Description With our ISIS design, the cro-moly axle is placed as close as possible to a uniform tube with splines on the end. Competitor's bottom brackets place bearings on the spline. Bill Shook, designer of the...
Summary: bearings shot in 500 miles-- i have the previous generation, and servicing the bottom bracket was a nightmare. design flaws throughout including near inability to remove old bearings.
Weaknesses: crappy design
non-durable
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Summary: There’s no doubt about this bottom bracket – it has a serious design flaw. The bear on the drive side is not captured, and after a period of time the bear comes loose of the housing and migrates away from the frame pulling the split pins apart and detaching the bearings from both the drive and non-drive side. The cup on the drive side has a seat that stops the bear heading inwards but there’s nothing to stop it heading outwards – it relies upon the non-drive bearing assembly to keep it in place. It’s only a question of time before the axle is pulled off the bearing housing housings and your troubles will begin.
However a drop of green loctite when you’ve re-seat the bearing on the drive side (assuming you’ve taken it all apart and re-assembled everything in place) will keep the bearing fixed in the housing.
This product is 10/10 for effort but 1/10 for performance
Strengths: None
Weaknesses: The design - lacks design.
Similar Products Used: FSA - Campagnolo - Specialties
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Bike Setup: Airborne Valkyrie, Dura Ace, X-Lites, FSA SL-K crank
Summary: POS is true - bearings are binding on me after 500 miles due to a bent spindle. I'm only 200 lbs. - the engineering on this BB is worthless (most of AC's other stuff is shoddy at times too - be careful!).
Strengths: Light
Weaknesses: Failed after only a few months and hardly any miles.
Similar Products Used: FSA, Token, Race Face
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Bike Setup: Airborne Valkyrie, Dura Ace, FSA SL-K cranks, ITM Millenium, Thomson post, Bontrager X-Lites, and $100 in ti bolts all over the place (17.7 lbs on a digital hanging shop scale)
Summary: Yep, it's a certified POS. I just got back from a century ride today and for 97 miles, I had a constant "click" on the top of the drive-side downstroke. I had 400 miles on it prior to today's 100. When I took it apart in the evening, there was a noticeable "bind" in the spindle / bearings. It sure was frustrating realizing that I was WASTING MY ENERGY over 5 hours as a result of this crappy BB. BTW, I'm 200 lbs. and it was on an Airborne titanium. It should be able to handle that combo for more than 400-500 miles!
Strengths: Light
Weaknesses: Like the others have said, lousy engineering - I put in my 3-bearing FSA "tank" and what a difference. I'll gladly add back 150 grams for smooth pedalling!!!
Similar Products Used: FSA, Race Face, Token (all ISIS)
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Summary: This is a follow up to a previous review. I contacted American Classic and as another reviewer he said they were very quick to send me new bearings. I sat on them all winter as I really don't need a super light BB for winter training.
Last week I decided to change the bearings in order to re-install this BB for the race season. After taking the old ones out I decided to pull the dust seals off just to take a look at the insides. To my absolute horror I found the drive side bearing was short two balls compared to the non-drive bearing. HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE? I found no remains of ground up ball bearings so my only answer is American Classic shipped it to me this way. That is pathetic quality control in my mind.
I installed the new bearings and raced over the weekend. Last night I went for a ride and to my disgust the BB was making such loud cracking noises it ruined my ride. I'm an ex shop mechanic and I know what I'm doing. The BB was installed properly with a torque wrench to the American Classic specs. This product has some serious flaws and I'll be taking it back out to replace it with an FSA BB.
This BB is just like the rest of the American classic stuff in my opinion, very light but not at all durable. This stuff is made for a weight weenie who uses their equipment once or twice a year. What a POS!
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