Saturday 21 January 2012

An Eccentric Item

For a while I have been getting a clicking noise from the cranks and bottom bracket (BB) on the Santos Travelmaster - not particularly loud and only there when there was lots of pressure going to the pedals. It has done just short of 5000 all weather miles and gets a fair bit of hammering so I suppose a new BB cartridge was on the cards soon anyway.

It was on my list of things to sort but as I don't have the experience and required tools to remove the cranks and BB it was going to require some time and financial investment. Still, I like servicing my own bikes as far as possible so it would be worthwhile tooling up and learning how to do it. Well, the noise became continuous and a grinding sensation also developed over the last week, so I popped into the LBS today to arrange a date for them to sort it as I could not make the time. 

As the Santos has an eccentric BB to tension the chain because of the hub gears, I expected a part would need ordering and I would have to drop it off later in the week. Well, Trevor (the LBS owner) said he could do it that afternoon and I could collect it later. And good as his word I picked it up before closing. 

I now realise the sealed BB cartridge sits inside an eccentric plug which then fits in the BB shell. The cartridge is just a standard component and easily available. Total cost £22.00 and it feels like new - lovely. I still need to learn how to do it myself though!

4 comments:

  1. Yeah some BBs are great like that. They have a little "cup" of ball bearings and it makes servicing a beauty. Or so I'm told, as I've never personally done it myself.

    Right now I have an annoying creaking when I pedal. Seems to be the chain though

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  2. Sounds like the front one that was on our old tandem Daz. The BB shell was the old huge Bmx size and its eccentric inner housed a standard Mtb bottom bracket. The BB shell was split with a couple of clamp-bolts underneath. A bit heavy but it worked.

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  3. Transmission woes are the worst, the sound often appears to be coming from a component other than the one which is the problem. Take my Yuba Mundo, terrible creaking from the bottom bracket, but the actual problem was with the seatpost

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  4. Tools aren't too expensive but specific to the BB type. I've done 2 so far and it's not too difficult. I wondered about BB's and eccentric. Thanks for sharing.

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