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Basically all manufacturers of Bottom Brackets and/or grease mention a "fill rate". But what exactly does for example 50-70% mean? 50% of what exactly? I guess if I over-grease the friction would be too high, and if I grease too low then the wear increases and its less protected against bad weather and riding conditions?
Also, do I really simply have to only add grease? Don't I have to clean something, got the old stuff off? How would I go about that? Beating the whole pressfit thing out of the frame with a hammer frequently doesn't strike me as a good idea =)
All the videos on youtube look so easy (crank off, protection off, grease on, and backwards, and they usually forget the chain), but in reality if you want to do a good job I guess its more delicate.
Are you talking about greasing the internal bearings in cartridge BB bearings? They're generally considered to be disposable.
Personally, I don't do any regular maintenance for BB bearings, if I'm pulling BB bearings out of a frame because they have some kind of issue, I'm going to replace them.
If I don't have bearings on hand or it's an emergency I'll spray them out with brake cleaner (or similar) and hand pack them which means I push grease in them until it starts coming out the other side, put the covers back on and re-install them.
Ditto others. I consider all cartridge bearings as disposable wear items. New replacements are so cheap that cleaning and regreasing doesn’t make much sense.
Replace the bottom bracket.
No maintenance required.
Some BB are serviceable example ceramicspeed & Enduro XD-15
I would take them out clean the bearings re-grease once a year for road and twice a year fro my MTB
Well, call me Mr. Bad Example. I built a new frame 20 years ago, all ultegra. Except the BB - Dura Ace and not a sealed cartridge. Lower weight, y'know? 40,000 miles. Plenty of rain. Never adjusted or repacked. Just tested by spinning by hand. Seems silky smooth.
At the risk of sounding like Dave, they don't make 'em like they used to.
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Not to hijack this thread, but M----n, I tried to PM you but you have PMs turned off.
It depends on the bearings & what the manufacture approach would be. As many pointed out, low cost 'sealed' bearings can be treated as disposable. If you want to get more life out of the product, or invested in something designed to last longer & perform better than a basic solution, then maintenance practices should be available from the manufacture of the part.
I am also sure you could use the technical support & documentation from a higher end BB and put some of those practices in place with a low cost version if there isn't readily available information from them.
Generally 'fill rate' is a different approach than 'packing'. From testing that Friction Facts did a few years ago, fill rate can and does influence efficiency, just as different greases.
CeramicSpeed does have videos on their YouTube channel about maintenance and such. I am sure documents can be found from Kogel or Enduro as others have referenced.
My understanding on the fill rate % is using the front of the bearing such as a 'clock' and filling the face to the amount suggested; ie 50% around (12-6) or 75% around (12-9). With hybrid ceramics grease should be in place to capture & protect from contaminants, whereas steel bearings do benefit from running more grease to really block moisture and keep all surfaces lubricated.