Again?

"No way! No how!"--The Cowardly Lion

We talking bearings or BB shell here? Important distinction.

It's gotta be the guads.

I am talking bearings.

Shouldn't a BB shell last forever??

I have almost 40K miles on the Ultegra bb on the Gunnar. I've had it apart twice but never replaced a part in it. It's pretty worn. The other bike has Campagnolo Ultra Torque bb which is really simple. The bearings are on the crankarms which have over 40K miles. It's also been apart twice and one of the bearings is a bit iffy.

The mtb has some kind of pressed fit bb. It's over 3 years old and has been ridden in mud and wet sand and fine dust. It hasn't ever been serviced but it's very quiet and smooth. I was riding it 2 weeks ago and I could feel something dragging and thought it was the bb, turned out the lower jockey pulley was so gunked up I couldn't turn it with my fingers. Mr Maintenance strikes again.

When we used square taper bb with ball bearings I would actually service them but still wore out some cups and axles. I had a cartridge-type square taper on my touring bike and it started clunking bad in Kansas or someplace and I took it apart at a motel and wrapped electrical tape around it and hammered it back into the frame and it worked! My second touring bike had a Phil Wood bb that was given to me. The thing had needle bearings and a little plug you could remove to inject oil. Super cool except the crankarm bolts kept loosening.

I think so.

Reminder: Bikes are dumb.

talking bearings.

Im surprised the whole bike didn’t asplode!

Mine has 5500 and is fine, I have the bearings replaced annually. Wear something on your head for sweat? I have an issue with it too.

Since you're replacing the BB you may as well put on a left side crankarm PM while you have it apart....

:eek:

I think so too.

But I am spoiled as all my road bikes have "standard" threaded bottom brackets which last a long time and are stupid easy to replace. So simple, even a caveman can do it.

I've found that wearing a skull cap at an angle that leaves most of my forehead uncovered, plus squeezing the sweat out of the pads with my head tilted to one side, then the other, works for me. It may disgust anyone seeing an old guy squeezing sweat out of his helmet, but it beats having it run down the inside of my glasses. I tried a Sweat Gut'r headband under my helmet, but it didn't seem to work. I think the helmet squeezed the gutter closed at the ends, so all it did was to build up sweat till it poured over the rim.

Luckily, it's generally dry enough out here, especially when it's hot, that I don't have constant rivers of sweat running down my face.

My current approach to BB bearings involves spreading my riding out among so many bikes that each one only gets a maximum of a thousand or so miles. The Canyon, which I got last July, and which has been my Sunday bike, only has about 1700 miles on it, for example.

So if I buy enough cars I will never have to do another oil change?

Yup. When the time comes to replace the bearings in my plastic bike's BB, I will buy the tools, but only to save the bother of dealing with a bike shop and not having the bike for a week.

Stung by something while riding in the dawn, and now work is being stupid. #caseofthemondays

datlas do you prescribe biologics to any patients?

I'm not gentle on them, lots of dirt, water and sweat.

Work being stupid is the story of my life - at least you got to ride today, I got to spend my morning learning that at 41 I have significant hearing loss on one ear and likely need a hearing aid unless an MRI turns up a mechanical cause.

Me too, except for the water part.

Any reason?

Unknown, it just popped up one day a couple of years ago, really bad tinnitus, plugged feeling in ear, etc. I didn't really notice that hearing was different until recently when I couldn't really hear the alarm with the good ear down on the pillow.