Had a chat with an old frame builder in Portland that made me rethink my whole approach to bottom brackets

Met this guy Frank at a co-op event last Saturday. He's been building frames since the 70s. I was complaining about creaky press-fit BBs and he just laughed. Said I was fighting the wrong fight. Told me to check my frame alignment first before blaming the BB every time. He pulled out a frame he was fixing and showed me a 2mm misalignment at the dropouts. Never even crossed my mind to check that. Has anyone else had a mechanic drop some obvious but life-changing advice like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

blake_smith15d ago

Yeah honestly Frank dropping that truth bomb is exactly the kind of thing a lot of us need to hear more often. I've been guilty of blaming press fit BBs for creaks that turned out to be a slightly bent derailleur hanger or a loose chainring bolt. It's wild how easy it is to skip the simple checks and go straight for the fancy parts swap. That alignment thing he mentioned is so basic but nobody ever talks about it.

leo_carr1315d ago

Check your dropouts first, that's a game changer. Had a friend chase a creak for months only to find his frame was slightly out of true at the bottom bracket shell.