Spanish BB Length

[nailbomb]

Hi Everyone,
Yesterday mid way through a dirt session at my local spot, my bike made a loud cracking sound originating from the BB area, my bb has been making creaking a couple of days ago.

I'm running a two week old Eclat Spanish BB, prior to this, i have never had any issues with my BB prematurely 'shittin the bed', i couldn't think of what i did wrong installation wise.

I then took my entire Cranks/BB off and saw that the seals on my bearings are all knackered. I then measured the tube spacer (48mm), both bearings (18mm) and my bb length is 68mm.

This comes to my question, why did they provide a tube spacer that isn't long enough for a standard BB Length? my conclusion is that I actually had to install a 2mm thick crank spacer inbetween my tube spacer and bearing on the inside of the frame?

I reckon what caused the seals to be knackered was cause there's a 2mm space in the BB shell that was allowing the tube spacer to be moving around?

Who else have encountered a similar problem? pretty bummed cause i waited ages for the eclat bb to be delivered to me and i have to the same again...

[Admiral Ackbar]

there's a pretty big lack of standards in bmx. i ran into the same problem on my old FBM frame but i just stuck an extra 5mm non drive side spindle spacer inside with the tube spacer

[nailbomb]

yeah man, true that, wished i had actually double checked on the measurements!

[Tall Opinion]

I don't think that would cause your bearings to fail quite that fast. I've heard of lots of people not running the tube spacer at all and being fine.

[GUMP_]

I don't run the tube spacer every one I've ever installed has always been a few mm too long

[Trvsty]

pretty sure the tube spacer has nothing to do with how good your bearings work,always thought is was to protect the middle of your spindle from rust. Like how the inside of your frame will rust a little and obviously moisture could get to the spindle and rust it making it near impossible to get the spindle back out. happened to my buddy once with profiles and had to drill the spindle out but he also never took care of the bike and left it outside im sure.

[Brooklynrider]

pretty sure the tube spacer has nothing to do with how good your bearings work,always thought is was to protect the middle of your spindle from rust. Like how the inside of your frame will rust a little and obviously moisture could get to the spindle and rust it making it near impossible to get the spindle back out. happened to my buddy once with profiles and had to drill the spindle out but he also never took care of the bike and left it outside im sure.

It is to keep the bearings straight in the bottom bracket. Otherwise they can be over tightened and "cave in", putting more pressure on the bearings.

[nailbomb]

pretty sure the tube spacer has nothing to do with how good your bearings work,always thought is was to protect the middle of your spindle from rust. Like how the inside of your frame will rust a little and obviously moisture could get to the spindle and rust it making it near impossible to get the spindle back out. happened to my buddy once with profiles and had to drill the spindle out but he also never took care of the bike and left it outside im sure.

hahahahhahah lol it's to actually allow your cranks to be tighten enough and the inner races of the bearings have something to press on with, to ensure your bearings won't get crushed radially/axially....:dunno:

[CHROME_RIMS_YO]

usually when i build up a new frame, whether it's spanish or not i measure the BB and the stack height of the tube spacer plus both bearings. i think for each the last 3 frames i've had (older t-1 moody/hickerson, fbm capone, 2007ish s&m dirtbike) i've used a 2mm spacer along with the tube spacer.

[blueee]

I don't think that would cause your bearings to fail quite that fast. I've heard of lots of people not running the tube spacer at all and being fine.

yeah, well some people just spin the boltaround with a tiny little allen while others might try cranking it down with an impact wrench

[Aesop Rock]

there's a pretty big lack of standards in bmx.

DING DING DING

Of the standards we do have a large percent of them go ignored by companies unfortunately. In the end this mainly hurts the end user as we're the ones who get to try to figure out solutions or buy different parts in order to ride.

[couch]

Unless its been changed, the bearing seat depth is called out at 10mm, if I remember correctly. So taking that into account, the spacer is the correct width. Are your bearings flush with the shell or are they sitting below the face by 1mm?

What did you use to install the bearings?

[Trvsty]

It is to keep the bearings straight in the bottom bracket. Otherwise they can be over tightened and "cave in", putting more pressure on the bearings.

hahahahhahah lol it's to actually allow your cranks to be tighten enough and the inner races of the bearings have something to press on with, to ensure your bearings won't get crushed radially/axially....:dunno:

I'm an idiot. honestly never cared what it was for,just knew it was some what important.

[nailbomb]

Unless its been changed, the bearing seat depth is called out at 10mm, if I remember correctly. So taking that into account, the spacer is the correct width. Are your bearings flush with the shell or are they sitting below the face by 1mm?

What did you use to install the bearings?

TOUCHE! exactly what i thought as well, i had the assumption that once i tighten the cranks down, the bearings would be pushed in to accomodate the 'extra' 1mm on each side but that's not the case thou.

I agree with the lack of standards in bmx, funny how when i got a new spanish bb set from a local company last night, the tube spacer is 50mm compared to eclat's 48mm....

I've ridden and work on bikes for ages now but encountering a problem with bb lengths and bearings are definately a first to me, thought i had all of these settled when the euro bb got phased out eventually but nooooo... hahahaha :confused:

[nailbomb]

DING DING DING

Of the standards we do have a large percent of them go ignored by companies unfortunately. In the end this mainly hurts the end user as we're the ones who get to try to figure out solutions or buy different parts in order to ride.

exactly! like how my profile hub required two shims instead of one hahaha