New Bottom Bracket????

[DebW]

As if that wasn't bad enough, he messed with my pedals and said I might need a new bottom bracket.
His boss (shop owner) came over and hemmed and hawed.. well, maybe it's just loose.. He started talking about Italian bottom brackets versus English... started talking about ISO 111 and ISO 115 and reverse this and cassettes and well...

Mimi, did the bike shop guy take your crank arms off the bottom bracket spindle? Did he try tightening anything? If not, he's probably just guessing about whether you need a new bottom bracket. If there is play in the arms, then either you need a new bottom bracket OR the cups that hold the bottom bracket in the frame have come loose. This happens more often with Italian frames because the right side is right threaded. If the shop guy doesn't know for sure, leave him your bike for day and have him try tightening the cups. If they are loose, you could damage the threads by continuing to ride. If the cups are tight and the bb is worn out, then it doesn't matter too much if you replace it now or in a couple months because the old bb will be thrown away. However, if there is very much play in the crank arms, your shifting won't be working very well and you may hear the chain rubbing the front derailleur frequently.

[Biciclista]

Deb, thanks for chiming in. Yes, he did finally take it apart and then tighten it which did not help. He explained the Italian thing to me (which went over my head) but you clearly described it, thank you. He said it was a tragic flaw in its design. So far I'm not hearing anything but it will be replaced within the week.

[Biciclista]

well the bottom bracket started to fail today (slipped gears, loud noises).
So after our very hilly ride we stopped at the LBS where the new bottom bracket had arrived. he pulled the old one out and we compared them.
I had NO IDEA that the campy Record was THAT much lighter than the veloce. I thought we were talking grams. NO we're talking close to 1/2 pound!! After he pulled the old one out he said he could probably rebuild it. So That's what he's going to do, but my bike is now in running order.