Headquarters for the Slender Fungus Cycling Association

Headquarters for the Slender Fungus Cycling Association
Brewers of Hardy Rides.

Thursday, June 13, 2019

The bottom bracket day of hell.

As usual we had our coffee and turned the music on at the shop this morning. We had a bunch of stuff to order yesterday for some expensive repairs today. My partner was building up a custom tri bike and need some cranks and a bottom bracket. Well we measured and re measured and calculated we need a pressfit 30 bottom bracket and a bb30 crank. We later found out the poor crank we ordered was too short and we needed to get the Evo one. That was strike one.
At the same time I received a well ridden Orbea with a creaky bb. I removed the cranks to find 2 bearing pressed directly into the carbon frame. Upon removing said crunchy bearing I realized the bearings have a lip on them so they don’t go further in. Of course Q does not have said funny Spanish bearing. I promptly put bike away and loaded a trek hybrid from the 90’s on my stand. Oh glorious times! 1 1/8 headset, english threaded bottom bracket, external cable routing, quick releases for fast wheel removal. After working on the trek for an hour it was perfect. It was smooth, v brakes phenomenal, just perfect. The orbea sat broken on the side crying, envious of the test ride the Trek was going on. I looked at the fancy new bike and promised to come with a fresh mind and make it good again.
Then people call us mechanics retro-grouches.

Ari

1 comment:

hyena said...

I understand you, I've been using a fixed gear bike for five years now. An old 1996 Moser steel frame is all I need to have fun. One gear, no brake. I'm glad you sometimes go back to writing in your blog. Thanks for your stories.