My ceramic BB has gone kaput on the single-speed..

Time for the age old quandary:
one £66 Hope BB
four £15 XT BBs??

DrP

Hopes are shiny shiny. XT is functional.

If you can afford a hope n it’s a nice colour and you’ll get pleasure from looking at it then go Hope

If you’re not arsed then XT is perfectly fine

The bb on my sora-equipped “adventure” bike is about 2 yrs old and still working

Assuming you’re SS for simplicity and lack of winter maintenance…. bin HT2 and use square taper or Octalink. HT2 has no place on a winter SS bike.

HTH 🙂

Edit – in answer though, if you insist on HT2, my hope stainless BB has easily outlasted 4 Deore BB’s. Probably more like 6 or so, has been installed on several bikes and is still smooth.

Square taper ftw.

HT2 was a step backward imo.

GUB Ceramic are about £35 on eBay and you can get them in a range of colours, even orange, to match your GPS ….

They last ages and have nice alloy centre tubes as well

Seems shimano have come on a long way with their xt.

Back in 2007 I could kill an xt on one long ride and went to a hope ceramic.

How ever a couple of my bikes have xts on again now and are faring alot better.

The correct answer is always as many hooker-bots and as much beer as One can afford.

XT are also fine BTW, unless your heart pines for the bling.

orange, to match your GPS

😆

Was the BB faced for (possible) ultra-longevity?

For the middle ground, Wiggle had XTR for £30, that’s what I went with, recently so not sure on longevity yet. I’d never had an XTR component so decided to treat myself over XT 🙂

XTR as a minimum.
XT are dead in weeks on the singlespeed round here.

Get another Hope, that one’s done you proud.

The previous one was in fact an uber-bikes ceramic..purchased in october 2014, so yes, that one actually has done pretty well!!

Might get that again then.
Or a hope.

DrP!

1x £25 gusset ext24

standard bearings, very well sealed, mine’s done 15,000km and it’s still fine.

(the original deore bb that was fitted ‘lasted’ 2000km, and when i say ‘lasted’ i mean i gave up on the monthly flushing and greasing)

I think I’ll just order some new bearings..£32… job done.
(now to fish the old cups out the bin..)

DrP

For a winter duty SS I’d replace with stainless steel, ceramic seems a bit OTT.

arent ceramic bearings £30 each? (if Hope).

Not a huge difference in price to a new BB.

Be aware that the current XT have a smaller shell than every other f’ing Shimano HT I have had so your specific HT BB tool (That works for many other brands, such as Raceface)will not work for the current XT.

I found this out yesterday. 😐

It’s my race bike, not just winter duty..

Yeah, it’s an on-one with XTR cranks and ceramic BB…what do they say about not being able to polish a turd, but you can roll it in glitter….

DrP

ahwiles – Member

1x £25 gusset ext24

standard bearings, very well sealed, mine’s done 15,000km and it’s still fine.

Gets my vote too. Though once you’ve got the Hope one you probably might as well replace the bearings.

Be aware that the current XT have a smaller shell than every other f’ing Shimano HT I have had so your specific HT BB tool (That works for many other brands, such as Raceface)will not work for the current XT.

If the BB didn’t come with an adaptor (the road ones I’ve had do) then it’s available for a couple of quid, allowing you to use normal HT2 tools on the smaller BB.