Hello, I have a Canyon Grizl 6 aluminum gravel bike, this is my only bike and has been used frequently for ~3 years, circa 50km per week. Over time I inevitably get the creaks and clicks that all bikes get with wear & tear, and it frequently takes some time to track each one down to the offending part. A more common occurrence for me is worn out 2437 (24mm x 37mm x 7mm) bearings in my BB86 bottom bracket, creaking and developing some play over several weeks/months of use. I have bought enduro and airvelo offerings. I'm pretty happy my installation of the crankset is all ok, I use a GRX RX600 crankset, ensuring the axle is lightly greased when installing, preload is very light (almost nothing <1.5Nm) to not stress the bearings out with excessive preload, no play of crankset exists when fresh bearings have been installed, and the axle free wheels nicely with new bearings. Old grease etc. is all cleaned up before install, and everything lightly greased during installation. I get maybe 100km-300km out of the bike until the annoying creaking typically appears – bottom bracket. When inspecting, usually I find at least one bearing feels gritty and crank has some play due to worn bearing(s).
So my thought is that maybe the grease I'm using to install the bearings into the BB is maybe de-greasing (reacting) with the bearing grease contained within the bearings themselves. I have used Park Tool HPG-1 on some occasions, and Park Tool PPL-1 on other occasions for my install of bearings / crankset. (not mixing either as I believe they are not compatible with each other). When I take the BB apart and remove bearings I normally see the color of the grease used for install has mixed with the color of the grease contained within the bearings, so obviously when pedaling, the greases inevitably do mix. I have just replaced my BB bearings again to resolve creaking (which it does resolve), this time I have just used automotive multi-purpose lithium based grease what you would buy from a typical automotive supply store, to try and see if I have any success with bearings lasting longer.
Is there any recommendations of what greases to use or avoid when installing bearings into a BB? Perhaps Park Tool HPG-1 and PPL-1 are not great for this application?
(Pictures show the worn out bearings removed on this last occasion, feel gritty when spinning, grease seems to have gone clumpy within the bearing, maybe a bad reaction with the grease used for installation)
Any help/advice would be great, thanks, Mike.
by micksuffolk
2 Comments
While I understand the frustration that can occur when chasing the root cause of an unexplained repeated failure
Using a lithium complex grease does eliminate most all compatibility issues, but I question your diagnosis that your install grease is mixing with the BB grease. *Every* shop would be seeing premature failures of Wheels Mfg. bottom brackets if this were the case. I just don’t believe there’s so much grease on the spindle nor that much grease migration past the seals to fuel a compatibility failure – if there was even a compatibility issue. PPL-1 is a polyurea grease and pretty darn compatible already.
I also doubt it’s the grease , first thing that came to mind is facing of bb shell. Can prematurely wear bearings.