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Truvativ
Giga Pipe Team SL BB
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Submitted by
Brett
a Cross Country Rider
from Orange, MA
Date Reviewed: July 22, 2005 | | Favorite Trail: | not telling | | Duration Product Used: | Less than 1 month | | Price Paid: |
$40.00 | | Strengths: | It gave me something to look forward to receiving in the mail! | | Weaknesses: | lasted 3 rides | | Similar Products Used: | yes, I have used similar products | | Bike Setup: | Cannondale F-series hard tail XT/XTR Avid discs | | Bottom Line: | As I said, it lasted 3 (long,wet)rides. The last one involved a water crossing across a beaver pond through 2 or 3 feet of water. Granted, this is not the best way to treat a bike, but it happens very now-and-then. Not I or anyone I ride with has had a BB fail from doing so. It now turns like it's about to bind. | Value Rating: Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
David
a Cross Country Rider
from Monrovia
Date Reviewed: April 19, 2005 | | Favorite Trail: | blue | | Duration Product Used: | 6 months | | Price Paid: |
$55.00 | | Purchased At: | LBS | | Strengths: | Works when it's new. | | Weaknesses: | Bearings and seals don't hold up... | | Similar Products Used: | TruVativ Sealex, Raceface ISIS, lots of Shimano non-ISIS | | Bike Setup: | Cannondale Jekyll. Chris King Hubs. | | Bottom Line: | Poor design. Need bigger bearings, real seals.
I liked it at first. Then it started creaking. Took it out, cleaned it and put it back in and it was fine until the bearings got grit in them through the seals -- only a couple of months after I bought it. Took it apart and cleaned them (they were also dry -- no grease to speak of), but they didn't last much longer. Replaced the bearings (cartridge) and they just quickly wore out again. Got a 2nd one (glutton for punishment) and it wore out in short order.
| | Value Rating:Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
Earthfoote
a Racer
from Oklahoma City, OK
Date Reviewed: April 17, 2005 | | Favorite Trail: | just lemme roll.... | | Duration Product Used: | 3 months | | Price Paid: |
$49.00 | | Purchased At: | Webcyclery | | Strengths: | Easy installation of cranks, good spindle design. Feels smooth and tight when new. :) | | Weaknesses: | Durability is for the birds. | | Similar Products Used: | FSA ISIS, lots of square taper bb's over the years. | | Bike Setup: | Trek Fuel 95 custom build from frameset, Truvativ Stylo Team cranks | | Bottom Line: | Junk.
Most of the ISIS bb's seem to fail early, but this was ridiculous. I was a frequent but fast cross-country rider when I put this bb in.....then I got into racing and riding much harder. But during easy riding, this bb crapped out after 3-4 months and probably 600 miles of dry weather. It developed play in the bearings early on, but not terribly. Then it became rough and gritty to the point that I could feel it turning when pedaling.
I had a GigaPipe Team-SL bottom bracket (purchased with some Stylo Team cranks). I tried to get ahold of TruVative for a pair of the "adjusting/rebuild pliers" that they mention on their website.....so that I could just rebuild it myself if grease was all that was needed. No response -- twice (email and phone). TruVativ now requires dealer involvement, which takes time and is an extra hassle....but ok, the whole bike industry is going that direction.
Well, in a slow fashion, they replaced my "performance" bb with the cheaper SLLT version. I phoned them to inquire as to why and they just said they wanted to get me riding as soon as possible -- they didn't have any Team-SLs and weren't expecting any. Nice gesture, I suppose, but they didn't ask and weren't willing to do anything about it when I said that wasn't acceptable to me. So hey, TruVativ, why not just let me wait for the next batch to arrive from overseas? Or snag one from a distributor? How about offering to refund me the purchase price since you can't deliver on the warranty replacement of the same product, or maybe step me up to the next higher quality like other companies would do? How about refunding me the retail difference between the two? I could use that $15 to put toward a better company! lol :)
I can accept the basic design flaw of the ISIS bb's -- every manufacturer seems to have trouble with it. But I also expect them to live up to some basic warranty obligations and customer service.....which TruVativ didn't do in my opinion. I'll stick to other brands from now on. People seem to be slightly happier with them anyway, as far as bb's go.
TruVativ's apparent "new generation" of customer service, since SRAM bought them, stinks. They do NOT return emails or phone follow-ups, and don't make it easy to contact a person in the first place. When I finally got them on the phone, they weren't exactly bending over backwards to be friendly or offer assistance. Big difference from just a short time ago. Shops I've talked to aren't all that pleased with the service they get either. Oh well.....I guess now it's cool to imitate the Big S instead of working so hard to improve upon them. lol Woe to the end-user.
I'm much happier with the FSA bb that I'm using for the time being....seems smoother and hasn't developed play like the TruVativ did early on. I'll put the TruVativ replacement in when the FSA wears out. Probably stick to RaceFace bb's in the future unless a better design comes on the market (unlikely).
| Value Rating: Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
Tomi
a Cross Country Rider
from Finland
Date Reviewed: January 20, 2005 | | Duration Product Used: | 1 Year | | Price Paid: |
$30.00 | | Strengths: | Cheap | | Weaknesses: | Durability | | Similar Products Used: | Various Shimano parts | | Bike Setup: | Klein Pulse Comp, Noleen mega air fork, King headset & hubs, SRAM/XT/XTR, Avid arch rival brakes... | | Bottom Line: | This Truvativ bottom bracket has been a big disappointment. The first one lasted almost for a year before it developed play. I got it replaced by the warranty. Now the second one has play after 6 months of XC riding. I don't think I'm going to buy any Truvativ BB's in the future. Since these BB's are not serviceable, they should be made to last for several years of normal use. | | Value Rating:Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
Innes
a
from Alta Loma, CA
Date Reviewed: November 22, 2004 | | Duration Product Used: | 1 Year | | Price Paid: |
$42.00 | | Strengths: | Not much. | | Weaknesses: | Develops play quickly. | | Bottom Line: | This is the third one in just over a year. The first was OEM. It developed play in about 5 months. LBS replaced it at no cost. About 6-7 months later that one died too. I picked one up at Jenson and not that one's shot! This is a P.O.S. I wouldnt' recommend this to anyone. | | Value Rating:Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
Slacker
a Cross Country Rider
from UK
Date Reviewed: October 11, 2004 | | Duration Product Used: | Less than 1 month | | Price Paid: |
$60.00 | | Purchased At: | Wiggle.com | | Strengths: | Easy to fit provided you have the Truvativ tool, which is not expensive. | | Weaknesses: | Bearing play | | Similar Products Used: | OEM Truvativ ISIS that came with bike, so it would have been a cheap one | | Bike Setup: | Marin RiftZone, Truvativ ISIS cranks | | Bottom Line: | This lasted just 20 miles before developing play in the bearings.
The OEM model it replaced had leasted 2 years, so I thought another Truvativ would be fine.
Wrong.
I can't recommend this to anyone. Maybe I was unlucky, but looking round the reviews, ISIS doesn't seem to stand up to normal use. | | Value Rating:Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
Skippy the Hippie Hippie
a Cross Country Rider
from Lansing, MI
Date Reviewed: July 8, 2004 | | Favorite Trail: | All of them | | Duration Product Used: | 1 Year | | Price Paid: |
$39.00 | | Purchased At: | L.B.S | | Strengths: | None... OK, it's cheap.. I mean it doesn't cost that much. And, it can make your pedals go round and round. | | Weaknesses: | Doesn't last very long. Barrings can't be serviced. Crank bolt head's can strip easly (watch out for that one). | | Similar Products Used: | None, this is my first bike with ISIS | | Bike Setup: | Santa Cruz Bullit set up for hard XC. Rockshox psylo, truvitav cranks, hayes hydo disc, Progressive 5th element etc.. (A picture of my bike is on the Progressive suspension web site on the last page of the customer gallery. Its the blue one) | | Bottom Line: | After 6 months, this BB broke! I was ridding one day, and noticed my bike was clicking. The cup on the drive side cracked just below the splined part. I found out that this is a common failure for this BB. I replaced it with the same model. That was last season. This year, after the snow melted, I disasembled my bike to give it a once over, and when I was taking the crank's off I stripped the allen head of the bolt for the drive side crank, This made it impossible to ever take the crank off. I had to go buy a rotary file bit for my drill, and over the course of 2 hours, I had to grind away the bolt head untill I was able to use my crank tool, and pull the crank. I know I did not over tighten the bolt. I have a good tork wrench. Luckly I had the bolts from the original BB, so I was able to put everything back together again. But I dont trust this BB. You can only fool me twice! I am going to buy a spare BB to have on hand incase of another failure, I dont know if it will be a Truvativ... (you can only fool me thrice?) | Value Rating: Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
Simon Cowling
a Cross Country Rider
from Bristol, England
Date Reviewed: July 1, 2004 | | Favorite Trail: | cwmcarn | | Duration Product Used: | 6 months | | Purchased At: | came standard on bike | | Strengths: | erm, I'm sure there is something | | Weaknesses: | it moves | | Bike Setup: | cannondale F800 factory spec | | Bottom Line: | Like others below my bb has been a grab ass. Within the first month I found that there was play in my gigapipe and it clicked. Th problem as others have said is the bearing cups wiggle, but I also had the problem of my bb cups started to unscrew as well. Have had to tighten them several times. Unfortunatly I bought the bike second hand so no warantied. I shall soon be rid of it though in favour of xt hollowtech crank set. | | Value Rating:Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
Greg
a Cross Country Rider
from Calgary, AB, Canada
Date Reviewed: April 13, 2003 | | Duration Product Used: | 3 months | | Price Paid: |
$49.00 | | Purchased At: | Cambria Bike | | Strengths: | Smooth, strong, and lightweight.
| | Weaknesses: | None so far | | Similar Products Used: | Bontrager, Race Face, Shimano | | Bike Setup: | Trek STP | | Bottom Line: | I've only put just over 500 km on it so far, but it's been great. Spins great and stiff, with thusfar none of the play others have complained about. My last two ISIS BB's have lasted less than 6 months, if this one doesn't last longer than that I'm going back to Shimano.
| Value Rating: Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
Mark
a Cross Country Rider
from Davis
Date Reviewed: February 26, 2003 | | Duration Product Used: | Less than 1 month | | Purchased At: | 43 | | Strengths: | looks kinda neat | | Weaknesses: | play in the bearings | | Similar Products Used: | other TruVativ | | Bike Setup: | Rocky Mountain Spice, not stock | | Bottom Line: | I'm disappointed. Right out of the box and onto my bike...but it never made it to the trail. I couldn't believe it, I could wiggle the crank arms from the play in the bearings. Like the others below, I will be sending it back for something else...while I wait for Phil Wood to make an ISIS BB. | | Value Rating:Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
Richrd Sorensen
a Racer
from Lodi
Date Reviewed: January 13, 2003 | | Duration Product Used: | Less than 1 month | | Price Paid: |
$45.00 | | Purchased At: | Jenson | | Strengths: | Nice stiffness test results | | Weaknesses: | bearings developed play in less than 1 month | | Similar Products Used: | xtr,fsa,ritchey, | | Bike Setup: | Principia MSL E PRO | | Bottom Line: | I think if this problem happens in the first month, truvativ has done something wrong. Typical cunsumer testing program. | | Value Rating:Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
Bob
a Weekend Warrior
from N.J.
Date Reviewed: January 4, 2003 | | Favorite Trail: | Leave me alone | | Duration Product Used: | Less than 1 month | | Price Paid: |
$44.00 | | Purchased At: | internet store | | Strengths: | Nice looking and good instructions | | Weaknesses: | quality. Product was defective out of the box | | Similar Products Used: | Truvativ sealex | | Bike Setup: | Id, black, avid mech, thomson post and stem, monkey lite, rhyno xl with AM Classic disc hubs, sram 7.0 cass., XT der., XTR shifters, 125 RLC, romic, rocket V, salsa bash ring, PC-99 chain, Truvativ cranks, ATACs. | | Bottom Line: | I had to buy this because my sealex BB develoed play in the bearings. So I see the bigger bearings/diameter of the gigapipe, and buy it. I get it and I take this out of the box, brand new, with bigger bearings and it looks good, but after installation, all by the instructions, there's already wobble in the bearings! So back to JensonUSA. Not a good way to start a new product intro, Truvativ! So now off with the new and back with the old and wait, wait, wait for Monday and the RA and replacement.
| | Value Rating:Overall Rating: |
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