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Fitted a Sram gxp bottom bracket 3 weeks ago and it's seen maybe 7 or 8 rides in that time, and the drive side bearing is already extremely rough and has play in. Granted conditions are pretty grim at the moment but the bike hasn't seen a Jetwash.
Anyone ever successfully warrantied a bottom bracket or have I got no hope?
On an aside, any recommendations for a gxp bottom bracket? Uberbike are out of stock and hope are $$$ and need a converter, though I'm tempted!
Get a Shimano SLX/XT HT2 BB and get a converter for GXP from Sram, in that way you get a good BB and still able to run your GXP crankset.
The GXP system itself isn't all that great, a colleague changed GXP BB every third month (ended up selling the whole bike in november)
on the topic; if a lbs fitted the BB try make a warranty claim, if you fitted yourself the chances are they claim you fitted it wrong.
I returned a Superstar ISIS(*) bottom bracket after it cracked. They sent me a new one without any problem.
A year later it failed again and I gave up and went HT2.
(*) Who has those anymore!
I'm running this comes pre-installed shim for GXP, and a Sram X5 crankset for a few months, seems alright so fare...quality is far better than those SRam ones.
Got a replacement Deore HT2 bottom bracket once from Chain Reaction, under warranty. I think it only lasted around a month or so.. Learnt my lesson and only go for XT bottom brackets now, they last much longer!
Yes, I snapped an ISIS BB I half in 2005, after the mong in Halfords believed I hadn't just fitted both crank arms facing the same way they replaced it with a 'good' one, it lasted a month.
Despite all the slating and predictions of doom, I find GXP BBs work great.
So long as it's standard threaded and you [u]fit and torque it and the crank properly[/u] it's fine in my experience. Get a few years out of it, another £20 for a new one. Barely much more than the bearing cost.
Where I see problems is under torqued crank. Hand tighten to what seems enough, then it works loose, allowing crud to get in. GXP really does need the full 40Nm on the crank to work properly. Also getting the spacers fit properly for the bike is important.
Plus it helps a to have an o-ring in the gap between dust cap and driver side crank.
Anyway, a few weeks - back to shop, not fit for purpose. Doesn't matter what they argue, within 6 months they have to prove to you that it wasn't defective.
Hope might be £££ but the one on my Fargo has covered over 11,000 miles.
What Johnny said.
Ceramic BB installed 2008. Been used on several bikes and still going strong. I pop the bearings out from time to time, clean and regrease them.
Similar milage.
As for warranty, send it back to where you bought it with proof of purchase and see what happens. I agree, they will probably say incorrect installation but see what happens. Good luck.
Race Face warrantied 2 or 3 ISIS BBs for me back in the day. Early days of ISIS when it was still the latest greatest thing before the reality of having bearings the size of a ballpoint pen nib hit home.
Never needed to warranty any other BB. Shimano just last forever. The White Industries square taper one on my SS is also bombproof.
Like crazy legs, I had 2 raceface ISIS bottom brackets on a continuous warranty loop, one in the bike, one in the post. Eventually got bored, bought an SKF which is still going.
I had a Race Face one fail after one weekend at Afan. Sent it back to Wiggle and got a Shimano in return. (which lasted years)