External bottom brackets are rubbish?

Harryburgundy

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As a follow on from this
http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewto ... 01#1665901
and the very poor longevity I have experienced from a Hope Ceramic external BB I am beginning to think external BB's are rubbish.
I will admit to limited experience as the past 5-6 years I have been running square taper with high end BBs like Phil Wood. Fit and more or less forget.
I did have a bike previously fitted with an external BB and again the BB failed after very moderate use.
Have I been unlucky?
Is it better to buy cheap XT XTR BBs with the knowledge that it will need replacing frequently, rather than chucking £100 at a Hope or King?
May be a Tune six pack is the way forward?
 
You can get sideways cycles to put phil wood bearings in shimano or race face external cups. Less than £40 from memory. Mine lasted 3yrs+. I'm now on king, so far so good
 
Think nothing beats an old UN72
Biggest problem is that most people put too much pre-load on the External BB bearings
Phil ones do last about 2 years with me..
Internal ones did last longer but the Externals are stiffer (and prettier :oops: )
Running UN92 on my 2souls, can get replacement bearing for 15€ ...... see how long they'll last :roll:
 
They have their pro's and cons also. I prefer them as easier to chop and change as have much less problems with chanline/axle spacing.
All my hope bb's have been second hand and all work fine. The bearings can be replaced very easily if necessary. They are very exposed though, have had bad experience with shimano ones as i dont think they are sealed as well as a cartridge bearing.
If your not fussed on brand or colour etc. though, buying a new shimano one every so often is probably best for you. They can be serviced very easily too. Cheap which is nice for a well known brand part.

Just one little bit of grit can cause a right old headache it would seem.
What colour is the hope bb??
 
I've never really had an issue with the Shimano or Race Face ones. They seem to last better than the ISIS cranks I ran for a while...they were really poo.

The biggest benefit for me running single ring is that the Race Face cranks have spacers so it's easier to get a good chain line.

I've not tried a posh external bottom bracket because I'm tight! I figure a couple of years per bb isn't too bad.
 
My external XT BB has had around 1.5K road/drag racing miles in the last year, and no problems so far. It handles all the punishment I can throw at it.

However the build-up of dirt and dust on the crank arms' sides does suggest that it may be a problematic design when used off-road.
Still, if you have to replace it every 2 years or so, you'll never have to worry about a stuck BB.
 
BB 30

If you think external bottom brackets are bad the new generation of bb-30 etc push in brackets are utter plop :roll:

Some people are only getting a few rides out of these.....Another bike industy bloomer!
 
can't comment on longevity as I have too many bikes so theridden miles get spread across them..... but I fitted external BB to a friend's bike and it is floppy as a floppy thing that is very floppy after maybe 500 miles max (bear in mind she is cluesless as to bike maintenance and ignorant to mechanical sympathy so usually rides until components explode).

anyways, the exteranl BB need to have parallel sided bottom bracket -ok -I didn't know that and just fitted it but I doubt that is the full problem.

If the cups are undamaged, it is simple enough to remove the seal and press in new bearings..... let me see if I can find the linky........

linky
 
Had a few problems with external BB's when I first changed over too them, but that was mostly lower range shimano ones & I will admit to over tightening the left crank tension to start with. Now have one hope BB & various shimano XT BB's & no complaints so far.
 
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