Conference noted::bicycle

    JUST A THOUGHT...
    
    I've heard of creaking noises from a loose crank.  The crank
    would have to have been pulled from the spindle to replace
    the bottom bracket, so maybe it just wasn't tightened enough 
    and the bearing situation was okay all along(?)  
    
    If the shop had managed to "move" the drive side in by tightening
    the spindle bolt, a distance of a millimeter or more would have
    been sufficient to through off your shifting.
    
    r�

    re: .1
    
    I meant "throw-off", not _through off_! 

    There is a chance that the sealed bb just puts the crank and
    chainwheels into a slightly plane from the previous bb.  That is
    certainly possible with Phil Wood's bb's I haven't measured
    the Shimano's, but I did get a similar difference in my front
    shifting when I did this to my Serotta -- changed an Ultegra
    bb to an Ultegra sealed bb.
    
    I have gotten creaking out of loose cups, never from a loose
    crank.  If the crank was loose, I'd just ruin it and have to replace
    the danged thing, usually only happens when the crankset is over $100.
    :-(
    
    ed

    As far as the creak goes, it sounded like they were telling me that
    they had to take it out and regrease the threads. I just hope it's not
    an on going thing because I tend to ride through a lot of water and
    mud, which is why I decided to get the new BB.
    
    Thanks
    
    Alan 

     From experience... It usually sounds like a BB creak, but rarely
                        is the BB
    
     Chip

    re .0
    
         One question, did you get the creaking consistently at one point
    in your pedal stroke?  If so, then your sealed BB probaly was not
    installed right at the initial installation ( this happens a lot at even 
    the best shops, all you need is a person who is rushing the job ).
                                                              
      AS 

    I'm not real sure but it was a rythmic, creak, creak, creak. Probably 
    twice per revolution. The shop was pretty busy at the time so maybe
    they did rush the job. They didn't complain at all about fixing it and
    even tightened my headset for me because they noticed it was loose.
    
    Alan

Your sealed BB itself was almost certainly OK but if the lockrings securing
it inside the BB shell were not tight enough, then the BB unit could have
been able to move slightly and cause a creak. I had this on my bike last
year, a creak solved by getting the shop to reinstall the BB and chamfer
the BB shell so that the lockrings located the BB more accurately and
firmly.


Rod

    Rod,
    
    I've run accross the word "chamfer" in Notes a few times.  None
    describes what chamfering is; neither does the dictionary.  Can
    you describe what kind of modification it is?
    
    r�

    I had to haul out the heavy artillery (Webster's Unabridged) to find:
    
    chamfer, v.t.: 1. in carpentry, to cut a groove in; to flute; to channel. 
    2. to cut or grind in a sloping manner, as the edge of anything square,
    so as to form a chamfer or bevel.
    
    How this applies to bottom brackets, I will leave to others...
    
    Andy

This is the one that applies...

>    2. to cut or grind in a sloping manner, as the edge of anything square,
>    so as to form a chamfer or bevel.

Definitions...

BB shell:  the part of the bike frame between the cranks, where the bb lives.
BB unit:   a sealed bottom bracket unit.
lockring:  threaded ring on the outside of a bb unit, used to lock the unit
           into the frame.


Think of the bb shell of a frame. It's essentially cylindrical. The ends of
the cyclinder are normally flat. When you insert a sealed bb unit into the 
shell and screw up the lockrings tight against the ends of the cyclindrical
shell, the lockrings secure the bb unit perfectly against any transverse
movement, but not against any up-and-down movement (since the flat lockrings
can slide against the flat ends of the bb shell). Thus any slight play between
the bb unit and the bb shell can lead to a creaking noise as you turn the
cranks.

So to solve this, the shop cuts a chamfer into the ends of the frame bb shell 
(yes, metal is ground off the frame!). This means that the ends of the shell 
are no longer flat, but slope inwards as if they were part of a large cone. 
BB unit lockrings are generally similarly conical on one side. So when the bb
unit is installed in the frame, the sloping (conical) side of the lockrings
is tightened up against the similarly conical ends of the bb shell and hey 
presto, the bb unit is now firmly located against any type of movement at all.
No creaking.


Rod

    ya know, I always thought I was making the faces of the bb perfectly
    parallel instead of slightly beveled.  hmmm, I'll hafta check this out.
    
    ed