Anyone still using ISIS bb’s, I’ve had a fair few external failures now and was considering going back to an ISIS set up mostly for reliability. This is just for a particular bike where weight and stiffness is not a priority. Any thoughts or experiences?

I was until recently, more by nessecity than by choice, I bought the BB, tool and a set of crank arms for £30 from a mate so couldnt think of an excuse not to use them.

It started becoming an issue for me when I couldn’t find any decent reasonably priced BB’s with good reviews. So I bought a set of SLX’s off of ebay with a hope BB for £70 all in and thats what ill be using from here on in.

Yes. An SKF bottom bracket. From Compass cycles in the US.
Guaranteed for 10years.

Square taper.

From what I’ve heard ISIS is as bad as HTII if nor worse for longevity

Had a shimano LX set and raceface, both suffered from loosening left arm. I am very hard on cranks and have snapped a set before but I find the newer shimano style more reliable.

Also still using square taper. Ok, its not as stiff as the newer standards but I’ve never once had a failure on either my current bike or my road bike which I sold this summer.

I’m actually still using the original BB on my full sus which is 2 years old and still going strong.

Yes, well kind of….2 of my bikes have Truvativ Howitzer BBs on them which is ISIS but wider and with chunkier external bearings. Both have been rock solid for 1 1/2 and 4 years respectively.

I still use a lightweight Isis setup on my single speed.

Gave up on them a few years ago. The SKF ones are ok but I never got more than a couple of years out of one. The ones Superstar used to sell were marginally better and also a lot cheaper.
Back on square taper on the single speed now.

I have two ISIS cranksets from middleburn and use SKF BBs without any issues.

Rachel

ISIS is the standard in biketrials, we tend to be quite a few years behind the rest of cycling but that’s not to say they don’t do the job extremely well and we put a hell of a lot of stress on them. I’d recommend having a look on tartybikes.co.uk for an ISIS BB but I think they’d all probably be too long as most are 128mm.

Isis had passed me by bitd but had to buy a crank puller the other day for it as Race Face see fit to use an Isis fitting for their current external set up. Great idea RF, use a standard no one else bothers with and no one has the tools for. 🙄

Yep, an AC one which has replaceable bearings and holds up well. Far more reliable for me than Octalink was.

Great idea RF, use a standard no one else bothers with and no one has the tools for.

A crank puller? ISIS uses the same sort of hollow axle crank puller as Octalink, and you can also use a standard square taper crank puller with an insert in the axle (which is what I do – I have a proper insert, but easy enough to bodge something).

Mind you if you’re talking ISIS crank interface standard rather than just BBs, then I have several of them, as in my particular niche of high end unicycles that is the standard.

I wouldn’t say it’s by choice exactly but when I built my trail MTB it was the latest standard – everyone raved about ISIS being super stiff but this was obviously before everyone knew about them also being super-fragile!

My XC FS also used ISIS – first gen Race Face Next LP chainset and ISIS BB was lighter and stiffer than the XTR of the time, which used OctaLink. Had a few BBs replaced under warranty by Race Face (who to be fair were excellent about it).

Now I’ve just got the trail bike left and actually just a couple of days ago I put in a new ISIS BB (an FSA one) after the old one developed some axle play. No idea how old it was, it’s lasted a fair while though. The newer ISIS BBs are far longer lasting than the early incarnations.

To change chainset and BB now would be pointless – the chainset (a Race Face Turbine) has loads of life left in it and it’s resale value is near zero so I may as well just put up with it!

Also, if anyone wants a scuffed-to-**** Next LP chainset…

A crank puller? ISIS uses the same sort of hollow axle crank puller as Octalink, and you can also use a standard square taper crank puller with an insert in the axle (which is what I do – I have a proper insert, but easy enough to bodge something).

Never bothered with Octalink either. Square taper did the job better imo so I stuck with that until Hollow Tech came along.

I tried to use a sq taper puller with a bodge but the wiggle room was so tight I gave up and bought a proper one. As expected the lbs’s cheap version wouldn’t work so I had to get a £15 one. 🙁

I have a 5 year old (or more) ISIS on my roadbike.

On my Pugsley which I’ve used in 3 StrathPuffers and had in just about every boghole in the Highlands over the last 3 years or so, there is no discernible wear.

My bikes never go on the back of a car or get hosed clean. I suspect that may have something to do with bearing longevity. Also where possible I have mudguards.

No. I don’t support terrorists.

yourguitarhero – Member
No. I don’t support terrorists.

Not even when they support cranks…. ? 🙂

Axle of Evil, innit.