The bearings in my Race Face Evolve bottom bracket don’t last very long at all, they start clicking and groaning after about 10 rides.

And those plastic cap shim things snap when dismantling or rebuilding (really – what are they all about!)

So I want to try something else.

Can I get some other bearings that are sized to the Evolve Crank spindle so that I can at least ditch the plastic caps?

Will a Shimano BB be a straight swap? Are they any better?

I don’t really want to spend big bucks. Are Hope really any better?

The shimano and hope ones should be a straight swap. I changed mine for a Hope with stainless steel bearings, lasted longer than the crank.
Got shimano XT now and that’s turning perfectly..

I’ve got a Shimano waiting to go on. I put decent bearings in the Raceface but they did not last long. Basically the design relies on absolutely accurate tolerances to get the correct preload on the bearings and I don’t see how that can work.

What’s needed is a steel spacer between the bearings to prevent them being squeezed together, in the manner of a motorcycle wheel bearing set up.

stevied – are you using Race Face cranks, or Shimano?

Orange Crush – I agree, tightening the raceface crank I’m sure squeezes the bearings together a touch, and that causes the rapid wear and annoying noises.

Hmmm….might be time to switch to a Shimano HT11 so that the bearings aren’t over loaded.

More spendy even than a Hope BB! 😀

I put the hope one on my evolve. Then changed to 2 x 10 and went for the XT as I found a great deal on the chainset and BB.

Reading the Manual for the cranks will tell you that the BB shell has to be within certain tolerances to prevent the preloading of the bearings (within + or – 0.25mm of the nominal width) that you’ve mentioned. Facing the shell to the minimum seems to have alleviated a lot of the problems we had in the past with Race Face BBs, but should also be done no matter what BB you’re fitting.

I bought a orange five with this bb in june..I had to replace it after a month with shimano

I bought a deus chainset cheaply and it came with the latest rf team bb with phil wood grease etc.. measured my bb and set it up acurately. i expected it to last about 3 months and ive got an xt bb here that i bought to replace the rf one when it inevitably packed up. that was over 3500 miles ago and its been put through the filthiest slop imaginable…still spins like new…go figure…to answer your question, i think rose bikes were doing xtr bb’s cheap as chips..

I picked up a new cheap Atlas AM double chainset about 3 years ago.
I immediately ditched the BB and replaced with a Hope stainless BB.
No issues at all and still runs like it is new.
Also run a Hope ceramic BB on another bike and that is the same – absolutely no issues (that’s with a Shimano crank though).

All very true Coatesy but one likes to think that Orange actually do that in the course of building the bike up so I shouldn’t need to be facing it.

The original bearings on my 5 lasted about 2.5 years & then I swapped them out for a Hope ceramic.
Straight swap; still seem fine 6 months later.

The BB was fitted to a complete bike, so I got no instructions, although I’m a competent mech I didn’t get any info on the BB size tolerance, so will be digging the verniers out.

There is a pdf HERE that shows the tolerances, if anyone needs to check theirs.

I still don’t like the “tighten ’til it stops” of the RF cranks.

Cheers for the replies.

Ive just replaced my bearings only – on my r/f b/bracket with stainless bearings for 12 quid after 12 mths of hard use, the size you need is 6805 2rs