My 2008 Specialized Tarmac SL2 needs some work on the bottom bracket. It is smooth when I’m pedaling from the saddle, but once I stand up to climb or sprint I hear a creak. I do most of my own wrenching, but I am going to let my LBS handle this one. I don’t have the tools or experience for this job.
The real question, should I request they service the bottom bracket, or straight replace it? It is 6 years old with ~10,000 miles and hasn’t been serviced in 3 years.
One of the kickers is that my bike requires a very specific bottom bracket. Specialized website lists the product as: Specialized integrated oversize design. Will my LBS be able to find one of those for a decent price? Any experience with servicing that bottom bracket?
most any modern bottom bracket is a throw away. yours might be an outboard bearing or even a splined ISIS style BB. The only one you can service is the old square taper. A bad BB will have play that you feel when spinning fast like a klunking. If it doesn’t have play and just creaks, ignore it or pull it and grease the threads (or anti seize if needed) and put it back together. Some people use teflon tape. All the effort of taking it apart, i’d be inclined to just replace the BB for 40 bucks and not sweat it.
If you want take a closeup of the non drive side and post it
The only one you can service is the old square taper.
even then, once they starting going to the cartridge bearings, you were pretty much out of luck once it started to go bad. The old Campy loose-bearing BB’s would literally last forever as long as you serviced it regularly. Same for hubs. And headsets. Used to be a ritual around this time of year to take apart, clean, regrease. Kind of interesting how over the years we’ve come to accept parts lasting 10k (or less) miles that used to be good for 100k.
The old Campy loose-bearing BB’s would literally last forever as long as you serviced it regularly. Same for hubs. And headsets. Used to be a ritual around this time of year to take apart, clean, regrease. Kind of interesting how over the years we’ve come to accept parts lasting 10k (or less) miles that used to be good for 100k.
Oh I miss some of the old components. I got over 100,000 miles on an ultegra square taper bb. Every year just before spring racing began I’d overhaul the bb and wheel hubs. Replace all bearings with loose grade 25 and Phil Wood grease and they were good for another year. I always got that “job well done” feeling when everything was back together perfectly, more fulfilling than pulling out a cartridge and popping in a new one even if it does take much longer.
The new stuff is awesome but I sometimes miss the days of stuff you could overhaul yourself on a rainy afternoon…
I ride 6k-7k miles a year (no trainer and I live in L.A., so all my riding is on the road), and I’ve never replaced a bb. I may get a creak once every year or two, and I’ve simply had my local shop service it for cheap and the creak always disappears. Each time the creak came about because of sand/grime in the bb or because I got caught in a heavy downpour rain. I think my shop simply cleans and greases it and I’m good to go. I run a bb30 setup on my road bike and a 386EVO on my tri bike, so I don’t know if those are easier to service than your bb setup.
As for lifespan the lifespan of a bb, I’ve gone well past 10k (and likely more than 20k miles) on every one of my bbs.
Could be your peddles too. I replaced my BB once and found the creak remained so I took the peddles off, greased up the bearing cartridge and replaced. I also used some anti-seize on the threads and the creak was gone.
Not disagreeing about the throw-away nature of most modern BB, but I have a splined Dura-Ace (not sealed) that is 15 years old (or so) and with 25,000 miles. Still going strong, so some of the ‘modern’ (non-square taper) stuff has some longevity. But, as noted previously - sealed BB? Replace it.
If that’s the case, those are pretty easy to service. You need a tool and a headset press, absent that have the shop just press them in. If you remove the one side crank arm and whap the shaft with a rubber mallet it come apart and you can inspect and grease the bearings. If they feel ok just put it back together. It’s kind of a leaky design.
Problem is if the bb has not been serviced in 6 years.
Bb bearings could be frozen onto the crankarms, etc.
It looks like they may have been frozen on once already. I see that one of the bearing shields is bent like someone tried to put a screwdriver under it.
Specialized has tools to get all this stuff off and back together.
Take it to your shop.
Bearings are not that expensive- you are mostly paying for the shops knowledge and also their having the correct tools.
I have a 2007 Tarmac with the same BB and cranks. What you should do first - remove dust cap, get in there with a really long Allen wrench, undo the crank and pull it out. Grease the spline and all the other parts, reassemble and torque it good and hard. Should be good as new. Mine was letting out a creak like you wouldn’t believe a few months ago. Just needed some cleaning, greasing, and torque. Fyi, never replaced my BB on that bike. It has no play once tight and the bike has somewhere between 40k and 60k miles on it. When I was riding Campy I had to change my BB out every 8-10k.
As mentioned, the creak could be any number of items (and is probably not a worn BB). Bikes are a series of hollow tubes (think trombone), so an issue from the stem or the seatpost may sound like it’s coming from the BB. I had a BB creak that ended up being an issue with the front quick release.
Take it to the shop and ask them to fix the creak, not the BB.
As mentioned, the creak could be any number of items (and is probably not a worn BB). Bikes are a series of hollow tubes (think trombone), so an issue from the stem or the seatpost may sound like it’s coming from the BB. I had a BB creak that ended up being an issue with the front quick release.
Take it to the shop and ask them to fix the creak, not the BB.
+1
the only BB I’ve ever seen wear out was an old Dura-Ace with loose bearings that had never been serviced in 3 hard years of racing and being put away wet, it sounded like a coffee grinder…