jays35

When changing out bottom brackets on the bike, I found our bike uses the SRAM 00.6415.045.0000 AM BB GXP TEAM ENGLISH bottom bracket for the stokers. It is a direct replacement for the stokers bottom bracket, but the captains bottom bracket uses ALMOST the same bottom bracket, BUT the part number for it is 00.6415.045.050, in which the bearings are on opposite side as the stokers. SRAM has discontinued this part (the second one or the captains) and others have suggested pushing the bearings out of the .045 bottom bracket and reinserting them on the other side cups. I hate to push/tap on new bearings.

My question has anyone run into this type of issue and what was their fix?


NOTE: Our cranks are Truvativ Elita GXP cranks and the bike is a CO-Motion Primavera

Thanks in advance.

Bill Kapaun

Maybe contact Co Motion and see what they recommend.

jays35

Thanks for the reply. I have contacted them and bought the last one from them. Not sure what I will do or what others in our group will do.

Bill Kapaun

Aren't these somewhat "standard"?
https://www.amazon.com/SRAM-GXP-Team.../dp/B07C15ZRRX

dsaul

Standard SRAM GXP bottom brackets have a 24mm hole on the drive side and a 22mm hole on the non drive side. The OP's tandem has those on opposite sides of the frame for the Captain.

The OP might consider getting an aftermarket GXP compatible bottom bracket, since a lot of those are 24mm holes on both sides with an adapter that reduces the non drive side cup. It should be easy to just switch the adapter to the other cup.

jays35

I have pressed the old bearings out of the BB from the captains BB (yes it is a standard GXP, but the bearings are on opposite sides) and identified both of them. They can be purchased at a reasonable price and reinstalled in the correct cups, for the correct BB.

I have machined brass punches to press the old ones out and the new ones in the correct cups.

pierrerreip

Hi jays35 I have a Duratec tandem MTB purchased for my charity TandemVision.org. I had the same problem you had. The SRAM BB with part number 00.6415.045.050 though discontinued is still available with my tandem manufacturer based in the Czech Republic. I checked stock availability in Dec 2022. I can check again and help you get one or two if you still need? I am not sure if they will sell the BB to you as you are not a Duratec customer and the BBs are now a precious commodity. This option is a bit expensive for me as the one unit of 00.6415.045.050 is 30EUR and shipping to London is 60EUR. Alternatively I contacted SRAM who gave me another solution. I will paste the info that SRAM gave me in an email below... I sincerely hope that this info is helpful to you if you still have this bike? Or maybe you can pass on to the new owner as I am sure they will value the info.1. It is possible to service/replace the bearings of both of your bottom brackets, but SRAM does not recommend this nor do we offer documentation on how to do this.
Our stance is to replace the bottom bracket as a unit. There are third-party manufacturers that offer bearing kits for GXP bottom brackets, but these kits are often more expensive than the bottom bracket itself. All bottom bracket offerings from SRAM come with bearings, we would not sell bottom brackets with only cups.

2. Due to the Tandem specific GXP bottom bracket being discontinued, our suggestion for your course of action is to purchase two of the non-tandem GXP bottom brackets. One of the bottom brackets is for the stoker, which uses a non-tandem bb. For the captain position, you would use the bearings from your other new bb, remove them from their cups, and install them into the cups of the Tandem GXP bb that is currently installed on your bike. You would of course install these bearings after the old bearings are removed, but with the bottom bracket cups still installed. The reason for this suggestion, is due to GXP bottom brackets not being symmetrical. GXP crank spindles taper from drive-side to non drive-side. Because this is reversed on tandem bikes, this means that the bottom bracket needs to be flipped to match this. This gets confusing because the bb can't simply be flipped because the threads won't work in this orientation, hence why the bearings themselves need to be swapped between cups, leaving the cups in their normal orientation.

3. Yes, since your tandem has two cranksets and two bottom brackets, you will need two complete bottom brackets. Alternatively, if you find them, you would need two pairs of bearings, 4 total bearings.

4. SRAM does not sell any bearings kits, regular or ceramic. What was meant by that statement was that we sell complete bottom brackets in either bearing type. The ceramic GXP bottom brackets are fairly uncommon. Sorry for the confusion.


To recap,

"I can use 00.6415.045.000 for pilot and stoker BB" (This is correct)

"00.6415.045.000 has to be reversed when fitting to work on pilot BB" (This is correct. The bearings will need to be removed from the cups, and swapped. This is so that the cup threads will mate properly with the bicycle's bottom bracket shell)

"Bearing replacement kits for BBs are not done by SRAM as that is not their practice" (This is correct, SRAM does not sell bottom bracket bearings, only complete bottom brackets.)

"SRAM expect the user to replace the entire BB if bearings need replacing" (This is correct. Bearing replacement kits are typically more expensive than a complete bottom bracket, and can require more work to replace than a complete bottom bracket.)

"00.6415.045.000 has a standard and ceramic bearing version and ceramic lasts longer" (It is generally understood that Ceramic bearings offer less resistance, more power output and potentially longer lifespan than steel bearings. In this use case, I see no reason to suggest the use of a Ceramic bb.)