Urgent advice - bottom bracket

[240Cup]

Hi all, new in here but hoping you can help me. I have a fairly new (3 mths old) Boardman Performance Urban MTB which I have been pretty impressed with (my first foray into bikes costing more than 50quid...!) but the bottom bracket has failed. Only been used on road.

Halfords are saying they can fit a Sram GXP almost immediately under warranty but looking at the spec mine has a Mega EXO chainset with an FSA bb?!?!? They say happy to get an FSA but there will be a delay while they order it.

I'm baffled - I don't want anything inferior being fitted to that which was original spec but don't know aneough about it.

Please help..!

Cheers,

240

[anonymous-user]

cant see there being much of a difference assuming that we're not talking X9/0 getting swapped for FSA bottom of the range. FSA are good enough for loads of bikes. Halfords fitting a BB would terrify me though.

[anonymous-user]

This may help make the decision;

http://www.mtbr.com/cat/drivetrain/bottom-bracket/...

I did quite a bit of digging and the SRAM BB's were consistantly slagged off by everyone. As for Halfords fitting it that is going to be pot luck IMO. You'd be better off taking it to a proper bike shop and getting them to face the BB and install a new one.

[IroningMan]

Wait for a like-for-like replacement.

Let Halfords fit it.

Have the bike checked-over afterwards by a bike shop if you are nervous about Halfords, or, better, get the tools and know-how to do so yourself.

[shouldbworking]

Take it to a proper bike shop. Improperly or even just not perfectly installed BB's do not last well at all.

[okgo]

How can you install a BB wrong,surely its just doing up two screws...when attaching the cups?

[IroningMan]

It's the bit that comes next that's more likely to be ballsed-up, depending on the pre-load arrangements.

[S1_RS]

What has actually failed in the BB? I had a BB fail on a newish £1300 Scott bike, it was actually only a plastic cage which had split. I bought a cheapo BB with a metal cage and fitted the metal cage to the original BB, been perfect ever since.

[Vipers]

S1_RS said:

What has actually failed in the BB? I had a BB fail on a newish £1300 Scott bike, it was actually only a plastic cage which had split. I bought a cheapo BB with a metal cage and fitted the metal cage to the original BB, been perfect ever since.

Be interesting to hear what failed, just changed mine on my Giant MTB, had only been used on the road but coverd just over 8000 miles, and getting a bit slack.

[240Cup]

Thanks all so far.

They have agreed to order the original spec one (fsa bb 7000?) and fit that over the next few days.

Don't know what bit actually failed unfortunately as it hasn't been taken apart yet - all I know is that it started to make a click on each turn of the crank at a certain point and felt a bit 'notchy'. No play at all in the bracket though to speak of.

I'm sure I heard/felt something give at the time before the clicking started. I was pushing quite hard uphill (for a fat lad). One of the guys at HF said it might have got dust in it (based on the fact my wheels are quite dusty) and that has ground a bearing but I thought bottom brackets were supposed to be sealed?

If I find out more I will update post. Still surprising given the age/mileage. It had a new carbon fork put on at the 6 week service as well due to a stripped thread where the brake bolts on.

I know what you say about HF reputation but they have been fine so far, and given the price I paid on one of their 'event' weekends (£560) for the spec involved I'm happy enough providing they continue to sort it under warranty for me.

Cheers,

240