Thought i’d give the SS a once over before the FOD ride on Sunday and the BB was pretty much seized solid. It’s eventually loosened up but feels a tad rough to say the least.

This BB was fitted in Spring and has done a mighty 260 miles. They last BB i had that went tits up quickly was also a Raceface (900 dry miles on the FS).

Why can’t Raceface get a BB correct? I seem to recall that there is now a guarantee on their BB’s but why would i want to bother given that it’ll just give up the ghost again in a few months? My XT ones seem to last much longer and they’re not exactly expensive.

Can you peel off the seals on Raceface and regrease them like you can on some of the XT ones? Chainset/BB is a Ride SS if that helps at all.

I think this will have been my last ever Raceface transmission component purchase….

Oh, and the bike has been hosed down to clean it but never with a pressure hose. So much for the simplicity of SS!

generally yes. I’ve destroyed 2 raceface BB’s in quick succession, but the LX BB I had fitted in 2005 is still going strong (or was until i sold it)

I’ve got two, one has lasted about 10 rides (mostly wet, sandy ones to be honest), the other is going strong after 18 months.

my rf signature BB lasted about 7 years with plenty of use over that time. it only needs the bearings replacing but it was easier to buy a new unit.

is it the jetwash factor?

i must admit i broke one after ten rides despite jetwash care. hope ceramic now. no problems.

I was warned away from them by the mechanic at my LBS, and of all the people to know it should be him. I still bought the Deus crankset, but with a Hope BB. One year on and it is still going strong. 😯

I’ve had two last a year each. I garden hose not jet wash. I now have shimano will try hope next

Mine lasted about 2hours over the peaks,

Shimano one has been good for three years.

I think I did well, 9 months and 500ish miles and I changed it as soon as it started to feel a bit rough to turn with my finger.

Stuck a Hope in, seemed to spin much better.

They’re not all shite. How tight is your chain? I notice one of your other thread titles is “SS Chain Tension – How tight is too tight?” – tight SS chains will eat BBs.

I stripped and regreased a raceface bb. It was full complement type bearing and the bike had been built with too much preload on teh bb ( from new) which caused the bearings to push out of the race as it was side loaded and that caused it to lock,

Its certainly worth attempting to strip and regrease.

Chain tension is fine, that other thread was for a jump bike with a super tight magic ratio.

I may try and regrease it but not sure i’ll have time before Sunday so may have to buy another anyway.

Pretty much sh1te yes, went through x2 on my evolve pretty quickly, LBS recommended a Hope, 18 months on, still perfect, been the alps, all over UK, good kit, just a bit pricey!

Also cant fault my shimano’s either!

In my experience, yes.

Don’t RF carry a life time warranty on their BB’s? get it replaced by LBS

Chain tension is fine, that other thread was for a jump bike with a super tight magic ratio.

the only guy who needs a 22″ frame for a jump bike 😀

ive had my raceface BB for 16 months now and had no issues at all… 😉

Don’t RF carry a life time warranty on their BB’s? get it replaced by LBS

If they did, they’d be out of business by now.

I wrecked loads of Race Face BBs, usually in about two months.
I eventually changed to Hope ceramic. Three times the price, ten times the lifespan.

well how come mine race face has lasted 16/17 months… you lot must be heavy weights ! 😉

elaine anne – Member
well how come mine race face has lasted 16/17 months… you lot must be heavy weights !

you must ride ride a women 😉

timc : i hope your not judging me here ! 😉 i do ride ride !!!!!!! a few times a week and do drop offs and all the rocky stuff… cant help it if im a bit of a light weight… 😉

I too had a similar problem – after much research I read a very good artical that explained the likely problem.

There are very tight tollerances between the bearing balls in them, a factor when they use lots of bearings. What happens is the dirt that gets in has no where to go and grinds the balls.

With bearings that have fewer balls the gaps are bigger and the dirt gets pushed away from the surfaces so wear slower.

I destroyed my one in three weeks and sent it back to Wiggle, who replaced it with a Shimano one – which lasted well over a year. (including winter mud riding)

elaine anne – Member
timc : i hope your not judging me here ! i do ride ride !!!!!!! a few times a week and do drop offs and all the rocky stuff… cant help it if im a bit of a light weight…

I was running late for work… they are crap though, your just lucky Elaine 🙂

“Its certainly worth attempting to strip and regrease.”

I could not lift the plastic seal without damaging it. Otherwise I would have saved one of them which was just a bit notchy rather than sloppy/knocky.

tight SS chains will eat BBs

more so than the regular side load of the rider ??

I had a raceface ISIS one that lasted a few months, replaced it with the Superstar ISIS jobby which is still going smooth as new after 3 years or something.

Raceface external bearing BB here, came with a RF Evolve XC crankset.

3 years and it’s still going strong (though the crankset died!) and using it with a Shimano LX c’set.

I went through a few of them, even although they wer all replaced under warranty I gave up and now have a Hope Ceramic – so far so good.

yes. most raceface stuff in my experience is more style vs substance… hey ho

paul

Ive gone through Two within One year
Just buy the Hope ones at least you can replace the parts
without buying a new BB every time.

I too have found the external RF bb’s to be crap as are the chainrings

Yeah, pretty rubbish here too. I’d be interested to know, really how much difference does facing the shell make? I had similar issues with Truvative ones on my old bike, changed to Shimano and that lasted at least 18 months, but had it faced at the same time. Would be interested to know which change had the most effect.

Older external RF BBs weren’t very good… You’ll probably have issues if you have one with black or gold cups.
The newer ones are much better though… The silver Team XC BBs have a retainer bearing which is essentially the same as a Shimano bearing, so you should get a similar lifespan.
The new Turbine BB has the same retainer bearing, but the cups have been machined right down to save weight. A Turbine BB weighs 85g, compared to 113g for a Hope & is pretty much half the price. They’re also fully serviceable & replacement bearing/seal kits are readily available.

ok if RaceFace BB and RaceFace chainrings are soooooo crap as you lot say, then why do Orange bikes have them instlled on their orange fives????? my ‘RaceFace’ chain rings are fine as too BB…..maybe im just lucky (touches wood here)… 😉

No issue with the chainrings on the Evolve XC X-type which came on my Trance. The black/gold BBs were rubbish though… at least until they die and I get Mr Overshoot to rebuild them.