Dangear63

Hi I’m a new fixed gear rider and I am trying to keep up with my bike maintenance. I cleaned all the other parts of my bicycle except for my cranks and the bottom bracket. I tried to use an Allen wrench to take of the truactiv crank on my kilo tt, but it doesn’t budge. I don't want to put too much force on the crank and somehow break it. What am I doing wrong?

veganbikes

You probably don't need to pull the bottom bracket often especially if you greased it properly when installing it nor do you really need to clean unless the Pound Sign:kilott used a cup and cone system which I might remove and clean or just replace with a sealed cartridge unit. Also probably wouldn't remove square taper cranks super often unless absolutely needed you can remove the chainring and get a rag around anything else to clean it.

However should you wish to attempt and you have the correct tools and feel confident doing it on your own Park Tool has great videos on the subject:
https://www.parktool.com/blog/repair...on-three-piece

https://www.parktool.com/blog/repair...ation-threaded

Litespud

I don’t think there’s any force that you can apply with an Allen wrench that will exceed the force applied when pedaling. So, you’re not going to damage them with an Allen wrench. If you really want to remove the cranks, you’ll likely need a ratchet with the requisite Allen head, or some form of extension for the Allen wrench. In any case, pulling the crank and the BB aren’t really part of routine maintainance and cleaning - unless you’re routinely cycling underwater, an annual overhaul is sufficient for a cup&cone BB, and cartridge BBS are essentially maintainance-free.

Andrew R Stewart 

Until they suffer too much wear or even their better seals let too much water in them and the lube "breaks down". Maintenance free is the marketing term for disposable. Andy

Litespud

sure, but if a cartridge BB lasts for 30,000-40,000 miles, which is par for the course, I’m not sure that “disposable” is the word I’d use. My Chorus 10sp was well
past 40k when the drive-side flange broke off. I replaced the entire BB because it was easier to source than a DS cup, but the original cartridge itself was fine

Andrew R Stewart 

I take it you don't service bikes on a daily basis? We see worn out, rusted, grinding, rough spinning, cartridge BBs routinely. very few are on bike with so many miles. Most are on bikes that live a hard life with frequent exposure to the elements. We install a few dozen of these each year and while some are replacing old loose ball OEM units a fair number enough are replacing cartridge units. My coworker did so just yesterday. Andy

Litespud

You take it correctly. However, I still dispute your characterization of a component that routinely lasts for tens of thousands of miles and decades of use as "disposable". Do they fail? Of course they do - everything has some non-zero failure rate, especially if it has had a "hard life with frequent exposure to the elements", but the few dozen failures you see each year is likely a small % of the undoubtedly large number of bikes that your shop sees every year, in which the BBs obviously continue to work.