taper roller bearings – bit of a twist!

http://superstar.tibolts.co.uk/product_info.php?cPath=23&products_id=353

5 year warranty also!

5 year warrenty, on everything apart from

the bearings
the cosmetic apperance

So unless you regulalry snap BB shells off what exactly is he covering?

edit: just read the t&c's, he aslo excludes anythign that could be judged to be near the end of its natural usable life (so if it snaps in 4.5 years, he'll probably exclude that too)

i am unsure how shit stays out

looks good,m just depends on the quality of the seals

He has also adopted the policy of 'if its not fitted correctly by a trained mechanic' then its not been fitted properly.

Good luck to anyone trying to get one of them replaced on warranty!

Fair play, if properly done the bearings should last longer, but the issue with HT2 is sealing is it not?

Patented taper roller bearings are over 400% larger than normal HT2

4mm taper roller bearings (most HT2 type only have 1mm ball bearings)

FAIL

Never measured them but all the ones I've taken apart have been what looks like 3+mm dia ball bearings so 1mm is just talking b******s.

Plus they look designed to handle axial rather than radial
loads which seems odd unless you like preloading your bearings excessively.

IIRC taper roller bearings need a tad of free play or their life is severely compromised. In a BB the free play would be annoying at best. I don't think a taper roller is the right bearing.

I also don't see how there is room to put a bearing " nearly the size" of a car wheel bearing in a HT2 BB shel

Blimey £45 – can buy a hope for another £10 🙂

He's talking about the size of the rollers themselves rather than the whole bearing but there are a lot more of them in a car bearing and they're bigger than 4mm in all the ones I've seen at least so overall a much larger surface area.

They do seem to be generally talking crap though. Sounds like a product designed by someone who either doesn't understand the engineering or just wants to be able to market it as a first.

Fwiw I don't think the slight play would be an issue since sq taper bbs with play are only annoying because of noise.

But the bearing isn't much bigger, it's longer (cylindrical), so yes they maybe 400% larger. However it is stretching it a bit.

the test will be whether taper roller bearings cope with rolling around in the dirt better than ball bearings rather than load handling – both systems will take the load of a crank, but what about when the inevitable muck gets in?

I doubt the sealing looks good enough TBH and have you ever seen a pasture roller going over a bumpy road – ouch its gonna grind!

They seem fairly successful in headsets, been on FSA for years, cranks are entirely different load levels though.

I just don't trust anything with moving parts from SSC, been bitten too many times.

They seem fairly successful in headsets

But isn't the usage different? Headsets have to turn a limited amount while cranks are rotating. From my usage of HTII I think seals are the most important bits.

Interested to see if these actually work, obviously the forum experts will form an opinion before anyone's ever seen one 😉 But it won't be me that beta tests one that's for sure.

racing_ralph – Member
i am unsure how shit stays out

I don't think it does, he just says you can take it apart and scrub the muck out!!

No one has mentioned weight yet! Bet they are on the heavy side for HTII, but I'd give them a go, I'm not a weight weeny and always up for trying something different.

i sent an email asking about weight/warranty, ill see what the reply is.

Forum opinion doenst look good though i must say 🙂

Some of us do actually understand stuff
like this so why not comment? Side load or arguably any loading isn't the real world issue with ht2 bbs so this is quite an odd solution.

Patented taper roller bearings are over 400% larger than normal HT2 type deep groove bearings, and are not far off the size used in car rear stub axles. Taper bearings are used in headsets to allow for sideloads on installation and in use, so we packaged this system for BB use. This solves the main cause of HT2 early death, and the easy maintinence solves the other problem of seized bearings. If it can cope with 400kg of weight per wheel on a car, then it sure as well can cope with anything you throw at it!

5 YEAR WARRANTY on this part as only neglect will kill it off. If it gets packed with mud or water then pop out the bearing and lip seal, scrub clean and regrease. Simple, sturdy and long lasting. Look after it and it will keep you rolling for years.

the bit in bold hardly fills me with confidence.

IME with Cannondale head shocks, roller bearings are markedly less tolerance of grit and debris before jamming, scoring and generally wearing.

Not cofidence inspiring, but at least they 'let you' take them apart, unlike Shimano!!

IIRC taper roller bearings need a tad of free play or their life is severely compromised. In a BB the free play would be annoying at best. I don't think a taper roller is the right bearing.

Not necessarily, depends on usage, location, heat etc.

Well i'd be happy to test one and see how well it fares over the next few months, heading into winter.
After all its not gonna knacker up anything but itself, although i cant see any tophats in there. So if it did seize it could end up scoring the crank axle?

ziggy – Member

They seem fairly successful in headsets, been on FSA for years, cranks are entirely different load levels though.

What headsets use tapered roller bearings? The FSA ones, and all others I have taken apart all use angular contact bearings, which are not the same as tapered rollers…

I can't see how using tapered bearings is going to help here, the slightest bit of crud that gets in there is going to cause problems as the rollers are going to have to lift over it, or push it around inside. This is unlike a ball bearing where the crud usually gets pushed to the sides…

Orbit UF ones in the lower race, although FSA call them needle bearing, look the same in appearance, I'm sure an engineer will be along shortly to tell me the difference 🙄

I would not use Supershite BB if I were given it. Previously a collapsed bearing on a SS BB gouged a trough in my Axle and it sheared. XTR cranks too so the twenty odd quid saved on BB cost 300 for new crankset. Avoid like the plague.

I don't mean to be rude fizzer, but you must have been spectacularly unobservant for it to get that bad.

Stupidly I tried a Superstar BB and one side managed to disintegrate before I even managed to fit the cranks. As someone else said, for £10 more you can get a Hope BB. Good luck to them but not for me.

Granted the SS standard BBs are shite but these probably come from a different supplier so you never know…
I'm not sure roller bearings are the answer though; sealed angular contact ball ball bearings would be good though as the bearing could be easily changed without screwing or pressing in new cups.

Yep, making assumptions on these parts based on the old ones makes no sense, Superstar are a rebrander so it's probably more likely than not that these are made by a different company.

I'm not touching them until Kasae gives us his opinion.

Its just another take on how to lube up the bearings, keep any of them cleaned and lubed and they will last indefinately… Its the bolting it in and forgetting it that kills them… Sadly thats also how Shimano tell you to do it.

Or just learn to stip and lube the Shimano's and never have to buy another BB..

top answer there druidh 🙂

I know sh1t about bearings, but the aerozine skf bb I bought from Superstar has been utterly reliable and so far has lasted twice as long as each of the previous two raceface ones – maybe it's worth waiting to see one of these before writing it off…

cheers_drive – Member
Granted the SS standard BBs are shite but these probably come from a different supplier

Its not the product that stops me buying…its the guys obsession with crime scene style investigation until he finds what he thinks is proof that the end user is at fault.

He has also adopted the policy of 'if its not fitted correctly by a trained mechanic' then its not been fitted properly.

One of my riding mates bought one of their BB's, it failed within the first couple of rides. A replacement was sent and the broken one returned, apparently it was fitted incorrectly so no refund. Funnily enough, the mate is a mechanic, and the replacement was fitted in exactly the same way and has been fine for several months.

I must be doing something wrong with my Shimano XT BB – been fitted on the bike since new in May 2009 – replaced the chainrings on the crankset which involved removing the cranks…checked the BB bearings while I was there and they are still buttery smooth – the top of the bearings (that stick out the frame) has a small layer of grime on it – more dust than anything but the actual bearings themselves are spinning with no resistance, no noise and feel amazingly smooth – never touched it and it gets hosed down weekly – bike gets used weekly and through a load of grime – but might not be used as often as many other bikes – but the bearings seems to be wearing very well indeed.

Mate had a fancy Superstar BB – looked good but after about 6 weeks developed a real weird whining noise – the bearings sounded drier than the Gobi desert – but we couldn't get them out to do anything with…up until that point it seemed to be a very good BB…

I'm in agreement with DickB there. My XT bb has been on my one and only MTB since april 2008 and still feels good as new – I've no reason to suppose that it won't last beyond eternity.

I'm not buying them until they've been rock tested 😆