Regulatori

If you decided to get with a loose ball/unsealed bottom bracket for your Sugino 75's, are you happy with your choice? Have you ever needed to pull it apart/service it yourself and take advantage of it? Or was it one of those "good in theory" type purchases where now you look back and think an inexpensive cartridge setup would have been fine?

Just trying to justify paying 2X for an unsealed BB over an Tange cartridge setup. I like tinkering and the idea of having access to all of the internals. Something satisfying about it.


Also, could an average Joe tell any physical difference between the unsealed Sugino BB and a $60 Tange cartridge setup (by smoothness, sound, etc..)?

hohum

I wound up with this:

Tange-Seiki 109mm ISO sealed-cartridge bottom bracket | Retrogression

Because I really couldn't reconcile the idea that I'd have to ever take one apart for maintenance. Doing it even once justifies the cost of buying a new one at 60 bucks. It's just not worth the time and effort.

Fixed gear bikes are utilitarian and by design low maintenance.

SJX426 

I have a number of C&V bikes with cup and ball BB's.

The Langster I just acquired had a sealed BB in it and it is shot. I can't believe there is rust in the bearings but that's what it feels like. I took the seals out to see what was inside and it was dried grease. This is a 2010 model, BTW.

There is an argument that cup and ball BB's roll smoother with less resistance. Of course it all depends on the quality of what you buy. The C&V bikes mostly have high end BB's and run very smoothly even though they are as much as 40 years old.

The two bikes with sealed BB's don't have a good track record in my experience, which is only one person.

seau grateau

My Shogun has a ball and cone BB. Didn't realize it until I tried to take it out -- I ended up with bearings all over the floor and a drive side cup that wouldn't budge. I just cleaned and repacked everything and haven't touched it since. That was over two years ago.

monsterkidz

If you are going to be running this setup on the street in all weather conditions go sealed. When the BB explodes (if ever) yank it out and replace.
Maintenance on the loose ball S75 BB is easy and realistically I would pull mine apart every 6 months or so.
But in this day and age why bother unless it is going on a dedicated race bike.

TejanoTrackie 

My 2006 Bianchi Pista Concept came with the Sugino 75 unsealed BB and I used it exclusively on the track in dry conditions for the first 7 years. I only serviced it once during that time, and it was clean inside. Then I started riding on the road and within a year it had gotten pretty dirty, so when I removed it to install a new 75 DD crankset, I bought the sealed Tange-Seiki BB so I could use the old 75 crankarms on my Wabi Lightning w/o having to constantly service the 75 BB. As to smoothness, I can't feel any difference except that the seals on the Tange-Seiki have a bit of drag, whereas the 75 BB has none.

thermalattorney

+1

Been riding 75s on the street for ~7 years and stock BB just isn't worth the effort. The longest I ever went was 18mo between repacks, but mostly I was doing it twice a year with the change of seasons. The process isn't hard but it's way easier to go the sealed route and just bin it when it eventually dies. Currently I'm using the cheapest of the cheap Protype BB and with the chain on I can't tell the difference.

hairnet

Do you have the tools to install it? At the least you need a 32mm wrench (which will prove inadequate), lockring tool (or a combo lockring/cup wrench), and pin spanner. In my experience anything other than the VAR or Hozan BB tool is just terrible for applying the necessary torque to the drive side cup, which is a problem for home mechanics. And unless a bike shop has been around since the 80s I doubt they own one.



You could rig something up

TejanoTrackie 

My solution was to remove the wheels and fork, then pick up the frame, turn it sideways, and clamp the fixed cup flats in my large bench vise. I then used the frame as leverage to loosen the fixed cup. It does help to have another person assist when you do this.

hairnet

Those wrench flats are so skimpy though.

TejanoTrackie 

They're not too bad on the Sugino 75 BB, and I had no trouble with mine.