I’m having a custom TI road bike built with Ultegra Di2. For an extra $100 I can upgrade from the Ultegra 6800 bottom bracket to a Chris King bottom bracket. Seeing as how bottom brackets have always been an area I haven’t paid much attention to what exactly would this upgrade get me? I’m familiar with the Chris King brand but just not very knowledgeable about the ins and outs of bottom brackets.
Don’t know anything about the BB question, but want to see a picture of that bike when its done…
The CK uses better bearings, is serviceable, and has a 5-year warranty. The Ultegra one works fine, but is not (technically) serviceable, and will probably get replaced after a couple seasons depending on how much you ride. There will be no noticeable performance difference between either bottom bracket, as both of them are excellent.
Stainless Steel bearings,serviceable & COLOR
.
Remember, things that can be serviced, need to be serviced. So take that into account. If you are the type of person that can wrench or doesn’t mind dropping your bike off at the shop, then great, the CK will likely last you a lot longer. If you would rather ride and replace parts as need be, stick with the Ultegra.
Remember, things that can be serviced, need to be serviced. So take that into account. If you are the type of person that can wrench or doesn’t mind dropping your bike off at the shop, then great, the CK will likely last you a lot longer. If you would rather ride and replace parts as need be, stick with the Ultegra.
I’ve been running the same CK headset since 1994. Yes, the bearing can be serviced, but I haven’t had to do so.
Don’t worry. Pics will be posted when it’s done. Not until next summer though unfortunately.
Colors are good. In fact the bike will have a CK headset in blue. Likely a BB to match.
If you’ve got the coin and like the bling, go for the CK. They look really great on Ti frames. For sure they’re expensive and whenever I’ve considered a CK BB, I’ve ended up going the Ultegra route, solely because I think the Ultegra stuff is really good and it’s like 1/3 the price so the idea of replacing it every few seasons doesn’t bother me.
That said, if I were building up a custom Ti frame, I’d get the CK… I like the bling. Not enough guys rock the pink IMO…
King all the way. That is exactly what I did- custom ti with King bb.
So smooth that I can spin the cranks, go to lunch, come back and it is still spinning.
Ultegra is fine (Shimano bb last fairly long and then you throw it out), but the King is a keeper.
Get a King headset too.
What ti frame are you getting?
I had a Shimano BB on my TMR01. I would spin the crank without a chain and it just didn’t seem to free spin like I’d want it do. I removed the crank and felt the bearing…smooth, but resistance. Probably the seals. I ended up going with an Enduro PF with ceramic non-contact seals. Spins nicely/freely. Maybe the real ‘on the road’ improvement is only in my mind, but that’s good enough for me. 
Difference between PF Shimano BB and Threaded Shimano BB. The new 6800 BB uses much smaller bearings that allow for less drag and much better seals. Yes the King will have less drag and is serviceable but as it has been said things that can be serviced tend to need to be serviced. If you the type of person that will bring your bike into a good shop regularly and they will purge your BB then the king is great. If you want a BB that will last all winter on the trainer with sweat and all summer during races with sweat water and pee and never have to be touched then go shimano. The new generation of shimano BBs are great, i tossed a 6800 on one of my riders CX bike that gets raced on at leas twice a week in the rain/mud of the Northwest and it feels like new 3 months later.
Get the King for the color. Pick one that matches or offsets the headset nicely. I did a steel bike w/ blue King headset/bb/hubs.
It’s not going to change your life, but it’s nice when you look down and the carpet matches the drapes. Or something like that.