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BB30 life. Lbs spinning a yarn or not?

I took a relatively new caad 10 back to the shop for it's free 6/8 week service, mainly due to a creaky bottom bracket that had got worse from basically the first ride.
After being asked how many miles I'd done ( around 600/700 miles) I was told that this about as much as I should expect from a bb30 before servicing. Needless to say I was pretty incredulous as it doesn't mention anything on the cannondale brochure about service intervals.
anyone had similar problems? Am I expecting too much from a modern bb?

If you're new please join in and if you have questions pop them below and the forum regulars will answer as best we can.

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24 comments

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pablo | 9 years ago
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Checked mine last week after commenting on this thread no issues. It does make you wonder if it is a problem with the BB30 system or an installation/design issue with the frames.
A bearing that feels rough is obviously done and has most likely died from contamination but if creaks are happening with no rough running of the bearing I find it hard to believe the bearings failed it's more likely to be flex in the shell/BB. Difficult to tell without having had the issues (My frames a Felt for ref)

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gabriel959 | 9 years ago
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Got a supersix with BB30, still on the original bearings after a few thousand miles. Have ridden it during downpours too.

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Paul J | 9 years ago
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I had a persistent creak with a CAAD10. I had the LBS service/regrease the bottom bracket several times, but to no avail. Eventually they discovered there was actually a fault in the FSA SL-K Light chainset that caused to have play somewhere and creak. As the bike was still less than 2 years old they had it replaced for me under warranty. Worth checking your chainset.

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willythepimp | 9 years ago
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My BB30 was creaking under torque initially, after around 800 miles. Replaced at 1300 miles, as it had become a constant low rumble. My god it was like someone had issued me new legs when I spun up the new BB.

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pablo | 9 years ago
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Over 3000 miles on mine now with no issues although the bikes due an end of season service so i will check when the chains off. Had a squeak but that turned out to be cleats.

Anyone seen a trend around which manufactures/bikes suffer most?

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giobox replied to pablo | 9 years ago
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pablo wrote:

Over 3000 miles on mine now with no issues although the bikes due an end of season service so i will check when the chains off. Had a squeak but that turned out to be cleats.

Anyone seen a trend around which manufactures/bikes suffer most?

Aluminium Cannondales seem especially prone to BB30 creaks. Appreciate this is a limited sample size, but of the 8 people I can think of with an alloy BB30 Cannondale bike, all of them have struggled with the creak at some point. I haven't heard of the issue on the Carbon Supersix/Synapses nearly as much.

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jollygoodvelo replied to giobox | 9 years ago
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giobox wrote:
pablo wrote:

Over 3000 miles on mine now with no issues although the bikes due an end of season service so i will check when the chains off. Had a squeak but that turned out to be cleats.

Anyone seen a trend around which manufactures/bikes suffer most?

Aluminium Cannondales seem especially prone to BB30 creaks. Appreciate this is a limited sample size, but of the 8 people I can think of with an alloy BB30 Cannondale bike, all of them have struggled with the creak at some point. I haven't heard of the issue on the Carbon Supersix/Synapses nearly as much.

My CAAD8 got to 2500km and didn't creak from the BB once.

The Boardman is PF30 and creaks all the b'stard time.

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Flying Scot | 9 years ago
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I'm sure I will be advised of the benefits to the rider of press fit bottom brackets, but I have a frame that's been in use since 1953 an it's only on its second bottom bracket, gets serviced every 24 months or so, new balls and grease. Admittedly it takes a wee bit of time to set up, ride, then fine tune, but after that, it's fine for thousands of miles with very little drag or slack.

I am an engineer, there is nothing with the system in theory, just the way the cycle industry has chosen to apply it, which is usually a weight/tolerance/quality/serviceability mix

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glynr36 replied to Flying Scot | 9 years ago
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Flying Scot wrote:

but I have a frame that's been in use since 1953 an it's only on its second bottom bracket, gets serviced every 24 months or so, new balls and grease.

Reminds me of triggers broom...

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230548 replied to Flying Scot | 9 years ago
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Yes i think the bike game has gone mad, surely it could have just made the original bb just a bit more user friendly, i started riding again, at 50 and just bought a bianchi with all campag, not intending to fiddle mechanic wise with it but let the local bike shop service it, but gradually got drawn into doing my own stuff, the amount of tools you now need for campag is ridiculous, plus i'm not too impressed with the ultra torque system having the play taken up with a wave washer!!! and now it seems every year brings a new type off BB  102

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tailwind10 | 9 years ago
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I've seen quite a difference in lifespan of BB30 bearings. From 700 to 4,000 miles approx. However what I do like is that the bearings are cheap as chips and simple to replace once you have the appropriate tool. I buy my bearings on ebay five for a tenner and keep some in the cupboard for whenever they are needed.
Never used loctite, always grease and have never had creaks without the bearing itself starting to fail.
I've also just used a Wheels Manufacturing converter to allow Shimano Hollowtech chainsets to be used on a BB30 frame. These plastic pieces push into the BB30 bearings. Early days but done a couple of hundred miles with no problems.

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CXR94Di2 | 9 years ago
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I had my pf30 swapped out for the SRAM bearing conversion. This includes pressing two plastic cups into the bottom bracket, then using threaded bearings which fit into the cups. It cleared the bb creak. I just need to change my cleats pedal for new ones to stop them squeaking.

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mike the bike | 9 years ago
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I'm the first to admit that I don't push out a thousand watts but I do ride about five thousand miles a year, in all weathers, and at reasonable speed. And I honestly cannot remember the last time I had any kind of problem with a BB. No squeaks, no clicks, no dry bearings, no adjustments, no lubing, nothing.

Could this be because, at my price point, I invariably get either Shimano Hollowtech II or Campag PowerTorque. Very similar in design, these are simple and rely on proven engineering, nothing experimental here. Reading this thread makes me determined to continue in this vein, life is enough trouble without inviting more.

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giobox replied to mike the bike | 9 years ago
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mike the bike wrote:

I'm the first to admit that I don't push out a thousand watts but I do ride about five thousand miles a year, in all weathers, and at reasonable speed. And I honestly cannot remember the last time I had any kind of problem with a BB. No squeaks, no clicks, no dry bearings, no adjustments, no lubing, nothing.

Could this be because, at my price point, I invariably get either Shimano Hollowtech II or Campag PowerTorque. Very similar in design, these are simple and rely on proven engineering, nothing experimental here. Reading this thread makes me determined to continue in this vein, life is enough trouble without inviting more.

You're kind of right. Expect to see press-fit systems move further and further down manufacturer's ranges though (the CAAD8's move to BB30 a year or two ago is a good example of this). The big impetus for these threadless systems is besides supposedly allowing for stiffer BB shells, they are cheaper for manufacturers to build as no threading/facing needed.

I have a mix of threaded and threadless BBs accross my bikes, and the threaded BBs invariably last forever without any need for installation press tools/loctite etc.

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Scoob_84 | 9 years ago
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I've done nearly 4000 miles on my supersix and riding it through two winters and haven't heard a peep out of my bottom bracket. I must be one of the lucky ones.

But to balance things out, I do get creaking noises out of my head sets on both my bikes, both with integrated/internal headsets. No matter how much grease i chuck in them, or how snugly I tighten the top cap, there's always a creak when i'm out of the saddle chucking the bike from side to side  102

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Nixster | 9 years ago
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I've got BB30 on my 2011 Supersix and not had any problems, although having said that I think it may be starting to go as there is a click I can feel rather than hear on the NDS (I haven't ruled out other causes yet). After three years and probably 10k miles that isn't unreasonable in my view.

Like most things it's the people with problems who shout (not many 'hey my bottom bracket is working fine' posts on forums) and while BB30 may have more people shouting than Shimano it's a long way from that to 'all BB30 are rubbish - replace after every ride'.

I'd get the LBS to pop the bearings out, grease or Loctite and reinstall. If the bearings have gone in to the shell dry they will almost certainly make some sort of noise and doing this is quite likely to cure it.

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Anthony.C | 9 years ago
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The bb on my Supersix started making a terrible noise on the non-drive side after about a thousand miles and I thought all the bad things said about bb30 must be true, but I replaced the non-drive side bearing myself, using only grease, and I haven't had a squeak out of the bb since in almost 3400 miles.

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Rovert | 9 years ago
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I was all ready to replace the BB30 on my SuperSix having read about issues with them, but then discovered that my pedals were the source of my clickty clicking.

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singlespeedan | 9 years ago
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No offence taken, I have checked the cleats. They also squeak but a higher pitch.  1 The creak happens even using ordinary shoes on the pedals. As it happened from the get go I am not filled with confidence for the future. Thanks for the comments. Also lol at "bb30 sufferers."

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giobox | 9 years ago
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It's not unheard of. As hampstead_bandit says, the dreaded BB30 creak is sadly very common. My old CAAD10 needed the BB serviced as your LBS describes roughly every 1000 to 2000 miles or so. I've heard the same from other BB30 sufferers in my cycling club too. A heavy dose of loctite left for 24 hours before riding again usually sorted mine out for a good while. If the BB hasn't been treated with loctite since Cannondale shipped it, I'm not surprised at all it started creaking after 700 miles.

Make sure your LBS reseat the bearing in loctite for free, and hopefully you should have a longer interval before the next visit...

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hampstead_bandit | 9 years ago
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BB30 is notorious for ongoing issues with clicking, creaking and short bearing life. Much of this related to bearings fitted dry to BB shell or with loctite, which did not prevent noise as bearings try to move under power.

PF30 was introduced to alleviate some of these issues, but it had its own problems with tolerance and plastic cups being flogged out by steel bearings.

I dumped BB30 on my road bike (1week old and already creaking), dumped PF30 on my mountain bike (ongoing creaking, short bearing life) and switched both bikes to Praxis convertor BB's and Shimano HT2 cranks.

No problems since, but worth popping the shields on the Enduro bearings in the Praxis BB as they come a little light on grease and benefit from a good smear of waterproof marine grease like PM600  3

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harman_mogul replied to hampstead_bandit | 9 years ago
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Yup, Praxis converter is a quality item — good call.

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Must be Mad | 9 years ago
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I had the BB bearings on my Caad8 changed after a year, and 3500 miles (and that includes riding through the winter and a -lot- of rides in the wet). They were not creaking or anything, but not buttery smooth and change was advised.

(Also, I'm not trying to insult your intelligence... but I thought I had a creaky bottom bracket for a while, but it turned out to be worn out cleets)

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Flying Scot | 9 years ago
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BB30 is a bit naff, but shouldn't be in need of anything serious at those miles!

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