A couple of bike shops have said to me they always face a new frame. Fair enough, but that’s another cost onto my custom build. Is this standard? I have an mmmBop waiting to be built. Did you other mmmBop owners face your head tube and bottom bracket?

I don’t bother but I’d have the BB threads chased out

Dangerous question on this forum. Its right up there with asking why people ride singlespeeds or 29ers 😀

I’ve built up three bikes over the years. Two I haven’t had faced and have had no problems with bearings wearing out prematurely and one I have had faced (again no problems). I think its luck of the draw. A lot of frames are made to pretty decent tolerances and a lot of the time you may be able to get away with not having the frame faced and some of the time you may not.

A decent bike shop should do it reasonably cheaply so if you are worried about bearings getting knackered go for it.

Cost isn’t a lot, especially if the bike shop fits the BB & headset at the same time.

i would have it faced as i am on my second mmmbop frame as the 1 st i didnt face and the threads where fu*k when the bb was taken out and the one which i have now had the bb in and out loads of times and the threads are like new but i would say only the bb needs facing. i found out the hard way 😈

To be fair on a HT-II BB you’ve got plastic spacers which will take up some slack if you’re using them.

On the Headset you’ve got commonly a plastic or alloy ring that pre-loads the bearings so is facing really necessary?

None of my frames have been faced, nor my mates and we’ve had no headset or BB failures for reasons other than the bearing giving up the ghost on a Raceface X-type due to water/dirt ingress.

But then again I could be talking out of my bum

Yes

No

Some manufacturers face their frames before they leave the factory (a nice gesture), but many don’t.

You “should” always face your frame before building it up, but what are the consequences of not doing it? Well, misaligned brakes (though almost every brake has a Hayes mount no, so is inifinitely adjustable) and potential bearing wear in the BB and headset due to not perfectly aligned bearings.

Personally, I don’t really bother these days, unless the frame I’ve bought has obvious overspray on it. I used to get every frame faced (if it wasn’t from the factory) just because, and normally cos I was running a CK headset and IS mount brakes. These days, I don’t bother with CK’s (usually just a £20 FSA), I fit Hayes mount brakes, and HT2 BB’s seem a lot more durable these days than they used to be (that and they run plastic spacers, so I’m sure the spacer would deform if there’s any imperfection on the BB shell face).

Your money, your choice though…

Having taken the frame into a reputable bike shop and spoken to one of the mechanics, I have boldly decided to save my pennies and risk it. Bearings never last anyway 😆

No.

yes.

maybe.

assuming you have external BB bearings:

the faces on your BB shell might not be square to the thread – if they’re bad enough they will cause peak loads in the BB bearings, and they will die quickly.

the faces on your BB shell might be fine – and your BB bearings will die of natural causes. about a year or so seems average.

the only way to know for sure that the faces are square to the thread to use a facing tool.

I’ve gone back and forth like a ping pong ball on this. I’d convinced myself to get it faced and took it into the shop. The mechanic said it had been faced and that he probably wouldn’t bother himself.

The final decision came when I then found out they didn’t have a facing tool for a 1.5″ headtube anyway 😕