stabaur

Does any know who makes the bottom brackets that Santana uses on their current tandems?

Chancy

Why not call Santana and ask. They have been helpful to me when I've had questions regarding our tandem.

Tailwinds,
Charlie
Santana S&S Beyond
Santana S&S Arriva

stabaur

Yes I plan to do that tomorrow. Tim at Santana is typically very helpful. I was just hoping someone in the forum knew what bottom bracket they were using. I am shipping my tandem to NH tomorrow and wanted to make sure all the appropriate tools were lined up so I could quickly repair it since there are no real bike shops in northern NH. I am disappointed that the bottom bracket failed since the bike only has about 3K miles on it.

TobyGadd

That's a pretty quick failure. Might be worth checking your timing-chain/belt tension to make sure that it's not pulling too hard on the bottom brackets. Might just be a low-grade or defective BB though. I've gone through quite a few SRAM GXP bottom brackets over the years--they just don't seem that durable.

stabaur

Todd


Thank you for your response


I agree that the bottom bracket should not have failed after 3K miles of riding. Our last Santana elan with a simple square taper crank and a Kagita Sp? bottom bracket lasted ~30K miles. The gates timing belt is tensioned at 42lbs according to their phone application which is actually 3lb below recommend tension. I just ordered the gates belt mechanical tension checker to double check the tension. I did speak to Santana (who was very helpful) to ordered a new BB and found out that the Tripeak bottom bracket installed in my Journey requires special 12 notch tool designed exclusively for their BB. I also was able to order the tool from Santana. I believe I could have just replaced the bearings but just getting a new one seemed easier. Tandem tools and bottom bracket should all arrive in back woods of NH by Friday so wish me luck on getting our tandem back on the road.

TobyGadd

I'm not a fan of the app. While it seems simple enough, I have a tough time getting consistent results from it. I really like the little clicker tool, though!

One other thought to add: I've found that it can be tough to get the timing chain/belt evenly tensioned. On both of my tandems, the difference between "high spots" and "low spots" was pretty drastic. I think that this contributed to early BB failures. I've been using Sheldon Brown's solution more recently, and it's pretty effective. Tandem Bicycle Synch Chains (sheldonbrown.com)

Keep your old bottom brackets. It can sometimes be tough to get new ones, so pressing in new bearings into them can be easier than finding complete replacements.

stabaur

Todd

Thanks for the information. Leave it to Sheldon brown for the best advice. I agree saving parts is good advice. As bikes get older it gets harder and harder to source spare parts. Especially the newer fancy high tech ones. I did order 2 new BB so I have a spare. All I can figure is that the BB got damaged from salt spray hitting the bikes that were stored on deck during a windy day at sea during our Santana Adventure trip to Japan.

Alcanbrad

I ventured deep into the weeds on the belt tension/bearing failure a couple of years ago in this thread https://www.bikeforums.net/tandem-cy...-brackets.html

while I did resolve the issue, it was a lot of work, took an effort that most people won’t attempt, and should not be an issue if the bike industry would only step up and engineer things properly and control manufacturing tolerances/quality appropriately.

I have also come to the conclusion that cartridge bearings are not designed for operation with varying radial loads which is exactly what a bike delivers. Hopefully the reemergence of cup and cone bearings will continue.