Bottom Bracket Question

[cnicola]

Greetings,
I own a road bike E with rear suspension that I purchased in 1998 at Bicycle Outfitters of Los Altos CA. I live near Stanford University. My bottom bracket is grinding so I need advise on how to proceed. I am confident the bearings are failing. I am pretty sure the bottom bracket is a sealed bearing unit and NOT serviceable but ANY info would be great. I am looking for make, model, size, of the bottom bracket. If I am wrong and I can service the bottom bracket tell me- I am a machinist and can press out the old bearings and install new ones. I prefer to fix this so I can get another couple thousand miles out of the next bottom bracket.
San Francisco Bay Area Biker.

[cnicola]

Think Pink Floyd," hello...Is there any body out there...

[Robin Parkes]

Just because the bottom bracket is a sealed unit does not mean that it is not serviceable. I have a 2001 CT and the left hand cup is threaded so you should be able to strip it. I cannot say how the bearings are fitted. It would be nice to think they are caged, which would help. It says in the manual 'the bottom bracket bearings are in a sealed cartridge type that normally require no maintenance' but surely it would not be such that it couldn't be serviced at all. I would recommend you to register with this bulletin board

www.whettens.org/mailman/listinfo/bikee-list

They are very helpful indeed.

Regards,

Robin.

[leakyduck]

Bottom brackets are easy enough to service, but you need the tool to remove your cranks and the splined tool to remove the bottom bracket. Sealed BB are popular because they rarely go bad. If you don't have the tools you may need to take it to your LBS.