Seriously? Bottom brackets

[Owlie]

I just replaced the bottom bracket. Again. This bike is three years old and on its third BB. I don't think I'm too rough on my bike, and I don't make a habit of riding in rain. What's going on, and what can I do to slow the rate at which my bike appears to eat bottom brackets?

[Melalvai]

Can you get a higher quality bottom bracket? I wore through a few because I haul a heavy grocery trailer.

[Bethany1]

Get a better bottom bracket. You'd have to talk to you LBS about which kind you'd need. It's not you.

[Biciclista]

I Was told that my BB was good for 10,000 miles. And it wore out at almost exactly that!! (I was proud of that, actually!)

[tulip]

I've never worn out a bottom bracket. Maybe I'm not riding enough.

[Owlie]

The thing with getting a higher-quality BB is the fact that I'd need new cranks, and that's not worth it at this point, when the bike will likely be relegated to backup in the next year or so. (But don't tell her I said that. ;))

And there's still some creaking going on, but I can't tell where it's coming from. My guesses are either seatpost/saddle, or handlebars. I swear the LBS in Cincy, despite being very "corporate", has done the best job with this thing out of anyone I've taken it to, not counting the store I bought it from.

[OakLeaf]

Yeah, I don't know. Something like 13-14,000 miles on my current BB. I didn't track mileage back in the day but there had to have been at least 25,000 miles on my old race bike's BB. I wonder if there's an issue with the frame that your BBs aren't getting installed straight??

[lovelygamer]

I'm sorry your having this issue. I don't have advice because I don't even know what that part of a bicycle is. ha. Yesterday my chain slipped off and I was lucky to fix that on my own. It's high time I find a workshop but...there aren't except two hours north of here.

[Bethany1]

Bottom Brackets are funky. My teenage son's Rockhopper's BB is crap. It's a 10-15 dollar one and he's broken his 2-3 times last year and and once part of this year. Then the left crank fell off because the BB had been stripped. The whole crankset needs replaced. Makes me mad as I spent a LOT of money on this bike because I know he loves riding and realizing it's a "cheap" bike in the cycling world. And no, like you, he's not abusing the bike.

Kind of sucks you can't just get a better bottom bracket w/o having to buy an entire new crankset. I'd probably just keep replacing it for now. My son's Rockhopper creaked/popped as well.

[laura*]

The thing with getting a higher-quality BB is the fact that I'd need new cranks...

Bottom brackets come in different quality levels. You shouldn't need to change your crankset to install a "better" BB - unless you are already using (and wearing out) the better BB's.

Some online research shows that your crankset uses a square taper bottom bracket. Shimano currently offers at least two grades of square taper BBs: The cheaper UN26 and the better UN55 (nee UN54). Sadly, Shimano no longer makes the even better UN7x and UN9x BB's, but many of their features have now been incorporated into the UN5x series. There are other brands too, some cheaper and some better.

[Owlie]

Shop installed a UN55, and I think that was what the previous BB was too, as the prices were similar.

One of the mechanics at work (different shops, since the shop I work at has been backed up of late (head mechanic has a lot of personal stuff going on)) can't figure out why I'm chewing up bottom brackets at this rate. He said that since the bearings are sealed, getting rained on shouldn't make a big difference...