I hate pressfit bottom brackets.

I’ve just been trying to remove the one on my road bike so that I can liberally coat it with gloop to try to stop it creaking all the time.

I thought this was easy, but oh! How wrong I was.

With good ‘ol square taper, you just stick the funky spanner on, undo it, and out it comes.

With this, I’ve had to buy a special new tool. I’ve inserted said tool into the frame, whacked it with the biggest hammer I can find, but all that’s come off is the outer most cap. The BB itself is still stuck fast.

It may be great for manufacturers, but it’s a giant step backwards for maintainability. And why was it creaking in the first place? Square taper never creaks.

Tips on where to go from here would be great. But next time I’m buying a bike it will not come with one of these pieces of junk, even if that means a custom steel frame. Bike manufacturers of the world, take note: YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

But next time I’m buying a bike it will not come with one of these pieces of junk

That’s my feeling too.

I was with you until you said square taper never creaks, mind used to creak a treat, hateful things. HT2 however is stiff, easy to service and install, last well and rarely creaks. But yes, press fit is a pain in the derrière.

Which of the many crappy pressfit do you have ? Most can be removed pretty simplely by bashing other than ones that thread into themselves

It’s a BB86 (Giant road bike) and I assume it’s got a BB71 (?) in there. I was hoping to reuse it but I think I’ll have to toss it.

I think I might have more luck if I put the bike on the floor rather than trying to use the bike stand, or possibly resort to some kind of bodge with a bench.

Just purchased a fs frame, one of my few demands was threaded bb.

Hateful pieces of shite

Would I be right assuming press fit is just a cost cutting exercise at manufacture (with savings obviously passed on not trousered) offering nothing in terms of superior performance or longevity for the customer?

It’s for lightness and stiffness at the BB apparently

its a poor design really.

i have one on my trek Stache 9, its only a matter of time before they start giving grief.

ordered a Chris King 92mm replacement bottom bracket with Skyline Cycles. They will fit once the bottom bracket arrives.

Using the Chris king grese tool this should end any problems in the bottom bracket area.
Regards

Denis

@ munkyboy

Not much good being light if it fails faster than older designs, is problematic in use and requires another set of tools to remove/fit.

Just out of interest, anyone know how it improves stiffness and by what percentage compared to square taper and threaded cup?

Had two bad PF30s , SRAM etc , nothing but creaks . Put a king in. Silence, and so far over 2000miles. The others lasted 600 or so.

Can I suggest it’s the quality of the BB?

A system which requires an uber-expensive Chris King bottom bracket to work properly isn’t a brilliant system.

Shimano UN52 square taper BBs cost £15 and last for decades.

I wont buy a frame with pressfit BB. Shame really as I would love a Privee Oka.

I don’t mind em ! Been thru 2 in 18 months, ridden in all weathers so no worse than ht2 ime , just tap em out with a drift and press a new one in with a big threaded rod, nuts and some big washers
Not had any of the dreaded creaks yet either

The press fit BB on my CX bike has been excellent, 5000+ miles in all weathers, on and off road and not a creak to be heard.

Ill never buy a bike with a PF bb again. PF30 on my old 13 Stumpy evo, was gettin an average of 3 months before it was toast. I tried: FSA, SRAM and Wheels Manufacturing. Rubbish.

HT2 lasted 6 months, cost less than half the price and was twice as easy to install.

What tool have you been using to remove it?
I find the Park one is rubbish and will remove it in bits.
Use the proper Shimano removal tool which locates inside bb and removes it in one whole piece.
Is expensive though,bout 80 quid!
Mite be wise to ask bike shop to do it.
I have had good luck with the basic Enduro press fit cupset.
Bout 40 quid with bearings and bearings are replaceable very easily.
They have been lasting bout a year and a half so far with heavy use,so pretty good.
Thanks Max

Well, some good news amongst the doom and gloom going on around us! My BB noise appears to be cured!

I knocked out the old BB with the Park tool, thorougly cleaned the surfaces of the frame with IPA, put a dab of loctite 641 on the new BB (the surface which mates with the frame), pressed the new BB into place…and after just under 100 miles of cycling it’s still nice and silent for the first time in months!

It’s for lightness and stiffness at the BB apparently ease of manufacture and stuff the customer

There: fixed that for you 😀

It’s not the fact it is PF30 – it’s the quality of the BB.

I’m pushing 3000 miles on my King, whereas the Sram/others barely did 600 miles. Same with my GFs.

Your headsets are push-fit, no complaints there – again if you buy decent hardware.

Though I admit I had the opinions here early on blaming the standard until I realise some of the BBs were poor.

It’s for lightness and stiffness at the BB apparently

is the marketing cobblers they used to cover

press fit is just a cost cutting exercise at manufacture

Just like moving from loose bearing and axle BBs to cartridge BBs, from threaded to threadless steerers and aheadsets, and now integrated headsets… all introduced to make manufacture simpler and cheaper and spun to make it sound like it was for the benefit of the consumer.

Threaded BB was a factor in my choice of road bike.

All my press fit creaks were solved by a quick chat with a Rotor guy and the realisation that I’d not been preloading it correctly.

Been fine ever since…

Just out of interest, anyone know how it improves stiffness and by what percentage compared to square taper and threaded cup?

Stiffness improved ‘cos they can make the frame shell mahoosive. And a larger diameter chainset axle.

Wouldn’t worry about the stiffness issues. IIRC Tom Boonen won quite a few races on a square taper chainset when the equivalent outboard bearing version was available for him.

And also, I’m sure I read the Sky Dogmas this years for the Tour are HT2 rather than pressfit. So they don’t see any benefits from it either.

Fitted a Praxis to my bb30 CX bike. About a year of abuse so far and no issues at all. I wouldn’t be avoiding a bike purely for press-fit reasons. I would just factor the fitting of a praxis into the ‘real’ cost.

IN case any manufacturers are reading ( highly unlikely I know), just want to add my name to the list of people that specifically sought out a frame with a threaded bottom bracket when buying my latest bike.

My Praxxis converter on the BB30 spesh I have has been pretty good. I’m a big ‘ol unit and it’s survived 18months of almost ZERO maintenance so far. Just one loosen and re-grease to get rid of a small creak.

The only benefit to these ‘non threaded shall’ systems is fewer returns due to BB thread issues. Cheaper and faster for manufacturers. Nothing to do with a benefit to consumer.

The expense has just become ours as the consumer. New sets of tools, rubbish quality OEM parts, more maintenance, more stuff that only bike shops can really do.

IN case any manufacturers are reading ( highly unlikely I know)

I’ve never specced a frame with PF/BB30. Samples yes, production no. I get short-enough life from HT2 without adding all the faff that can go with press-fits.

The stuff about stiffness is rubbish imo. Just changing the BB shell and axle doesn’t make a bike much stiffer. It can help as part of a system but it’s a small part. It’s debateable whether frame-BB stiffness adds anything but response speed and feel anyway. Feedback loops etc make it feel ‘faster’. Look at track sprinters on old-style Dura Ace cranks also – they go ok.

More area with a larger BB shell can help frame design yes, threading/torqueing a BSA BB into alu inserts in carbon can be problematic, so many buyers wants lighter stuff at the expense of too many other things (or brands sell ‘lighter’ as something too high up the priority list) and manufacturing is a bit easier with push-fit. But not much.
The main drawback I see with PF/BB30 is that the bearings are set closer to the bikes centre-line than they are in a HT2 or Shimano press fit, that means more leverage on the bearings. The design was on the back foot from the start.

I run a Praxxis HT2 convertor on my Stumpjumper with Shimano XT HT2 cranks. It needs removing every few months, cleaning and regreasing with Shimano grease before refitting, as it tends to develop a creak.

At least the Praxxis BB stays tight, the Wheels manufacturing one it replaced, constantly creaked under power and worked loose, as it only had an “o” ring on each cup providing the fit; with the Praxxis the collet expands as its tightened and grips the inside of the BB shell.

I have a Shimano press fit BB on my Giant road bike. It also needs removing and refitting every few months with Shimano grease, as it tends to develop a creak under power.

I’ve tried Shimano anti-seize, Weldite red grease, Loctite bearing retaining compound, but have found Shimano grease to be the longest lasting (the Loctite cracked, and started creaking), seems you need a “wet” grease to minimize any noise?

only had limited experience of pf bbs so far.
it would be a -ve when looking at a new frame/bike.

Just like moving …….., from threaded to threadless steerers and aheadsets, and now integrated headsets… all introduced to make manufacture simpler and cheaper and spun to make it sound like it was for the benefit….

Think you may have a rosy view of threaded steerers and quill stems.
Aheadsets are far easier to maintain, far stiffer and far lighter. There are no negatives to them that I have come across.

Whyte and Santacruz owner here – thread title explains why.

fitted Parlee BB30 to fit Shimano cranks and no problems in about a year.

Threaded BB was one of my criteria when I got my last bike (a Pinnacle, as spec’ed by jameso I suppose). I don’t know if a pressfit BB would be enough for me to totally rule out an otherwise good bike but all things being equal I’d avoid them. Seem like a terrible idea.

As if by magic …

Ibis have gone back to threaded BBs (and sorted out their cable routing)

Ibis Launches TWO New Ripley 29ers

Press fit bb’s are a classic case of a ‘solution’ looking for a problem.

I would have rather they made headset cups that threaded into the frame tbh.

I would have rather they made headset cups that threaded into the frame tbh.

why? i can say I’ve never had a headset issue, ever

just replaced a creaky BB30 with a Praxis job