mconlonx

Uh-huh.

99% of anyone replacing BB, swapping from cartridge to external, will not have any issues at all, without re-/facing the BB shell. Of those who do, some will screw it up somehow and be worse off for having attempted it, or have a shop do it.

If OP is concerned, remove cartridge BB, think about re-/facing if there's still paint showing on the outside face of the BB shell. Shiny metal? Wouldn't worry about it, and I'd assume that it was faced at the factory or by a shop.

xlDooM

I checked, and you are right, the shell edges have no paint on them so they must be faced already! I can't believe I missed that on first inspection.

At any rate, thanks for all the opinions and advice. The reason I'm asking is that I can get a really good deal on a Zee crank (85 euros!) and it's Hollowtech II, so it's a factor in my decision process for sure.

cbchess

+1 any time I fix up a frame, whether its used or new I face the BB and head tube. Then I KNOW its right. My personal tool kit does not have a facer or thread chaser. Its one of two things I have the local shop do for me. The other is press in my head set. I just never have been able to bring my self to spend the money on a head set press. It is usually free.

Burton

Suggest you write Chris King, Shimano and RaceFace etc and let them know how much more experience you have then then the engineers they hire to make those decisions.

DannoXYZ 

mconlonx's statement may incorporate a large margin of error. If you sample actual bikes in the field, it's probably closer to 99.9% of them are within +/-0.05mm parallel and don't need facing.

The benefits of going from 99.9% to 99.99% of perfect is not going to be noticeable for the majority of bike-parts consumers.

Well, not so much engineers as the corporate attourneys and their CYA policies. Very few shops have the jigs and tools to accurately measure the squareness and parallelism on the faces of BB-shells and head-tubes (unless they have a resident framebuilder working in the back room). Not to mention the demographics and middle of the bell-curve of bike-shop employees. Very doubtful there's many MEs in the mix. So the safe thing to write in your installation-manuals is to say, "Always face BB-shells and headtubes prior to installing our product.".

Burton

It might be more accurate to say 99.9% of cyclists wouldn't be able to tell the difference. Which if the cstoners that cone through out doors are any example - isn't exactly a complement. Most of them apparently also can't tell when a pedal arm is loose, teeth are missing on a cassette or when brake pads are worn down to the metal.

None of which changes that's its good practice. The assumption that bicycles are carefully assembled in some factory by conscientious employees is pretty much a fantacy unless you're talking about bikes worth many thousands of dollars. Just another reason I like to build my own stuff up from scratch.

easyupbug 

I agree. I recently had a +$2000 custom True Temper s3 frame faced by our Trek dealer and watch closely as I got nervous when it took them a while to find the tooling. It was clear when he stopped a couple time for me to look that once through the paint the metal shaving was required from my perspective. While far from OCD I admit to being a retired mechanical engineer with some knowledge of bearing life w/o ideal seating, and I love this frame. I think it was $20 whole dollars and maybe $4 for gas.

Burton

There seems to be a general understanding by most people on this forum that the bicycles supplied to big box stores aren't built to the same standards that bicycles supplied to independent bicycle shops are. Thats true but is usually price related. Most bicycles carried by bbs are less expensive and thats reflected in both the lower quality of the components and the lack of attention to build quality.

What may NOT be as immediately apparent is some of the QC issues that your local LBS has to correct or reject or otherwise deal with to maintain some kind of QC on behalf of the brand they're selling. Specifics?

Have personally rejected bicycles with the Brand name MISSPELLED; forks that were painted and installed on new bikes even though it was obvious that the forks were badly bent even BEFORE going through the painting process (not to mention the assembly and packing processes); bikes that were delivered with road shifters completely incompatible with the rear Dyna-sys derailleur and drivetrain; cranks and chainrings fully installed on bicycles but not threaded to accept pedals; and consistantly with mounting hardware too short to mount the reflectors that come with them.

And since its for some stupid reason too common for distributers to insist on saving a couple pennies by specing galvanized cables instead of stainless ones, and unlined housing instead of lined housing - I'd find it hard to believe they wouldn't opt to save a few dollars by not facing at least one side of the BB. After all - in a cartridge bb its only the fixed cup where facing might be critical. So it would make perfect sense to skip the other side since their warranty and liability is only restricted to original components.

Which would leave any facing issues resulting from component upgrades the responsibility of the consumer.

But thats just my opinion - if its your bike and you feel differently - by all means do whatever you want - I probably won't notice either. Cause I'll still be in Montreal


The only bikes I've absolutely NEVER seen an issue with are Argon 18's. Because those are individually assembled in the East of Montreal by factory techs before being boxed and delivered to dealers. as far as I know every other brand is at least partly assembled in some other country and boxed ready for delivery to dealers.

DannoXYZ 

This points to an issue of finding a reputable quality LBS more than anything else. For the 10-years I worked for a shop in Santa Barbara, we carried brands from a varied range of distributors and dealer-direct manufacturers. Anything from generic private-label stuff from WSI to Giant, Trek and Cannondale.

Regardless of source, the bike was always rebuilt with all bearings greased and adjusted to spec, cables adjusted and fixing-bolts tightened with a torque wrench. BB-shells were always faced. There was a 35-point build-sheet that required the manager's inspection and signature before the bike was put on the showroom floor. If you're buying a bike from a shop that doesn't face their BB-shells on any bike they sell, then yea, I would worry about quality as well and take my business elsewhere. We can guarantee the customer that their bike's BB-shell would NEVER have to be re-faced again because it was already done properly the 1st time (barring catastrophic collisions or damage).

Burton

So maybe posting a few specifics might help. Replaced a BB in a Louis Garneau hybrid this week. Not an expensive bike but in the $600 range which is where a lot of the market is. Cup and cone BB with lock-ring on the non-drive side, square taper axle and alloy crankset.

Neither the drive side NOR the non-drive side had been faced. Not before painting and not after painting. The BB failure was a result of the fixed cup working loose and because the bike was ridden that way for a while - the bearing races on the axle itself were damaged.

The bike was past the warranty period so the dealer and distributer were both off the hook even though the bike hadn't been ridden a lot. Market research probably indicated that most bicycles in that range see only light occasional use and that consumers were more interested in sticker price than long term durability.

BB was faced and a Shimano cartridge installed. I want happy customers coming in for accessories and upgrades - not continuous repairs!