1speed
Incredibly profound yet fantastically flawed
After LBD this year, I had to have all the bearings replaced on my bike - hubs, headset, and on my brand new Biocentric 30. With the new Bio EBB (which was designed as a substitute for the Bio II more or less for frames with Boost spacing like the RDO), the bearings are integrated in the unit. That isn't the case with the Bio II, which took standard cartridge bearings in cups -- the Bio II is essentially just movable housing that can pair up with any BB30 or PF30 design (I think there are separate models for each.) I guess the Boost spacing made that not an option for Niner (??) I'm wondering if anyone who has seen a bunch of these integrated bearing designs has an opinion on whether they are more likely to have issues than the standard cartridge bearings. Both are cartridge bearings, I guess, but the integrated ones have their own housing that, at least on visual inspection, seems to be less hearty than what you get with the standard cartridge cups - and perhaps more susceptible to having water and mud creep in under conditions like we had in that slopfest. (In fact, one really odd design element on the Bio 30 is that the side of the cartridge where you would access the bearings goes on the side facing outward. Why would they do that?) Or is there really any difference? Even with the terrible conditions, I was a bit surprised that I had to pretty much chuck the bearings cartridges in the trash after only three rides on them -- even after I had them pulled out and we tried to clean them, you could not get them to move at all. They were totally ceased up on both sides. If you wanted to freewheel my cranks, you could hit them backward with a hammer and they'd only move like an inch.
In the end, one thing my shop did to head off future issues like this one was to replace the steel bearings that came with the Bio 30 with ceramic bearings. From what I understand, they don't really even need to be greased and if they get mud in there, they can actually just grind it out without necessarily damaging the bearings -- they'll just become more burnished. But I'm wondering if I would have needed to do this so soon if I had separate cartridges like I do on my Sir9 with the Bio II.
In the end, one thing my shop did to head off future issues like this one was to replace the steel bearings that came with the Bio 30 with ceramic bearings. From what I understand, they don't really even need to be greased and if they get mud in there, they can actually just grind it out without necessarily damaging the bearings -- they'll just become more burnished. But I'm wondering if I would have needed to do this so soon if I had separate cartridges like I do on my Sir9 with the Bio II.
