![]() Photo Credit: Ryan Palmer The Wheels Manufacturing tool isn’t the most convenient, but it’s affordable and will get the job done. It’s a relatively new tool interface standard, but at least other people are using it, so your local shop is more likely to have the correct tool to install it. The good news, though, is it’s not proprietary. Even though it looks like your standard Hollowtech II interface, it’s actually a couple millimeters larger in diameter (48.5mm). It’s simple as pie, although, if you want to do it yourself, you will need to pick up a tool for that, too. The big bummer for home mechanics about all press-fit bottom brackets is the need for a bearing press and the correct drifts, however Wheels Manufacturing sells a universal bottom bracket press for $30, so it’s not a huge investment for the do-it-yourselfer.Īfter pressing the right-side cup in, you just thread the left side on and tighten to 35-50Nm. While the two sides do thread together, you’ll still need to start by pressing the drive side cup into the frame. The Wheels Manufacturing thread together bottom bracket is the simpler of the two, consisting of a couple aluminum parts with a familiar 16-notch tool interface, a pair of seals, and some spindle spacers. Photo Credit: Ryan Palmer Wheels Manufacturing’s Thread Together bottom bracket is simple and effective Think about it this way: without threadless headsets there’d be no carbon steerer tubes. That’s why press-fit hasn’t gone away-it’s actually why it shouldn’t. It’s sort of like the only analog thing left in a digital world. Engineers can create better carbon bike frames if they don’t need to design around big aluminum parts being bonded into high-stress areas. It isn’t unheard of for those bonds to come loose, permanently separating you from that particular frame. It’s heavier, more difficult and expensive to manufacture, but more importantly, it’s not totally reliable. You can’t cut 24tpi threads into the type of carbon that frames are made out of, so putting a threaded bottom bracket shell onto a carbon frame requires glueing a large aluminum part into the frame-which requires two different materials to be bonded-which isn’t ideal. So why on earth do companies continue to produce bikes with non-threaded bottom brackets? Because, carbon. It’s a real thing that happened, and sadly, it was pretty commonplace for bottom brackets to literally uninstall themselves during use-a problem that was solved nearly a century ago by using left hand threads on drive-side cups. I’ve researched and bought expensive adhesives, sleeve retaining compounds and curing agents, not just to keep the dumb things quiet, but to actually keep bearings in frames. As a professional mechanic, I’ve spent hundreds of hours chasing press fit problems. Everyone hates press-fit bottom brackets, right? Here at Bike, we’ve been complaining about them for an entire decade now-and for the most part they’ve deserved it.
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