Say Good-Bye to Press Fit Bottom Brackets?
White Industries, Enduro Bearings, Praxis Works, and Wheels Manufacturing all want to sell you better Press Fit Bottom Brackets. To be specific these are well thought out designs that thread into themselves for perfect bearing alignment, and a hammer-and-punch free experience despite occupying press fit bottom bracket shells.
While not every company covers every option, in general these bottom brackets work with PF30 or BB30 compatible frames with 30mm or 24mm spindle cranksets and PF92 compatible frames with 24mm spindle cranksets. Unfortunately there is not enough space in PF92 frames for the system to work with 30mm spindles. Here I’m looking at Enduro’s system but suffice it to say in concept they are all similar.
Enduro Bearings’ wall of Press Fit Bottom Brackets that thread into themselves. BB30, PF30, and even Cervelo’s own ‘BBRight’ iteration. There are options for 30mm spindles, 24mm spindles, and a variety of deviations from those standards. Unfortunately there is not enough space in a PF92 bottom bracket shell to use this system with a 30mm crank spindle.
Enduro Bearings
Enduro Bearings is well known for their huge range of steel, ceramic, and hybrid cartridge bearings. They also have an excellent line of USA Made tools. They have been making both BSA threaded and regular press-in press fit bottom brackets (BB) for years.
The company offers a range of sealed cartridge bearings from basic steel balls, through stainless, through hybrid ceramic and steel systems, and finally including full ceramic bearings. Their bottom brackets are available in these various options including their awesome XD-15 bearings. XD-15 combines ceramic balls with a nitrogen-infused steel race that is guaranteed not to rust or corrode.
Enduro Bearings’ impressive XD-15 cartridge bearings are available in their TorqTite bottom brackets. If you have a BB30 or PF30 frameset and you’re sick of hammering out and pressing in creaking bottom brackets this system is an answer.
TorqTite
Yes, the article title is a bit disingenuous as Enduro’s bottom bracket system is not truly a ‘press fit.’ Enduro Bearings calls it TorqTite and it functions exactly like it sounds. The center sleeve is threaded at both ends, the bearing cups thread on to the sleeve. Everything gets torqued down tightly with a set of proprietary wrenches. Enduro also manufacturers and sells the installation tools.
In addition to a socket style tool, Enduro sells a long-handled wrench version of their TorqTite installation tool. Enduro’s BB bearings are replaceable at a much lower cost than a new BB. Shown here is a BB92 bottom bracket for 24mm spindle cranks.
Using one of Enduro Bearings’ bearing replacement tools, or a punch and vice if you’re a handy luddite, it is straight forward to replace the bearings in all of Enduro’s bottom brackets. In addition to reducing waste – by recycling in this case – it is significantly more economical than replacing the entire BB.
If you have a 24mm spindle crankset in a PF92, BB30, or PF30 bottom bracket or a 30mm spindle crankset in a BB30 or PF30 bottom bracket, these solutions could be the awesome you’re looking for.
Say good-bye to creaks?
Comments
Skyler
7 years, 6 months ago
Threaded sleeve goes into PF BB shell to solve the problems of press-fit bottom brackets. But, don't worry, if you need to replace the bearings you don't have to get a whole new bottom bracket, you can replace only the bearings. Just press them into the threaded sleeve, of course…
Did the solution to press-fit bottom brackets just reinvent the…press fit bottom bracket?
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Rob Gretchen
7 years, 6 months ago
Hope has had these out for a few years now… good idea for sure… however, am I the only one who has never had a press fit BB that creaked? Funny thing is that my current rides are all BSA 30 BBs…. oh the horror.
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Vik Banerjee
7 years, 6 months ago
I'm heading into year #4 with the same PF92 BB in a carbon frame. We took care to install it properly. Not a peep from it so far and it still runs smooth despite a lot of bashing in my 6″ travel AM rig. GF's bike had 2 PF BB's over the same period neither made a sound. We swapped BB's to mate with a new crank not because there was an issue with the first one.
The only downside with PF BB's is I haven't bought the tools to do the work at home installing/removing them yet, but it looks like I'll be doing that ~ once every 3-4yrs so not much motivation to make the investment and not much of a hassle taking the bike to a mechanic for that infrequent service.
When I buy my next bike I won't care if the BB is threaded or PF.
For context my bike gets ridden more than 6 months a year ~ 3 times/wk on average in Coastal BC under a 190lbs guy.
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Pete Roggeman
7 years, 6 months ago
Thanks for the detailed info, Vik. What frame is it? And your g/f's?
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Vik Banerjee
7 years, 6 months ago
Both were Pivot Mach 6 - 2014/15 vintage. We installed my BB and her second BB locally. The first BB she had was factory assembled. Pivot provides some version of Loctite compound for their frames to get their BB's seated into place. We used it every time we installed a BB.
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DrewM
7 years, 6 months ago
Thanks Rob; totally blanked on Hope.
Re. PressFit. It really seems to depend on frame tolerances more than anything.
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Rob Gretchen
7 years, 6 months ago
Yeah… agreed…. funny thing about the Enduro Torqtite BBs is their price… more than a Chris King, Hope, etc price wise… don't know the rationale behind this.. just checked the Canadian MSRP is $460.. WTF?
Now Wheels Manufacturing makes a similar product that's well under $200… even that's pricey but not out of the realm of reasonable.
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DrewM
7 years, 6 months ago
You're looking at the XD-15 version? They make a stainless bearing version that is under $200.
The XD-15 ceramic hybrid stuff is very cool but definitely premium.
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Rob Gretchen
7 years, 6 months ago
Just checked and stainless is $305 MSRP in canuck bucks…. still pricey.
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Doug Hamilton
7 years, 6 months ago
The XD-15 BB's are fully serviceable, meaning the cups can be disassembled, bearing races removed, cleaned and rebuilt using Enduro's grease. The XD-15 BB's basically don't wear out and spin with extremely little resistance. Far superioer product to Chris King or any other BB maker. Worth every cent.
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