Wheels Manufacturing Bottom Bracket [Rider Review]

Our "Rider Review" article series features the honest reviews from verified purchasers of Worldwide Cyclery. They contain the photos, thoughts, feedback & overall review you are looking for. 

There are so many bottom brackets to choose from. One of the companies that stand out with really good build quality is Wheels Manufacturing. They're known for having really high end machining. Our friend, Craig has been testing their bottom bracket. See what they think! 

Overview

You need a new bike. That bike you bought 2-3 years ago is starting to look tired. Sure, you just put a new set of wheels on it, and your butt has barely even gotten acquainted with that brand new saddle.. But you can just move those over to your new steed. Besides, it’s even starting to sound as if it’s made of empty cans and old door hinges.
Creeeeak! Squeak, POP!

Even after a nice wash with your favorite shammy and some fresh lube applied, it still calls out to you, groaning as if it is in pain..
Time to go shopping!

New bikes cost HOW much? That's ludicrous, or is it Ludacris? (Get Back!) . Well, I'll say it's ridiculous anyway! The geometry hasn’t changed that much, and everything is specced with cheaper components than what your trusty old ride is currently sporting. Aside from those scratches it got shuttling, or that time your buddy rode it, but definitely NOT from you falling; your bike has plenty of miles left in it.
Now just to deal with those creaks and squeaks.

The Problem
The idea of a press-fit bottom bracket seems simple and harmless enough. A bike company manufactures frames with simple, unthreaded, cylindrical BB shells, then simply presses bearing cups and bearings into that shell to create a perfectly functioning bottom bracket. This cuts manufacturing costs, and somewhat reduces the likelihood of initial quality defects. As anyone who has ever cross-threaded a pedal into a crank arm will know, threads are often easily buggered.

And this process works out great! Bikes with press-fit BBs roll off the shelf and hit the trail with cranks spinning smoothly each and every day. Where this becomes a problem however is sometime after the first year of owning a bike with that press-fit bottom bracket. Because the bearing cups are pressed into the frame, and nothing is holding them in place aside from the friction of that perfect press fit, as soon as that fit becomes less than perfect things get noisy at best, and physically sloppy at worst. And after a year or more of the use and abuse a typical mountain bike sees, that less than perfect fit almost always shows up.

Enter: that creaking that makes you think your bike is literally about to fall apart.

The Solution
Luckily, there is a solution to this problem! And that solution doesn't necessarily have to mean a new bike or frame. Wheels Manufacturing out of Colorado makes a ton of great components, and one of them happens to be a thread-together bottom bracket. This bottom bracket is unique in that it brings all the user-friendly precision and serviceability of a threaded bottom bracket to bikes with a smooth unthreaded bottom bracket shell.
The concept is simple, each of the two cups of the bottom bracket threads into or onto the other cup of the bottom bracket inside the bottom bracket shell, and is torqued to spec to hold it firmly in place.

My Experience
I bought a Wheels Manufacturing Outboard BB86/92 Thread Together Bottom Bracket from Worldwide Cyclery with the hope that it would silence the growing creaks of my 2019 Trek Fuel EX and breathe new life into it. Initially, I was hesitant because of the special tools required for installation, but luckily Worldwide Cyclery offered those too, and it all still totaled up to thousands of dollars less than a new bike would cost. Besides, I genuinely enjoy doing my own bike wrenching, and I had done so with everything up to this point, so why not give a BB a try?

Once I received my new bottom bracket and specialty tools, I beat the old press-fit BB out of my frame with a vengeance. Its squeaks would haunt me (and my trail mates) no more! And to be honest, getting the old bottom bracket out of the frame without damaging the shell was absolutely the toughest part.

The Wheels Manufacturing Thread Together Bottom Bracket came with a QR code to scan for the easy-to-follow installation instructions, and had all of the necessary spacers and dust seals in the box. With the special tools to grip the bottom bracket cups, some grease, and the right size torque wrench, installation on such a critical component of any bike could not get any easier. Plus, because it is threaded and torqued into place, it has the added ability to be easily removed and serviced which is not present with its press fit counterparts. Besides the installation and serviceability, the build quality of the bottom bracket is absolutely top-notch as well. You can tell even before installation that it is a well-made piece of hardware. After installation, I was so impressed by the quality, function, and whole process of the Wheels Manufacturing Bottom Bracket, that once I went for a ride on it, I immediately ordered and installed a second one on my old hardtail. Now that bike pedals like new too, not that I need it with my tired old Fuel EX pedaling as good as new!

Final thoughts

If you have that creaking in your bike that you just cannot seem to find the source of, or if you just want to upgrade a critical part of your bike to a truly quality built component, and you don't mind doing some wrenching; get a Wheels Manufacturing Thread Together Bottom Bracket. I personally wish I did two years sooner.