[Closed] Chris King BB - why?

I've got a brand new unused xt if you want to swap!

I’ve got one that’s 6 years old, few thousand miles in all conditions, spins beautifully, never touched it. Only reason it’s coming off is cause the new cranks have a 30mm axle, and it’s 24mm. Bit gutted tbh.

Less waste than chucking out warn BBs and undoubtedly better quality bearings than almost any other BB on the market.

edit, it you don’t want winston’s xt, I also have one I’d be happy to swap.

Tip. I don't really grease mine that much and it's still going after 6000 miles.

I've borrowed a mates grease gun once and not sure how effective it was anyway.

The money's in the quality / precision of the bearings, the machining, the low environmental impact ethos to manufacturing, being made in the USofA, buy once etc.

I have a PF30 one in my road bike which replaced the creaky SRAM P.O.S. that it came with.
Plus points: no creak!, spins smoothly, but does take a while to "bed in", also has delrin sleeves on the bearings so it doesn't eat the aluminium crank axle.
It is actually possible to re grease without the tool; you just need something sharp to prise the metal shields off the bearings. I have not had to do this yet.

You can get them to match your headset, hubs and now tubeless valves.
For aesthetics and longevity they have you covered.

Thanks Alan, that’s very interesting - I’ll give it a go without the special tool.

I’m sure they are very good, but what’s the point? I have learned that I am supposed to grease it several times a year, for which I’ve got to buy a £50 CK grease tool, and a grease gun with a special fitting.

For that money, isn’t it a lot simpler and cheaper to just replace a few Shimano type BBs when the fail, and less work too. So what’s the point?

IME (with a HT2 / 24mm axle type ceramic King BB) there is no point for MTBs. Fine for a dry-conditions road bike. The sealing isn't great so you may end up needing to purge dirty grease out after every mid-distance wet off-road ride. I bought one for the best chance of it lasting 3000 miles in one go w/o attention, it did, but when back in the UK it was a waste of time on my SS in winter*. Spent most of its time all crunchy sounding. At the other end of the price scale new XT M8000 series are really good compared to all others I've used.
*to quantify this, I used to get through older-gen Shimanos in 3-6 months on this bike, it gets used year-round but winter did the damage.

My 2p:

I had one 2nd hand on a single speed, it lasted several winters of typical BB deep muddy single speed grinding. It only died when I took the chainset off to change the chainring and the inner race parted company with the outer. It was bone dry inside but still smooth. And by this point it was on it's 2nd chainring with me, and however old with the original owner.

I think it's almost a philosophy as much as it is a component (how very Zen). Yes you might have to re-grease it every few months to keep it perfect, but then you get a lifetime warranty. Would you rather
a) Have to think "which is the current best VFM BB that will last an acceptable amount of time" every 6-12 months.
b) Have a chris king BB and the warm fuzzy feeling that imbues on the owner

At best it's only ever going to break even over the lifetime of a frame. At worst you don't keep the frame and need a new BB standard in 6 months. Personally I'd definitely have another. But at the same time it's probably one of the last things I'd upgrade. It almost makes more sense on a a rigid singlespeed where you're not considering "well £200 might actually make me faster if I spent it on a new damper in the forks"!

I recently bought an FSA ceramic BB from merlin that was reduced from £220 to £35! Compared to other BB's it's incredibly well made, the outer shim/seal cups right over the top of the bearing into the BB cup and there's even a seal with a double lip that runs on the axle behind the bearing to keep any water/grit from inside the frame out of them. They don't come with any warranty but if that level of engineering is anything to go by then it'll last a very long time.

Unlike Hope, which while it does seem to last a reasonable amount of time, has had very little thought put into it, there's not even a circlip to retain the bearings, which is a common fault TBH of every aftermarket GXP BB, they need a cir-clip to work FFS!