Sheep-Dog Bites 3.0
The British are coming! The British are coming!

Well Euro's anyhow. Euro bottom brackets (B.B.). Close enough...

A while back in a forum I stated that I was concerned companies would see this as an opportunity to get most kids to replace their "outdated" B.B. with the latest and greatest. 

I suppose much of it is due to advertisers, and magazines. They always over hype, under test, and simply lie or candy coat what they really think. They want you to pay their advertisers so they get paid, and they also want to be the first one to spot new trends.

Back in the 80's when wishbones were put out, they were described as stronger, stiffer, and a revolutionary design. Why revolutionary or new I have no idea, it had been around since the 70's and before. Many companies jumped onto this bandwagon and basically sold the industry on it. A few things have been learned since then. 

First of all, its cheaper for them to make, so of course they love it. It was stiffer, but stronger? We did not destroy back ends as much as we do now and testing put less stress on a frame than the average 12 year old does today. Add to that the thinner tubing used, it did work well for the time. The industry embraced it and sold the public on it. Ironically charging them MORE for the design, even though it was cheaper to make. 

Years later someone got the inevitable idea, if one is good.. 2 must be better! One ingenious company even tried a third one (the seat tube split going into the B.B.). The public was sold. Companies made big money. 

Now we are starting to see the design flaws inherent to wishbones. Especially dual. Why has no one said anything? Saying so would ruin it. You damage a frame on the street and "your hardcore".  Why pay for your design mistakes, let the public pay, and pay, and pay. They basically sold themselves into a corner. Not that they care. 

We are finally beginning to see more intelligent frame designs, or at least we were starting to. Dual wishbones are falling by the wayside, and single is a viable option for sprocket clearance on shorter rear ends (I still object to upper, except on race frames, and T-1 upper is not a normal wishbone). Companies were going back to A-frame designs. Frames got simple again. Weight came down.

And then things started getting ugly...

When the light bike trend started, I thought great, we can finally ride a decent strength bike that weighs in the low 30's. I would have loved a 27 pound street bike capable of anything a 40 pounder would, but I knew it was not realistically possible. Not without losing a lot of strength. I finally settled around 33-34 for a dual brake bike with a gyro, 48's and pegs. Its still as strong as my old 40-42 pounder. I even put a heavier brake system and free-coaster on.

I also knew others would go for that 27 pound bike. Regardless of cost, strength, and anything else they could think of (or ignore). 36h rims, race forks and bars. Essentially many became jumping bikes and race bikes with a peg or 2.

Who decided on the euro B.B. I do not know. I heard Moliterno and Jim C. were both doing it at about the same time. Some rebels had been doing it for a while on custom frames. When the magazines saw it, they jumped on it. It did not help that them and the public became start struck when they heard the weight of Jim's bike.

Euro B.B. was designed for road bikes way back when. It worked good for them. All bearings needed constant work to keep running back then. You HAD to maintain your bike. Some mini BMX bikes adopted it for the simplicity of adding road cranks to their bikes to save weight. When MTB's came into the fold, they also adopted it as they used a lot of the same initial parts. Most of them were roadies.  

BMX pros tried them off and on, and found they did not work as well. They flexed a bit more. The bearings wore out fast. On road and MTB cranks they use a slimmer spindle, leaving more room for bearings. On BMX designers work opposite. We make the axles and spindles bigger,  but shrink the bearings. Small bearings do not handle loads well. Especially side loads. The bearings in many sealed euro B.B.'s are not much larger than a headset ball bearing. Not a Pig lower bearing, a top ball bearing. Cranks take a hell of a lot of pounding.

Now MTB's are working on a new BB standard. Something in between a euro and standard B.B. Several manufacturers are involved in it. Why would they want a bigger B.B.? Strength. The bearings are getting too small due to larger spindles. Not to mention its an awful small tube to weld the main points of a frame to. Now if they need larger ones, don't you think we should be questioning our own needs? Remember they run larger bearings than us, have suspension and are consider to be more gently to their parts than us.

I do not claim the standard B.B. to be prefect. It does seem archaic to pound the bearing into the frame. After working at a shop, and dealing with stuck euro B.B. all day, I can tell you, it sucks. A euro requires threads, that must stay corrosion and rust free. It also cannot be damaged. Smack it on a grind and you may never get your B.B. out again. Strip it and your doomed. What happens if you strip the frame threads (yes it happens, my brother had a shop do this to a prototype Haro MTB frame years ago, they cross threaded it)? A standard B.B. a few whacks with a hammer and all is free. When your faced with a stripped, damaged or seized B.B. and stripped tools, standard starts looking awful nice. Never had a standard B.B. I could not get out in a few minutes. I have seen Euro take several busted tools, knuckles, and still never get it out. We simply remove one side and clean it out as best we can with the other side still installed. Good thing his bearings were ok, and it only needed lube. 

There are other problems with euro B.B. as well. You have 4 tubes that need  to be attached to it. If one is larger diameter than the B.B. shell, it must now be re-shaped in order for all the tubes to fit. Your putting a lot of heat and stress onto a very small tube also (MTB's have been known to rip them off the frame!). Then there is the size issue. There are several dozen sizes for euro B.B.'s. Too narrow and the cranks will hit the chainstays. There is also a measurement of the B.B. shell. Order the wrong size and its worthless to you. 

What does a euro B.B. actually get you? It saves you 1/4 pound.. That's it. If your sponsored, that's one thing,. When your bearings are trashed, you just get some new ones. Same for the frame. Are you sponsored? Can you afford to replace them constantly?

So why are the factories pushing this? weight.? not likely.  

I have 2 possible reasons...

1. Its trendy.  Lets face it, light bikes are the rage, and people like being trendy. Nothing says light like a euro, regardless of it not being all that light anyhow. Its certainly not smoother.

2. Opportunity. How many people want one of these, regardless of their current frames shape? Manufacturers tend to love selling lots of new frames. Why shouldn't they back it. 

Guess what will happen when light starts to die off and the new standard is out... That's right.. Get you to buy the new one AGAIN! My advice is wait and see what the new standard is, and keep your eyes on it.. It very well could be what you are really are after. In the meantime, stick with a normal B.B.  Don't fall into this hype.

Looking at all the new frames it does not take long to realize manufacturers are going to milk this one. The last few S&M frames have been euro. Kinks new is available in euro, Alliance now has them, Mutiny has one. Standard has one... How many more will there be. The only new frames I  know of on the horizon not with euro is the new Fit Homan frame, and the M.O.D. Within a year or 2, Euro may be all you can get!

I do not blame companies for going after the trends, but at least give us the option!.

If you prefer what you have make sure you keep buying that and force the manufacturers to go back. Do you REALLY need a euro BB and its added expense and trouble.  I mean really what is wrong with the current system. Sure it seems archaic, but face it, it works really well. Being trendy for the sake of trendiness is gonna cost you. in this case it could cost more than you think if you damage any of it.