I finally had a bottom bracket cartridge fail on a ride last month

I was out on a 40 mile loop near Lancaster, about 15 miles from my truck, when I heard this grinding noise coming from the cranks. At first I thought it was just the chain rubbing, but when I stood up to pedal the whole drive side started wobbling. Turns out the Shimano BB I put in 8 months ago had its bearing cage collapse. I coasted to a gas station and borrowed a hammer and punch from the mechanic to tap the crank arm back on every 2 miles. By the time I limped home I had to replace the whole BB and the crank arm because the splines got wallowed out. Anyone else had a cartridge bottom bracket just grenade like that with no warning signs?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_amy1d agoTop Commenter

Shimano cartridges rarely just collapse unless you got a bad batch or had water ingress.

janarivera1d ago

Seen plenty of them go bad without any water getting in there.