Premature bottom bracket bearing wear

After 3 months on a pressfit SRAM GXP BB, the non-driveside bearing is quite notchy. This seems like a pretty short life, so I figure something must be wrong. The previous BB also went notchy on the non-driveside.

Do SRAM BBs just suck or something else up? Could my BB shell be too tight on that side, causing premature wear? Is there a fix for that?

warranty

Get a better BB. Maybe a Hope? Many good options out there.

http://www.tubechop.com/watch/6882597

press fit bb's are bs. they require really exact tolerances and alignment when building a frame, which are too often not met. bike mag did a "review" of chris king's press fit bb, arguably the best of the bunch - their conclusion was that it wouldn't solve the creaking/premature wear issue that plagued press fit bb frames, but at least it would give the rider the peace of mind of knowing that the quality of their bb wasn't the issue

Don't wash your bike, apparently that ruins everything.

Don't wash your bike, apparently that ruins everything.

Don't wash your clothes, by soaking them in sandy water and then power washing it off, that ruins them.

.

Like Omar said, PF BBs are highly tolerance reliant. Get a good frame and you'll get life that's on par with a thread-in BB of the same quality.

You are battling two issues. SRAM's legendary quality control vs. an unknown in your frame alignment. Best way to determine what the issue is is to buy a BB that's a known entity and see how she goes.

In SRAM's defence, I've been riding one of their PF BBs in a bike for a month (and it probably had about ~ a month or two of time on it before) and it's still turning great, so who knows.

But yeah, "just throw a King in it" should be the best solution, but isn't neccesarily.

If you want to experiment without spending King money, I never thought I'd say this but, RaceFace's PF BBs are holding up well. That's probably what I would buy.

I've had no issue with the PF Shimano BB in my road bike. Other than that my other bikes were using XT threaded BBs before I switched to Hopes.

Why I switched to Hope? 1. I'm a twat. 2. Didn't want to run a SRAM BB with X.0 cranks. 3. Colour match BB and hubs

If you want to experiment without spending King money, I never thought I'd say this but, RaceFace's PF BBs are holding up well. That's probably what I would buy.

I agree with Andrew here. The SRAM PF bb's on my old demo would only last about 4-5 rides, then would seize and need to be replaced. I replaced it with a RaceFace PF bb (at Andrew's recommendation) and it lasted 6 months until I sold the bike. And it was still going strong.

Mike

Like Omar said

I agree with Andrew here.

Mike

suddenly we're all on a first name basis

Shimano won't died last week, which happens once a year. Keep in mind my riding year is 5-6 months, not 12 like you West Coasters.

do press fit BB's have adjustable bearing preload? If so could it be cranked too high?

I'm just checking out the RF PF BBs. Which one would I need for SRAM GXP cranks? I don't see one off-hand that looks compatible.

I remember the press fit bearings in my Ritchey Timberline.

After a time I pulled the crank arms for some such reason. Don't remember now, it's all a fog, eh?

But I do remember grabbing the the axle by the flats and not being able to turn it until I'd wiped it clean grasped it with a dampened rag and using all the grip I could muster I could feel it "index" while turning.

I figure 'ol Tom machined the bb shell before fillet brazing it to four tubes and then just slammed 'er home!

I'm just checking out the RF PF BBs. Which one would I need for SRAM GXP cranks? I don't see one off-hand that looks compatible.

***edit: 24mm step down to 22mm axle.

suddenly we're all on a first name basis

Isn't it much nicer?