Yet more Focus Bottom Bracket Investigations

My Focus was making horrible noise from the bottom bracket area again. As I have posted before I have been really disappointed with the durability of the Mega EXO bottom bracket -Mega EXO moans, especially if I compare it to the much cheaper integrated BB that came on my Giant here.

Here is a couple of pictures of the focus bottom bracket:

In anticipation of a failed bearing I bought a Shimano replacement SM-5700BB):

This was about £21 from Wiggle. Previously I have bought a replacement for the original fitment but its getting too expensive as the FSA Mega-EXO unit is about £30-£35 a time.

There was this Bikeradar article a little earlier this year which indicated that the Mega-EXO and  Shimano bottom brackets were outboard compatible, hence the reason for getting the Shimano version. For some reason I'd assumed that they were different but not really thought about it properly.

Having got the spare bottom bracket handy I removed the chain and the crank. Inspection and feel of both the bearings suggested that there was no issue on this occasion, so I re-assembled the crank. This time is tightened the pre-load screw more that on previous occasions, then did crank lock bolts up. I am pleased to say that to date the noises have gone and the bearing sounds as it should.

Based on this I have ordered a 3/8" torque wrench (2-24Nm range) and hex socket set. Its really difficult to "guess" torque and in some cases getting it wrong can be a big issue. Once the torque wrench arrives I'll report back.