The bottom bracket may be the least interesting thing on your bike, but you’ll need to replace it at some point. Enduro Bearings’ MAXhit BSA Bottom Bracket may well be the last you’ll ever buy. Thanks to its fit-and-forget durability, extra seals included in the packet, and a very comprehensive lifetime warranty, I wouldn’t look anywhere else, but it requires quite the investment.
Enduro Bearings MAXhit BSA bottom bracket – Technical details
Enduro Bearings has gone around its bottom bracket design in a slightly different way. Rather than using cups that cartridge bearings sit within, the MAXhit is the bearings, if you catch my drift. It’s essentially a pair of bearings that thread straight into your frame.
This way around BB design means more space for larger balls and more than double the load capacity, says the brand. With that, the MAXhit should last longer than traditional designs.
The bottom bracket is machined from 440C stainless steel, and the bearings use double-lip labyrinth seals to keep crud out and protect them from corrosion. Inside, it’s filled with Enduro Bearings’ own extra high-pressure grease to a 90% fill.
The angular contact balls that Enduro Bearings has chosen for this bottom bracket are constructed of chromium steel with a black oxide finish and wrapped with 440C stainless steel. The brand recognises that the 440C steel isn’t as durable as ceramic alternatives, but it’s much more affordable.
Included in the box is everything that you’ll need for installation, including two sets of exterior seals and a spare set of green seals for when the BB’s lip seals need replacing. This is a great touch, especially given the cost.
Better still, Enduro Bearings offers a lifetime warranty to the original owner. This is a pretty comprehensive warranty, too, which covers corrosion, wear and manufacturing defects ‘during the product’s intended useful life’, so everything really. There is something of a caveat, however. The brand states that the bottom bracket should be serviced annually by a professional mechanic, and failure to do so will void the warranty.
That service includes thorough cleaning and re-greasing using specific greases from Enduro Bearings.
I have got in touch with Enduro Bearings to see what the score really is here, and it’s a lot more relaxed than its policy suggests. If you’ve got the original proof of purchase, the brand will endeavor to get you rolling again. Enduro Bearings also welcomes self-maintenance.
Lastly, the BB is available to fit 24mm, 30mm, and DUB crank spindles, so most modern and common sizes are accommodated.
If you’re not willing to go full Enduro Bearings, and have an existing BB, the brand offers bearing kits that’ll pair the seals found on the full BB and a set of cartridge bearings, with whatever bearing cups you’re currently running. This will set you back a friendlier but still kind of pricey £60.67.
Enduro Bearings MAXhit BSA bottom bracket – Performance
As I said when opening this review, bottom brackets are as dull as dishwater, but eventually, you’ll need to hit the shops to buy a freshie when your current one gives out. Now, the MAXhit may be quite an investment, but it’s as close to fit and forget as a bottom bracket can get.
Although the bottom bracket uses a different construction from most, installation is just as straightforward as regular designs. Just thread it into a clean BB shell, with plenty of grease, pop the red outer seals in place, and you’re good to go.
This isn’t a ceramic-balled product, so don’t go about expecting much of a reduction in friction, but the MAXhit runs smoothly straight out of the box, and fairly quietly, too. Granted, I did pick up a bit of a creak deeper into my test, which only took a quick external wipe of the internal faces to rid. This was caused by dirt that sat between the bottom bracket and the crank spindle, so it’s not the fault of the MAXhit.
I’ve ridden with this bottom bracket for a very solid year now. It’s been through the harshness of our British winters, right through to summer’s dry and dusty trails, and apart from that easy-to-rid creak, it’s been absolutely faultless. I usually burn through more affordable bottom brackets well within a year, but the MAXhit is still rolling as smoothly as it did when I pulled it from the box.
Stiffness and general stability have been super consistent too. Play just hasn’t entered the chat.
My only qualm on the durability front is that the carbon spacer that sits between the bearings has chipped a bit. It hasn’t affected performance at all, though.
Enduro Bearings MAXhit BSA bottom bracket – Verdict
Alright, so £180 is an awful lot to spend on a bottom bracket. You can buy five SRAM bottom brackets for the same cash. But with that comes more time messing with your bike, and five more opportunities for play and grittiness to affect your ride. Plus, the MAXhit remains smooth and play-free well beyond what I’d expect of a more standard £30 bottom bracket.
Even compared to ceramic BBs that ask well above the MAXhit’s price, it trumps them all in terms of longevity. Even the ceramic-balled options I’ve ridden haven’t lasted as long as Enduro Bearing’s BB, despite being noticeably easier to pedal.
Then there’s that lifetime warranty that seems to have pretty much everything that can go wrong with a bottom bracket covered. That alone does something to justify that price tag.
I’ve not yet ridden a bottom bracket that’s so consistent and durable over such a period of time. Usually, I wear through a BB in less than a year, so it’s great to see something become a true fit-and-forget bit of kit, and even after a year and beyond, it still doesn’t need a service. Throw in that lifetime warranty, and the Enduro Bearings MAXhit may well be the last bottom bracket you buy, unless you change crank axle standards…
Test Report
What does the manufacturer say about this product?:
Enduro Bearings says, “MAXhit is Enduro’s latest patent-pending innovation; where the bearing is actually the component. MAXhit bottom bracket bearings are designed to thread directly into your bicycles bottom bracket shell, eliminating the need for the aluminium cups that are traditionally used to carry the bearings. This unique design frees-up space for much larger balls that more than double the load capacity compared to standard BB bearings. The kit includes a full selection seals and spacers to ensure proper installation in any BSA threaded bike.”
Tell us some more about the technical aspects of this product:
BSA fitment, 440C Stainless Steel AC bearings, LLB seals, Marine grease, lifetime warranty.
How does the price compare to that of similar products in the market, including ones recently tested?:
Pricier than standard bottom brackets but more affordable and more durable than ceramic options.
Did you enjoy using the product? Yes
Would you consider buying the product? Strongly
Would you recommend the product to a friend? Yes
Use this box to explain your overall score
This bottom bracket is as fit-and-forget as it gets, and thanks to its lifetime warranty, you may never need to buy another bottom bracket again. It’s super durable, very smooth and faultless in action.
About the tester
Age: 33
I usually ride: Santa Cruz Bronson
I’ve been riding for: 10-20 yearsI ride: A few times a weekI would class myself as: Experienced
I regularly do the following types of riding: Mountain bike Enduro
14 thoughts on “Enduro Bearings MAXhit BSA bottom bracket”
I have an Enduro ceramic bottom bracket which replaced a Praxis bottom bracket who’s bearings were made of cheese. It has been faultless despite being treated every bit as badly as any other bottom bracket I’ve abused over the years. Yes their stuff is expensive but it really is fit’n’forget. Which is of course entirely the point.
@jaymack Praxis bottom brackets have Enduro steel bearings fitted through most of the range.
Does it come in an internal thread-together version for pressfit BB’s, like Token and Wheels MFG?
‘during the product’s intended useful life’
Oh dear, and it was all going so well. I recall lifetime warranties being diluted to ‘reasonable lifetime of the product’ on outdoor gear – once the true costs of continued support became clear. This plus ‘must be serviced annually by a pro but never mind at the moment’ makes me very dubious as to the long term support being offered. I wouldn’t buy one of these expecting to invoke the warranty…
@boblo This!
Also the ‘it’s a lot more relaxed than its policy suggests.’ part is worrying. It sounds like ‘we will decide arbitrarily based on the mood of our customer service rep’.
If they claim something is their policy, why not say it – like – literally in the policy?
Don’t worry. Crank makers will make sure you need to buy a new standard soon!
Back in the day square taper bb’s rolled on bearings that were considerably larger than inside these Maxhit ones. The ball bearings in these fully serviceable models cost a couple of euros. Don’t get me wrong, they had their issues, like poor sealing. But those days, servicing bearings was the norm. The current state seems to be something of an attempt at non-serviceability, where efforts made at making products that you DO NOT have to service are accompanied with products that you CANNOT service. And those two things are mixed in different ways. For example with this Maxhit bearing you pay a crazy amount of money for supposed durability – that you are nonetheless expected to service once a year. And once these bearings wear enough, there is no way to service them anymore – no cups, cones, ball bearings to replace, unlike with the old bb’s (sure, it was not THAT easy even with them to e.g. find just cups in bike shop). I guess my point is that while I applaud e.g. Enduro for making “bike specific” bearings, I nonetheless long for products that are just easy to service – that is the key to durability. And that does not have to mean it costs a lot. To prove my point: There is absolutely no reason why Shimano could not manufacture it’s ubiquitous 20eur BB-MT501 with easily replaceable industrial standard 6805 bearings (where SKF quality bearings cost about 20eur), for the same cost they manufacture the BB in it’s current form. They just chose not to. And I would choose that over crazy expensive bb’s with marketing schpiel and small print regarding warranty any day.
@Destroyer666 I totally see your point.
The good news is there are indeed BBs which use industry-standard bearings. Take Neco, for example – they offer exactly what you want. Maybe the bearings in the set are not perfect, but you can replace them with SKFs later.
@tomlew Will check Neco, cheers.
Chris King are fairly serviceable. And the warranty does indeed require it. I enjoy the xtr plug and forget on two of the bikes. Until they die, and I just fit another. Chris’s headsets are worth it, superb seals.
It’s such a mucky area, and I haven’t had adjustable cup and cone BBs. on a bike since my Peugeot racers in the 80s, I was relieved when starting my mountain bike adventures in the 90″s that the fit and forget square taper BBs just worked. The seals on the hubs were awful back then.
Singletrack FGF featured this, https://burgtec.co.uk/product-category/hardware/shimano-crank-bolt/, I’m wondering if it will replace my seemingly made of butter bolt on the xtr 960 cranks, almost impossible to find back in the day.
@Destroyer666 Campag cranks use replaceable standard cartridge bearings, pressed onto the axles. They’re a slightly unusual size but you can find them easily enough on bearing specialist sites or elsewhere.
‘Rather than using cups that cartridge bearings sit within, the MAXhit is the bearings, if you catch my drift’
Still none the wiser – stick with dub and a ceramic Chinese affair at that which are brilliant for cost & durability in my experience!
” … noticeably easier to pedal.”
Really? How noticeable?
I’ve seen a thing at point of sale in a major bike shop near Kingston which had two identical chainsets connected to two different bottom brackets, inviting the customer to try spinning each one and go “ooh, this one spins much longer when there’s no grease in it or load on it, it must be better”, but from what I’ve read, the real-world difference between tuned ceramic and out-of-the box decent steel is about one watt, at best?
I almost never post on here but some engineering topics (especially the ones subject to user-unverifiable metrics) trigger me….
– all things being equal, bottom brackets with lots of big balls will last longer (the first clause is doing a lot of heavy lifting here), than ones with fewer smaller balls
– spin tests are a nonsense other than a fairly binary, “it spins or it doesn’t”
– sealing on the bearings / bracket will largely determine the “performance” of a spin test if everything is broadly aligned
– spin tests go to crap when the alignment of bearings / spindle and tolerance of the shaft within them are out. By not very much
– shove a load of grease in a BB it will last longer
– shove a load of grease in a poor BB / misaligned frame / crap bearings and it won’t
– the MAxHit(?) design is sound in that having a larger diameter race with more / bigger balls will provide longevity (if tolerances are appropriate)
– it will also have a higher friction than a bottom bracket that has smaller / fewer balls but obviously a lower load rating
– somewhere in the middle is the correct answer for a bicycle
– there is a boutique market, some quality, some not that try and persuade folk you can have all of the things you want (low friction, longevity, low / no maintenance / forever guarantee)
– end of day, if it fits reasonable parameters (Shimano 24 axle, BSA), is well made, your frame and axle and BB align because they aren’t made by twats, then your BB will have decent friction, last ages and doesn’t need to cost 200 of your British pounds