I've had two Phils; one came in my orange Ramboulliet and has run well for eleven years including a number of deluges and subsequent slop following. I just replaced it with an SKS because I switched to wide double gearing on my Zephyr cranks, removed the third ring and spacers and needed a shorter spindle length. The other I put in my commuter when building it (continue the good luck?) and after four years of downpours, salty slush and the slop of degrading roadways mixed with rainwater its bearings were toast. I put in a BB-71 to get to work the next day and it has been in that bike ever since.
I like the SKS from a clean sheet comparison of choices; I prefer to ride without mounting concern that how or where I ride is going to shorten the BB lifespan. I rode those Mavic 610 BBson my road and mountain bikes while I had the toolset to install and maintain them. They were fairly impregnable, not SKF-level, but they also used common industrial supply sourced bearing sizes I could find locally in Arkansas at the time. HS? Cane Creek cartridge 1 1/8" threadless on both my commuter and tandem, Ultegra cartridge 1" threaded on the Rambouillet. All the OEM units, all intact, no degradation perceivable. hard to opine when your first experience is still under way. I also had many of the lovely Mavic 305-315 headsets on my bikes before the current lot. They had a bit more stack height on the top to stabilize the upper cup and clamp the threads of the fork and they added height to the functional head tube/stack height elevation without cosmetically repugnant spacers. Lots of pros and teams used them and I always wondered if they preferred a higher bar position for all but the one day event bikes. Andy Cheatham Pittsburgh On Tuesday, April 30, 2013 2:07:03 PM UTC-4, jinxed wrote: > > Things have a way of snowballing. > > The headset in my AR had been feeling ratchety for a while and then the > bottom bracket started giving me the grit so I decided to give in and tear > it down for some TLC. The good ol shimano UN53 had pooped out after > countless miles serving umpteen bikes and the headset cup was notched as I > expected. Since I had the frame all torn down I decided to send it off for > a makeover while I pondered the replacement parts. > > My initial thought was to add a little chi-chi and spring for a Phil BB > and a King headset. These are often the exemplary put them in and forget > about it items, though they will make an initial dent (cavern) in the > wallet. > > On the bottom bracket, I have not quite mentally committed to the Phil > since a UN53 is less than a 4 pack of Duvel and will last 10 years like the > last one....but for something that is completely hidden from view that Phil > sure does have some allure! I suppose it's fair to include the weight > savings and MUSA in the price all things considered. > > I was pretty settled on the King headset, but then decided to dig around > in my parts bin thinking I had some 1" sets floating around. I knew I had a > bunch of random HS parts, but wasnt sure if any were complete till I found > this! A basically NOS Dura Ace > HP-7400<http://www.flickr.com/photos/42027576@N00/8695512917/in/photostream/lightbox/> > . > > OK so now I have perfectly usable and honestly period correct HS I could > use on the AR, but it will obviously need more attention than a modern > sealed setup. I have to admit I'm a bit lazy when it comes to routine caged > bearing maintenance and I never avoid getting the bike sloppy. > > I'm curious what you guys think on the matter of old school caged bearings > vs sealed, and boat anchor shimano BB's. And also, for those who have gone > the full monty with a phil TI spindle...do you have any creaking issues? > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en-US. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
