I’d say that’s a pretty solid deal.

While it was working when you dropped it off, it sounds like they did what they had to in order to replace the bearings (the job you brought it in for) - nothing grossly negligent. I’ve had some cranks and BBs that were a nightmare to separate- true BB30 (metal bearing to metal spindle contact) can be amongst the worst. To be honest, I’d say this is a win to upgrade your ride to more modern tech at no more than cost.

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MS: Exercise Science
Your speed matters a lot, sometimes you need to be very fast, where sometimes you need to breakdown your speed.

This definitely sucks for you. Those with the Powertap products are going to see less and less support from SRAM over time so it is inevitable that owners will be SOL eventually.

Since this problem started with your frame’s BB shell I’d put priority on what is going to change there with the Quarq. The DUB spindle is only 1.01mm smaller diameter than the 30mm spindle used with th BB30 standard. What frame do you have and what kind of DUB BB is the LBS proposing to install?

I think the issue I'm having is with the bearings pressing directly into a bb shell that is no longer securing them firmly enough to prevent them from "walking" (as they described it). Somehow the tolerances on that metal shell molded into the carbon frame are a bit too loose I guess.

Presumably, the BB30 DUB adapter would essentially bypass all of that by moving the bearings inside the adapter, and they'd be held square to the spindle by the adapter itself, not the frame.

Not 100% certain how well it all works in practice but as I understand it, that'd be the idea.

Presumably the adapter has the added benefit of being more shielded from grime and sweat, which I'm told is another contributing factor here. They say the BB30 interface is more exposed to contaminants than most.

I'd not blame the LBS - seems to be inevitable 'collateral damage' that would have happened (or a good chance of happening) whomever did it.

Comparable (but more costly) to damaging a seat post that had seized in a frame.

As others and you say, the problem is the frame (+ creak-fit BB).
In my industry wherever bearings can creep around in the housing they have a slot in the outer ring and are pinned in place.
But you're enjoying the fake benefits of press-fit that the bike industry decided to impose on us all to overcome non existant problems with threaded BBs.

It’s a crap situation all the way around, no doubt.
Only piece of wisdom I can provide is to recommend the shop put in a wheels manufacturing external bearing thread together bb unit. That the only bb30/pf39 unit I’ve ever been happy with.

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"When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro."
Hunter S. Thompson

Certainly you got some lemons; HOWEVER, I think your LBS offered lemonade . . . You can't undo the problem but you can have a solution that is positive. I'd put the solution in the plus column.

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David
* Ironman for Life! (Blog) * IM Everyday Hero Video * Daggett Shuler Law *
Disclaimer: I have personal and professional relationships with many athletes, vendors, and organizations in the triathlon world.

What kind of frame do you have? What is the BB standard in it?


EDIT - sorry, didn't read, BB30....

What about buying a WheelsMFG BB30 thread-together BB. That worked great on my Felt that had a BB30 BB, no more creaking. Then choose new powermeter to work with whatever standard WheelsMFG BB you chose.

Solid deal, I think they are being fair.

On one hand, you'd expect a power meter to be able to take a bit of a side load, e.g. you drop a chain and it whacks the meter from the side, or your BB30 bearings are tight and you needed to use some force to get the crank out. I guess we don't know how much force they needed to use, and we don't know if they could have feasibly used less, and we also don't know if they knew that side loading a power meter might throw it off. (If you want to know how I know this, there's a thread on Quarq DFours/DZeros that failed after a chain drop. One of them was mine.) I guess now you know - have them take the power meter off next time. Or don't use BB30, although it's too late for that.

I am thinking that there's a non-zero possibility that a very knowledgeable mechanic could have foreseen this failure mode. They'd have to be experienced with power meters in general, and to have heard of this specific type of failure. And then they'd have had to connect the dots in the heat of the moment and go OK, I should take this guy's chainrings off. Not great, but easier than pulling a spider-based meter off.

And no, I wouldn't have connected the dots in the heat of the moment if I were a mechanic. I would have connected them after the fact.

I think their offer is fair. We are talking a DZero DUB, plus arms, plus rings, plus a BB? Yeah, totally fair. They probably mean to sell you a SRAM BB at cost. I think the spider and Quarq branded carbon arms are $589 at retail or thereabouts, and that's no BB or rings. If I wanted a better BB, I'd pay them retail for an upgrade or supply my own. I suspect the SRAM BB would be adequate on most bikes, but if your shell is slightly on the edge of the tolerances, then maybe spring for a thread together one. And I think most people would agree that asking them to eat the cost on that one would be pushing it at best.

I obviously wasn't privy to your conversation with the LBS, and I'm not actually familiar with BB30. By bearings walking in the shell, I sort of think you mean the cups are gradually creeping out. So, there's always a mean dimension and a tolerance, e.g. for BB30 it's actually 41.96mm, -0.00mm, +0.025mm. I'm not sure of the exact measurements. Basically, your shell might be just slightly out of tolerance, it might have worn to get to that point, maybe it left the factory that way and wasn't caught in QC. I don't know. Anyway, I guess the shell being slightly too big relative to the cups (which admittedly also have a tolerance) could cause the cups to walk out. Thread together should help. Metal cups should help, I think?

I wonder if it's worth commenting on throwaway culture. SRAM seriously doesn't have calibration equipment? I think the C1 was a 2015-ish item, so it's 6 years old ... I guess this is the potential fate of all our high tech electronics if they fail 6 years down the road? I mean, I don't know if this sort of thing could be repaired by calibration alone, but still. From the perspective of SRAM, it might be understandable, there could be valid operational reasons why they can't maintain Powertap's stuff. But from the consumer's perspective, this sort of sticks in the craw. If I spend $500 on a power meter and have to just trash the thing every few years ... is there some philosophical statement to be made about that? I realize I'm drifting way off topic and I shall now shut up.

Try walking into an Apple store with a 4 year old iPhone, and asking why it suddenly stopped working right. They'll stare at you in disbelief that you're still using such a relic.

The WheelsMFG threaded BB adapter would be my first choice. Just try finding a powermeter compatible with a 24mm Shimano/GXP spindle though. eBay is probably the only place you'll find any.

My opinion is that this is fair and extremely reasonable on the part of the shop. Many would offer less.

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Dimond Bikes Superfan

Are you stuck on a specific brand, as in SRAM? Open to Shimano?

I'm mainly limited to what the LBS can get their hands on. They said the SRAM/Quarq stuff is in stock. I haven't asked about any other brands.

Unless I want to pass on the chance to get replacement gear at dealer cost, and just deal with replacing stuff myself. That doesn't seem like a great option though.

And that's sad, right? I'm still using a Quarq Riken that I bought 1-2 years used almost a decade ago, and have happily paid quarq to support and service it maybe twice over it's life span.

I have a Quarq that I bought used in 2011, I think it's pre-Riken. The only thing I've ever done is replace the battery and a cracked battery cover. I even swapped out the the chainrings which should have required a a recalibration but after comparing it to the old chainrings with my Kickr, it didn't change enough to be concerned about.

I'm loyal to stuff that works so I just added a Quarq to my new road bike.

I think it's less an issue of "throwaway" culture and has more to do with how the acquisition/transition from PowerTap to SRAM went down. I had to have my PowerTap hub serviced last year. I had two or three calls with the guy at SRAM that processes the repairs and I recall him saying something about I was lucky it was a hub and not the chainring. Something to do with not getting the necessary equipment from PowerTap after the acquisition. Having been part of many acquisition deals, it doesn't surprise me in the least. Even the best ones aren't smooth.

I bet you that would happen at the store, but those are run by Apple, and I have to think that there's some Kool Aid passed out to the staff in training. I mean metaphorically, as in the company tells them that this that and the other bad thing could happen with an unauthorized repair.

I believe you can still get either OEM parts or maybe aftermarket parts for third party repair stores. At least, I know for sure that when I was shopping for a replacement battery and replacement screen for my iPhone 5 in 2016-2018 or so, I could get those, and that was about a 4-year old phone then. Although Apple may be using software locks of some sort on its newer phone parts.

I'd move away from PowerTap products. From a consumer perspective, the transition to SRAM has not been smooth.

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Janyne

This is consistent with what I've been told, that SRAM never came into possession of the C1 tools/equipment.

Whether that was intentional or accidental is an open question. "We never got the tools" makes for an awfully convenient excuse on a product they immediately discontinued, and probably would rather not support. The proverbial redheaded stepchild.

In fact for this reason, my first email was to Saris, not SRAM. Naturally they directed me to SRAM.

The C1s were notorious for suddenly quitting. Mine still works great (knock on wood), but everyone else I knew that bought them gave up after a warranty or 3.

The other problem is that they were basically obsolete the minute they came out. Right at that same time, everyone was switching from standard 130 or 110 BCD 5 bolt cranks to proprietary 4 bolt spiders. Not too many current mid to high end cranks that a C1 will fit. I had heard that the C1s were going to be discontinued even before the sale to SRAM...

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"I'm thinking of a number between 1 and 10, and I don't know why!"