So my question is, have other manufacturers gotten better over the years with their tolerances, and why aren't they as strict in the first place? I get they're saving money, but it seems short sighted if potential problems will inevitably arise in the future.

You would think but apparently it's more complicated than it seems like it should be to mill the shell to tight tolerances. Hambini (youtube bb guru) says there are only 1 or 2 road frame brands that do it right, not sure about mtb's.

Bike companies do it because they can get away with it and they know things will usually work out ok.

Personally, if I had a choice I'd go threaded, but I wouldn't not get a bike just cause it's press fit.

That's where I'm at. I used to be pretty anti pf but after more personal & professional experience with them I've deemed them to be ok.

 

Yes.
Not a fan and never will be especially on a MTB.

 

I've owned the following brands with Press fit...Specialized, Cannondale, Giant, Trek and Niner. Every single one of them has been problematic with creaking issues.

My current Specialized fat bike with Press Fit...dealer has fixed it under warranty twice due to creaking issues. Once in 2019 and again in 2020. So far it's ok and hasn't creaked yet this winter. I'm thinking it's just a matter of time before the problem comes back.

My current Niner I had to remedy with the Wheels Manufacturing thread together cups.

I got rid of the Giant and Cannondale bike.

My current Kona Woo fat bike, Trek Domane road bikes, Specialized Sirrus fitness bike and Spot Mayhem Mountain bike...all have threaded bottom bracket. Haven't had any problems with them at all..

Specialized and Trek have slowly started moving their newer models of bikes back to threaded BB. Giant and Cannondale haven't learned yet and are still PF BB. I guess they like paying for warranty claims.

I will never buy a PF BB bike again. I don't care how good a company tells me their manufacturing tolerances are.

 

yes

 

press fit is just one more standard

I hate 'em. but have one on my CF hardtail and one cup is totally loose and it
only stays in the frame 'cuz my cranks keep it there. does it affect my riding nope.
so, mine sucks, it already loose and won't stay in frame, but bolted up she runs.

road bike has press fit that's been fine forever

 

I've had two Pivots with press fit bottom brackets, with thousands of hard miles on each, and no problems with the BBs. The older one did have its BB bearings wear out once, but I replaced them without a problem and it's been great for another thousand or so miles since then. I wouldn't hesitate to get another one.

 

Like most, I'd prefer threaded, but I have three bikes with PF bottom brackets and no issues with them. Every time one of those bikes develops a creak, I think oh great, but every time I trace down the creaking it's not the bottom bracket. Not to say it doesn't happen, but I haven't experienced it. One of my PF bikes has over 10K miles on the original BB. Most dual suspension frames have 4x as many pressed in bearings in the pivots as in the bottom bracket and you don't hear too many complaints about those. Sure some of them become problematic, but for the most part they fit tightly and work. Having to have another set of tools to work on them is the most annoying part for me.

 

Like most, I'd prefer threaded, but I have three bikes with PF bottom brackets and no issues with them. Every time one of those bikes develops a creak, I think oh great, but every time I trace down the creaking it's not the bottom bracket. Not to say it doesn't happen, but I haven't experienced it.

That's been my experience too. Lots of bikes brought into shops for "bb" creaks turn out to be making noise for another reason. Sometimes the noise is due to movement between a press fit bearing and the bb shell but ime it's actually pretty rare overall. When a bike does have a noise coming from the bb way more often it turns out to be something else like loose torque or shelled bearings.

 

Same dopey design as ever, same dopey problems. Introduced solely because of carbon frame manufacture, and their inability to properly bond and align the threaded shell inserts or prevent Bubba from over-tightening and cracking his frame there (warranty issues make mfgs change course real quick). Made its way onto aluminum and other materials to be cheaper/lazier. Sold to the mouth-breathing masses under the guise of larger and stiffer spindle and bearing sizes being superior. A total snow job by the industry and sucks to keep them trouble-free and work on them.

73mm or the emerging T47 for the win.

 

Pivot owner here, close to 2,000 miles on the original BB and absolutely no issues.

 

If I wanted the bike, I wouldn't hesitate to get it if it was press fit. Nor would I hesitate to install a wheels mfg BB should it start to creak.

 

How much do you weigh? I am over 200 pounds and will never buy a press fit bike. No reason to when there are quality threaded bikes to buy.

 

 

I never had a problem with my Pivot. Had to change the bearings, but left the cups in. I ended selling that bike after a few years. My current Ibis is threaded. While I prefer threaded, pressfit BB alone wouldn't discourage me from buying a bike I wanted.

 

I have had roughly the same amount of problems with a PF as threaded BB on my bikes. Which is very little problems at all on my 100,000+ miles of riding in the past decade or so.

My newest bike, put together this month, is PF. My oldest operational bike is also PF.

 

Three Pivots and two Yetis and never a problem with the PF BB.

 

I've got two Chinese direct frames with PF92 (Seraph and Light Carbon). Both have GXP BB's. One has 1500 miles the other 1800. Both installed with teflon paste, I haven't had a single issue with the BB to frame creaking, or BB's wearing out. I would still prefer threaded for ease of maintenance, but obviously hasn't stopped me from buying them, and I wouldn't hesitate to get one in the future. I do run DUB cranks on my two BSA bikes due to PF DUB bearings being super thin, so that's nice to not have to be stuck with a 24mm bearing crank like on the PF frames.

 

I thought my PF BB on my Yeti SB130 was bad. Several bearing swaps and the creaking just wouldn’t go away. Finally found the NDS crank arm was way loose from the factory. Tightened to spec. No more creaking since.

 

How did you swap the bearings several times without properly reinstalling the NDS crankarm any of those times?

 

I have to say the Yeti pf has been surprisingly good.

on the other hand, 3 pf bb on the old Intense hardtail, everyone creaked so bad I sold the bike.

 

I've done my fair share of bagging on PF bottom brackets, but in reality I have actually only ever had a problem with a threaded bottom bracket (that unthreaded itself 30 miles into a 50 mile gravel ride).

These days, I'm far more picky about other things on my bike and wouldn't let the BB standard sway me in a direction.

The one thing about PF that I do think could be a potential issue is wearing the PF interface after multiple BB's are installed over the life of the frame.

 

Can you explain that last point for me? I had an x01 crankset w DUB bb. I was in Killington with limited options when I broke it, so right now I have a Raceface BB with spacers and RF crankset. There's nothing wrong with it, but I got a 165mm GX SuperBoost and DUB SB+ bottom bracket that I'm planning to install soon.

Is that not a good thing? Bike is less than a year old (Pivot Mach 6) and after this swap I don't anticipate replacing the BB anytime soon, and I bought a backup GX set since inventory is an issue and I don't want to be in that position again should these break.

 

I have a Surly Ice Cream Truck with a PF bottom bracket. I too worried about it. Whenever there is creaking on the bike, its origin is never the BB. It's kind of a shame, since the newer ICTs have a seat/chainstay cracking issue. Was moments away from buying a horse thief that had a PF BB, but this alone swayed my decision.

 

Like others, PF isn’t my preference, but it’s not a deal breaker.

I recently had to replace the shimano PF BB on my Kona after three years of riding in pretty wet conditions. The bearings roached and the BB disintegrated when I tried to get the bearing out with the tool.

installing a new PF BB went super smoothly though. And the old one never gave me any problems other than when it died.

But the new bike with threaded BB was much easier/more pleasant to install/remove, that’s for sure.

 

Pressfit has never been bad per se.

What's bad are frame manufacturers, that are incapable to make frames with the correct tolerances despite selling them for the price of a motorbike. And that doesn't apply only to press fit.

 

To me, threaded only made sense for metal frames. For CF, you’d have to glue a threaded insert into the frame which then holds the bearing inside another shell. Just absurd.
Of course it has to be done well but it has been working fine forever for headsets, why wouldn’t it work for cranks?


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My Giant Road bike was carbon with PF BB. Was a 2015 model. Had to be serviced twice a summer for creaking problems. Finally got rid of it April of last year. Replaced with carbon Trek road bike that now uses T47 threaded BB. Not one issue.

Headsets don't see the forces like the BB. That's why headsets never have issues.

 

I've had PF and used an EBB. Never had any issues and 99% of the time when my bike is creaking or clicking, it's either my seatpost or SPDs. Honestly my biggest beef with PF is building / maintenance. Knocking bearings out and pressing new ones is sucks compared to just threading a BB in.

 

That extra work is one thing I actually LIKE about PF. It gave me an excuse to buy the bearing press kit from Park Tool =)

I have yet to actually use it though. half my bikes have been PF, and I have yet to need to replace ANY bb, regardless of type. Well, I did have to replace the one on my Stumpy when I went to some dub cranks, but that was just due to spindle change. So yeah, I'm in the 'dgaf' camp on this one.

 

The only PF bikes I owned have been Pivots and a Cannondale. The Cannondale sucked. The creaks on my Pivots never came from the BB. Believe me, I went down that rabbit hole many times.


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