Is this frame worth salvaging? (BB bearings are wrecked and afraid bb may be too)

Get a new BB and it should be ok . As long as the actual shell of your frame isn't bent or warped , or theres no shards to puncture the bearing cartridge it should be good . I'd focus on removing that rust though , maybe raw the whole frame and repaint it and clear coat it nicely if you can and have the time . Other than that , there's no real way to say .

Don't try and salvage the old BB it's gonna be ass

How hard is it to swap BB bearings around? Like, if both frames are mid BB's (my bike and this frame) is it practical for me to approach this thinking I can take my BB from my United frame to this, then back, if I don't want to stay with this one? I guess it makes sense to buy it regardless (as a backup), but I'm also interested in going from 21 to 20.5" again (really want 20.75, am unsure whether I prefer 21 or 20.5 though) so when I get it I'll immediately be thinking to raw it then swap all my parts over to it.

You need to use a punch and hammer to get them out.

Generally, unless you are really careful, and they were installed properly using lots of grease, you're going to destroy them when you take them out.

We sell mid BB bearings for $20 (bearings only) and that's in $CAD so I'm sure you can find them for less than $30 in the US.

If you can figure out the code on the side of them you could contact a local bearing place and get em for like 7 bucks each.

you'll spend about $15 for two bearings....might as well just buy the whole bottom bracket for like 5 bucks more
https://www.danscomp.com/products/455203/Sealed_Mid_Bearing.html

https://www.danscomp.com/products/456049/Mission_BB_Kit.html

dave lawrence wrote:

If you can figure out the code on the side of them you could contact a local bearing place and get em for like 7 bucks each.

dave lawrence wrote:

If you can figure out the code on the side of them you could contact a local bearing place and get em for like 7 bucks each.

...more

I mean, how big of a city do you live in where you have a 'local bearing place'?? (I did check on google maps and there's nothing near me )

transition_chris wrote:

You need to use a punch and hammer to get them out.

Generally, unless you are really careful, and they were installed ...more

transition_chris wrote:

You need to use a punch and hammer to get them out.

Generally, unless you are really careful, and they were installed properly using lots of grease, you're going to destroy them when you take them out.

We sell mid BB bearings for $20 (bearings only) and that's in $CAD so I'm sure you can find them for less than $30 in the US.

...more

Thanks that's good to know! I hadn't really checked around, this was a last-second thing as I'd sold them this frame a bit ago and I had no idea they'd destroyed the bearings (they had loose cranks for a bit - I'm guessing that's what caused the spindle to be what was, or looked, 'fused' to the bearing's inner wall!)



Ok, bought the frame and got my first spot of stripper gel tearing through the paint right now, am planning to keep it raw regardless but I'm hoping I find weld marks at the joints when that paint wears off

Only spent $10 as I was wary of this becoming a PITA so hopefully a new bb will have this ready for me to swap all my parts over!! It's nice having a back-up though, have had few parts fail on me while riding but a frame was one of them lol so this is great peace of mind even if I don't prefer 20.5 to 21 (pretty sure I don't lol, but I wanted to raw my 21 anyways so this gives me a reason to do a complete tear-down, overhaul everything, re-finish it all, etc)

Ok so I was checking eBay and see a bunch offered for $10, shipped: http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-Unbranded-19mm-MID-Bottom-Bracket-Style-3/191964199324?_trksid=p2047675.c100011.m1850&_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIC.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20140602152332%26meid%3D8aa2edd26dc044e28f5ba28bbc38ce93%26pid%3D100011%26rk%3D4%26rkt%3D18%26sd%3D272396341971

is that ok? There's four 'types', it seems they just refer to the spacer tube's length (although I'd be able to use the old one, right? Just the bearings will be destroyed when removed, not the spacer, I think) am almost done rawing the thing, will then pop them out and get some new ones in there! It's only $25 on ebay for an Odyssey set, which actually has the cones/washers for the side, or right under $20 for shadow, primo etc...will have to see if I've got extra cones around (those are universal right, as long as it's mid sized?)

So damn psyched to ride 20.5 again, hopefully get 180's down quicker! Only problem is now my new favorite bars are chrome, so don't really work well with a raw frame...am going to attempt polishing one of my rawed cranks, if it's not that long of a job I may just do the frame, as I understand it you can get cromo shiny AF, at least to the point it'd look good with the chrome! (if anyone knows of examples of polished steel frames, whether a rider's or a factory option, I'd love to hear it so I can take a look! While I'm going to try polishing my cranks to get a feel for it, the surface area of a frame is a whole other story!!

dave lawrence wrote:

If you can figure out the code on the side of them you could contact a local bearing place and get em for like 7 bucks each.

dave lawrence wrote:

If you can figure out the code on the side of them you could contact a local bearing place and get em for like 7 bucks each.

...more

adfkje wrote:

I mean, how big of a city do you live in where you have a 'local bearing place'?? (I did check on google maps and there's ...more

adfkje wrote:

I mean, how big of a city do you live in where you have a 'local bearing place'?? (I did check on google maps and there's nothing near me )

...more

25K people until College starts, then closer to 50K is what I'm told.

We have one of the more well known in MN bearing places in my town. Funny thing, KHE driver bearings were proprietary. Could only get one through them. The Inner Diameter was 1mm different than a common sized bearing. SUPER lame.

So I shimmed that one with mountain dew can and tape haha.

dave lawrence wrote:

25K people until College starts, then closer to 50K is what I'm told.

We have one of the more well known in MN bearing places ...more

dave lawrence wrote:

25K people until College starts, then closer to 50K is what I'm told.

We have one of the more well known in MN bearing places in my town. Funny thing, KHE driver bearings were proprietary. Could only get one through them. The Inner Diameter was 1mm different than a common sized bearing. SUPER lame.

So I shimmed that one with mountain dew can and tape haha.

...more

Hearing that type of thing (that KHE does that to intentionally stop you from using easy-to-source, common/standard types) is the type of thing that makes me completely 100% shun a company (for instance, apple - they force you to use proprietary stuff from software to hardware, it's the biggest reason I'd never buy a product of theirs!) Glad you had the ingenuity to shim it with a can, can imagine how many others didn't think of that and ended up with parts they couldn't use.. (to be clear, I don't mean proprietary designs are inherently bad, they're just bad when they're designed as such for no other reason that to lock you into their product line)

I'm gonna google and make some calls, maybe I'll get lucky and find something, otherwise I'm thinking of just getting those $10 ones I listed in my last post, do you think those would be fine? I was eyeing the odyssey setup but it's hardly worth an extra $15 when I only need the bearings (have a dust cap and the OEM spacer is still between the (broken)bearings in the BB right now)