling or something with less bearings.

I’ve done this and had no problems with the Hope kit at all. Not sure it helps other than say there’s someone who had it work as Barnoldswick intended.

Cheers golo. I lay the blame with Specialized before Barnoldswick!

Update: pulled all the gubbins out and fitted a new bearing in the cup but out of the frame. All good. Then fitted in the frame and the bearing felt dreadful. So the frame is the most likely culprit.

I’ve ordered the extenal cups version. On hols next weeek so fingers crossed it’ll fix the problem when i get back as I’ve got a 2 day Welsh ride planned early sept…