A talk with a frame builder made me rethink my whole approach to creaky bottom brackets

I was at the local bike swap meet in Eugene last weekend, just chatting with this older guy who builds steel frames in his garage. We got onto the topic of that annoying creak that seems to come from the bottom bracket no matter what you do. I've always been a 'chase the threads with a tap, grease it up, and crank it to spec' guy, thinking any noise after that was just a bad part. He just looked at me and said, 'You ever think the frame itself is talking to you? That creak isn't always in the threads. Sometimes the shell is just a little oval, and you're trying to force a round piece into it.' He said he's seen it a dozen times, where a simple facing cut on both sides of the shell, even just a few thousandths, makes everything go quiet. I've got a Park Tool BTS-1 facing tool that's been sitting in my box for two years, mostly unused. I tried his idea on a customer's bike that's been back three times for the same noise, and after a light facing pass, the creak is gone. It's a simple step I always skipped. How many of you actually face every bottom bracket shell as a standard step, or do you only do it when there's a problem?

2 comments

2 Comments

faith_torres831mo ago

You said you used a Park Tool BTS-1. That's a threadless bottom bracket facing tool. It can't cut the shell if the frame is already threaded. You need a different tool, like the BTS-2, that works with the threads already there. The BTS-1 is for frames before they get tapped. So you might have used the wrong tool, or maybe you meant the other model. Facing is key, but you gotta use the right cutter for a threaded shell.

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leo5671mo ago

Remember my buddy tried facing his old threaded bottom bracket with a BTS-1 he borrowed, total mess. He just didn't know the difference, and it would not grab right at all. I mean, @faith_torres83 is totally right, you need that BTS-2 for the threads to pull the cutter in straight. He ended up taking it to a shop to get it fixed, and they explained the whole thing. It's such an easy mistake to make if you're just getting into working on your own bikes.