Chris King Bottom Brackets Anyone ?

Has anyone used or using them? Im looking in replacing my XT bottom bracket and the reputation of King components are great it sounds like a no brainer but, at $130 thats alot of dough considering the replacement XT is $40. Is it worth the upgrade ? I dont know...

 

Waste of money. Just my opinion. I am highly skeptical of some of the reviews on MTBR:

Go figure, a bottom bracket will make you stronger and faster.

 

I love mine, only way at the time to get a pink BB to match my pink hubs, headset and brakes.
Do I feel stronger or faster, no but pink is cool.

 

I'm calling bullshit, right now. The amount of drag your BB causes is utterly irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. It's such a tiny percent of the effort you have to put forth to make the bike move that even if you eliminated it entirely, it's not going to make a noticeable difference.

I work in a shop. One of our regulars, a very good road racer, cat 2 I believe, came into the shop to get a new chain put on his TT bike. Earlier that evening he'd set his PR on the local TT course, which he'd been riding on a weekly basis for years. Went to take his chain off, and noticed that his crank didn't turn so freely. Pulled the arms off to replace it, and it was in bad enough shape that you couldn't turn the spindle by hand without a crank arm on it for leverage. I'm not recommending leaving your BB in that sort of condition, but the point is, it clearly didn't slow him down that much. And the difference between that and a normal BB is one hell of a lot bigger than the difference between a normal BB and a King.

 

Does a Rolex work better than a Timex?

 

It does feel damn smooth/no drag after new grease is injected. Is it worth it? 5 year warranty is not bad. I have 2 on 2 different bikes that I built up and I would buy another.

Does it make you faster? I will say that after I used the grease gun I could feel a smoother, quicker spin but it only made me realize how dirty the bearings were. I did not purchase the BB because I thought it would make me faster. Less beer drinking will do that.

Oh yeah, cool colors.

 

I've had one since December and it's worked great so far. It's still as smooth as the day I installed it.

I can't compare it to XT but I can compare it to Race Face. My Race Face BB died an early death, and ran rough for several months before I decided to pitch it.

A Chris King BB, or any CK part for that matter, won't make you any faster. Instead, it will be a long-lasting, smooth-running part that you won't have to worry about.

Are there alternatives? Absolutely. Just the same, King stuff will always be a solid choice.

Pricey, but worth it.

 

Spend anotherfew $ and get some ceramic bearings instead

 

Those make even less sense. Ceramic bearings make sense for high temperature environments, high RPM applications, and lubrication starved environments, such as vacuums. So, unless you're riding your bike on the sun, in outer space, or can spin at 10,000 rpm, you will not see any appreciable performance gain from ceramic bearings.

 

i can do all of these things... my only problemo is achieving escape velocity. :bang:

gravity is a bitch!:lol:

 

I got the Chris King BB and then sent it to PUSH for the Ceramic Bearing upgrade. My whole bike rides sweet now.

 

I am considering getting ck bbs for longetivity only. I change bbs every year and a regular cost $50. If these ones will last me 5 years, it will be a no brainer.#-o

 

It irks me that Shimano makes disposable BBs that start getting noisy and lumpy in less than a year.

Is it better to replace a cheap BB annually, or service the CK biannually? I feel more comfortable performing routine maintenance, so I go with the King. If it lasts three years, I figure I've broken even.

Rob

 

Because I'm bored, and because I'm a nerd, I just worked this out.

One of my bikes has a Race Face bottom bracket with Enduro bearings in it, on XT crank arms. With the cranks horizontal and the chain removed, it takes a weight of 7g at the end of the crank arm to set it in motion. That's a torque of .001225 Nm. So since it acts at a distance of 12mm from the center of the spindle, the maximum static frictional force from the BB is .102 N. Work = force x distance. So for one revolution of the crank, the BB does .00769 J of work against your legs. Power = work/ time. If you're spinning at 80 rpm, the crank does .0103 joules of work per second. That's .0103 watts. Say you're cruising along on the flats, putting out 90 watts. That's not working very hard at all. The resistance from the BB is taking up... wait for it... .0114% of your power. That's based of my semi crunchy mountain bike BB, and the static frictional force it provides. Kinetic friction < static friction, the numbers I got are actually too high for once you get going. And a new BB would obviously be better.

Another calculation: A TDF caliber rider, averaging 235W over the course of a 105 mile mountain stage ridden in 5:25 (based off stage 17 from this year's tour) would save .85 seconds by switching from my sort of crunchy used mountain BB to one with no friction at all.

 

I've found that I don't think there's a difference with my CK BB physically, but mentally, I think I like my bike more with some bling. We all know we "Love the Bike We Ride" but when you REALLY like your bike, you'll "Ride the Bike You Love" !!!!!

 

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I've had the same CK headset since 2000. The bearings have never been replaced and have only been serviced once. It's still smooth.

That makes nine years (and counting) on the same headset. I didn't need much convincing to buy a BB made by the same people.

Alternative plan: if you really can't stand the price of a CK headset, you might get a cheapie RF BB and replace the bearings with Phil Wood bearings when they wear out. You'll need to find someone with the Phil Wood tool for this, and if you choose to buy the Phil Wood tool and the bearings, it's about the same price as purchasing the CK BB.

Of course, this is the part where someone chimes in and says that the CK BB and the CK BB greasing tool add up to more than the Phil Wood BB tool and a set of Phil Wood bearings. To this I say that if you keep your BB out of the water, you'll have plenty of time to save up for the greasing tool before you need to re-grease your CK BB.

 

I got one and now I dont even have to pedal....oh wait, umm nevermind:lol: King = bling and for the most part, dependable. If you can afford it, you should do it.

 

I think the BB is like any other part of the bike. I just installed XTR shifters the other day to replace the cheapy $20 units that came w/ my bike. Am i faster? nope, do i feel a WORLD of a difference.... not really, when i press the shifter it shifts... it did that before with the $20 units also... but do i love them? The fact that they say XTR on them... YES! lol

Same goes with CK BB.

 

You have to convert the kg force to newtons.
1 kg-force = 9.8 N (round to 10 N).

Torque = .01225 Nm
Energy/rev = Torque*2*PI = .0769 J , etc.

For 1 stage of TDF it's worth 8.5 seconds, N stages = Yellow Jersey