SNAFU Bottom Brackets. By McGoo

Nov 24, 2009

Written by Bart de Jong

Read 6665 times

The European BB shell in BMX is not a recent phenomenon. In 1977 I rode a Schwinn that boasted this feature. Modern BMX frame builders made the switch to the threaded, small-diameter shell several years ago for two reasons: to reduce the weight, and because riders were smashing expensive sealed bearings with hammers, 2x4’s and other archaic tools. Euro BB’s, 22mm OD spindles and thin sealed bearings created an unreliable mix, so FlyBikes went backwards by pressing slightly larger sealed bearings directly into an unthreaded BB shell. Bike companies that didn’t want to co-op Fly’s solution concocted one of their own by pressing even larger (thus theoretically more rugged and reliable)

sealed bearings into a slightly larger (but still smaller than an American BB) shell. When the dust settled there were four BB’s: American, Euro, Spanish and Mid. Nobody makes a high-quality BMX frame with an American BB shell anymore, so now there are three. Of course, we make a bearing set for every style of BB shell. Spanish and mid are basically the same: both models include two bearings, an internal spacer and a handful of external

washers and cone-shaped spacers that sandwich between the crank arms and the bearings. Euro BB’s are functionally identical to other models, except there are four bearings: two each inside one threaded cup for each side of the BB shell. Most BMX bikes feature mid press BB’s, but there are holdouts for both Euro and Spanish, so we make all three.

Weight: 128g (4.5 oz.)

www.snafubmx.com