FSA Ultimax Chromoly Bottom Bracket

Advantages: Cheap
Disadvantages: Breaks easily

...I have had three or four of these because they were cheap, it turned out that in the long run it was cheaper to save up and buy a decent bottom bracket. Everyone of these that I bought broke in under a month, the same two faults occured each time. 1) Mud and grit easily get past the seals and wear out the bearings causing them to cease or rattle. 2) The ends of the tapered arms round off very easily, even during light XC and commuting use I have rounded them off. Steer clear and buy a decent bottom bracket, or even better get the new external type, or if your into jumping and DH get some 3piece cranks.... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful

Advantages: Virutally indestructable
Disadvantages: None

...Before I go and review a bottom bracket, it might be worthwhile if I explained to everyone what exactly a bottom bracket is. Let's start at the pedals. The pedals are attached to the cranks, the cranks are then attached to a spindle that goes through the bike frame. This spindle and the bearings that surround it form the bottom bracket. As you may have guessed, it's not a very exciting thing to write about, so my apologies in advance for a very dull opinion. There's two times that anyone is likely to come into contact with a bottom bracket, if you're building up your bike from parts, or if there's a nasty grindy noise when you pedal and you need a new bottom bracket. In this case, many people will take their bike to a shop to get it looked at as although changing a bottom bracket is easy enough, it requires a few specialised... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: built in external BB, good quality
Disadvantages: None

...I bought this to replace the SR Suntour cranks and stock Shimano Bottom Bracket on my Trek 4300. A fantastic upgrade, extremely sturdy, nice stiff cranks, excellent machine work. And to top it off, no internal Bottom Bracket is needed. Something I dont think a lot of the adverts for the item make enough of. You don't need to bother measuring your spindle as you just need to remove the entire bottom bracket and fit the M532 with the inbuilt external BB. You will need additional tools to fit this, but they can be picked up relatively cheaply and you never need to worry about wearing out any bearings in the bottom bracket again. It took me 15 minutes to fit, simply remove your old cranks, remove the BB and slot this in place. It comes with various spacers to adjust the width depending on your frame size and once fitted it... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful