Changing Bottom Bracket Bearings with an FSA Gossamer Chainset

After about 10,000 miles of use (outside and indoors on the Turbo) the bottom bracket bearings on my FSA Gossamer chain set were worn and needed replacement. I had a lot of issues with FSA Mega Exo Bottom Brackets on another bike that never seemed to last more than a few 1000 miles but this design had lasted a lot longer

It was quite hard to read that part number from the bike:

Some internet trawling showed that you needed to replace with a like-for-like unit - namely the FSA BB-6200, this is partly due to the pre-loading design of this (Shimano Hollow-Tech BB have a manual pre-load adjustment

This is the part:

Here's the video I made showing how to do it 

Apologies as it was a bit of a last minute decision to make the video so it's a combination of phone photographs and video

Lower Gears on My Giant Propel

When I bought my Giant Propel in 2016 it came with a 52-36 chain set and 11-28 cassette. Whilst I am reasonably fit I found that the 36/28 lowest gear was a bit to high for me for some of the hills around the Midlands (UK) and I changed it out for a 50/34 which was a much better compromise (and matched my other bike for the front chain set - although I run an 11/32 cassette on this other bike as well)

I still found 34/28 a bit high for some of the hills round where I live and this actually meant that I was choosing to leave the Giant in the garage if I wanted to climb some of the bigger hills more easily. The biggest climbs I have from my house are Dovers Hill, Saintbury Hill and Larkstoke Hill, all about 30 miles away. These are not huge hills and 34-28 is do-able but it's then a long drag back home and it always felt a lot easier on the other bike.

Once the cassette on the Giant got to around 9000 miles and I was coming up for the 4th chain swap I decided that perhaps it was time to get a new cassette as the original was getting worn. I thought about getting an 11-34 but without even trying felt that this was just going to be too big for the medium length derailleur so opted for an 11-30. I don't plan on going Alp hunting on the Giant to be honest as it is heavier than my other bike

The original cassette is an Ultegra 6800 model but I just could not bring myself to pay Ultegra prices for a few grams of weight saving, so I bought a 105 7000 series 11-30 cassette. At the time of writing this the 105 cassette is typically £54 and the Ultegra £90

The gear ratios are:

• 11-28: 11-12-13-14-15-17-19-21-23-25-28
• 11-30: 11-12-13-14-15-17-19-21-24-27-30

The only difference between the 2 cassettes is the lowest 3 gears 

The Ultegra 11-28 weighed in at 247 gram whilst the 105 11-30 weighed in at 297 gram. Accepting that the 105 unit will be a little heavier just because it has a few bigger rings shows that actually there's not a lot of extra weight going to 105 to worry about.

Here's the 11-28 Ultegra cassette weight:

And here's the new 11-30 105 cassette weight:

I didn't let my wife know that I used her kitchen scales to do this!

I didn't want to put on a longer chain for the sake of 2 cassette teeth as the 34-11 combination was already at the practical limit of length so I fitted the 11-30 cassette and left the chain the original length. Here's a photo of the chain in 50-28 combination (i.e as it was with the original set up):

And here it is in the new 50-30 gear combination

The rear derailleur is a medium cage unit and it just about manages it.

I am not going to consciously ride in the 50-30 gear but I needed to be sure that it it was selected by mistake there would be no issues - it's probably on the absolute limit but shifts up and down fine 

I have since put on about 500 miles on the Giant with this new cassette fitted. It's been great to have that slightly lower gear when needed and I have not really noticed the slightly bigger gaps in the lowest 3 gears

So in brief summary - makes the bike slightly easier to ride when you need a lower gear and if the chain is the correct length for 50-28 it'll just about be OK with the same chain for 50-30

New Chain Cleaning Process

I've been very old school when it comes to cleaning chains and other cycle drive train components - it's  been white spirit all the way. 

There's no doubt it works really well - but it stinks, it's bad for the environment, it's bad for you skin, and it stays in the chain for a long time so when the chain is refitted it thins the first oil application and still leaves a black film on the chain 

I decided to try a more modern alternative and get an actual parts washer. This would mean a move away from white spirit and I could drop the parts ion the washer and leave them whilst doing something else. 

I got a basic parts washer from eBay:

and also some non-solvent degreaser:

The first fill with a ~50/50 water/degreaser mix

Here's the pump running (with the parts tray removed):

And here is a filthy chain being cleaned:

Whilst the degreaser did degrease - it's nothing like as effective as white spirit and I needed to use an old paint brush as well to brush the chain under the cleaning jet. Some models have an option to fit a hose/brush combination and I think this would be better. (I do use a an old paint brush with white spirit as well though)

I also removed the rear derailleur and cleaned that. And separately I very carefully used the paint brush, wetted with the solution, to clean the cassette in situ.

I also had previously bought an electric compressed air duster (to blow dust out of computers) and I used this to dry the chain and derailleur

Because the cleaning fluid was not hydrocarbon based it was safe to use this blower. It certainly dried both the chain and derailleur really well - very effective indeed and I'll use that again.

Here's the final result:

That drivetrain won't stay like that for long riding in the winter 

Here's what the washer looked like at the end of the cleaning process:

Summary

For

• It doesn't stink the garage out with white spirit fumes
• You can put parts in and leave them washing whilst doing other jobs
• Its quiet
• Its's OK.

Against

• The degreaser is nothing like as effective as White spirit
• I needed to use the brush to get it really clean
• It might have come clean if I'd left it for a few hours
• I still used blue nitrile gloves to look after my hands (PPE and all that)
• I am not sure what to do with the dirty water/degreaser mix when it's no longer effective (I'd better read the instructions!)

I'll see if I can get at nozzle/brush fitting like this:

I'll use this process again though in the future

Worn Shimano SPD-SL Cleats

Are these cleats worn out. It's just that I am asking for a friend....

"My friend" said that they were a bit tricky to walk in.

Apparently this is what they should look like..

Shimano R8000 Ultegra Crank Failure

My son, who's a keen Triathlete, came over for the week and brought his bike. "Dad - can you have a look at the crank, I think it's gone wrong":

I'm sure he'll claim it's massive power but I'm sure there's some defect somewhere that's the initial cause. Whatever, the damage is impressive.

Apparently this is not an unusual failure.

See here: Bikeradar, YouTube, YouTube (again), TrainerRoad forum for examples, or just put "Shimano Crank failure" or similar into Google

Wheels Downgrade

I have run Shimano WH-6800 (Ultegra) wheels on my Scott for the past 6 years and almost 13,000 miles. They have been great to be honest - they are light (a claimed 1640g for the pair), and yet after all these miles are still round and true.

The front wheel still has the wear indicator showing but the indicator has disappeared from the rear wheel, and the rim is slightly concave - not surprising given that I have used them in wet conditions and it's the rear that gets the grit and mud on it. It's difficult to tell exactly how worn the rear wheel is but even I felt that some care needed to be taken and it was time to renew.

 This is a stock image of WH-6800 wheels from ~2014:

I'd spent a number of months occasionaly surfing the online bike stores to see what was available and the initial proposal was to get a like for like replacement - however equivalent Ultegra wheels today are about £700 and there was no way I was paying that - the older I get the slower I am getting and £700 of wheels is not going to make a difference.

Plan B was to get some (effectivley) handbuilt wheels from one of the small traders in the UK who advertise on EBay etc. This route would appear to get me a similar build to my Ultegras for around £300-350.

However I needed to be careful as my Scott has quite a narrow frame. I have run 23mm Continental GP4000S II ever since I have had it and I think that even going up 25mm tyres may be very tight for clearance. The current trend for wider tyres is coming pretty common, but I needed to keep to wheels with the same rim width (within 1mm or so) as the Ultegra wheels.

So plan C was to "downgrade" to some cheaper wheels and keep the Ultegras for occasional riding when I wanted to save some weight. So I ended up getting a pair of Shimano WH-RS330 wheels for a lower price than even the "handbuilts". Yes - they are heavier (I weighed them at 2100g with no skewers) but the are effectively the same wheel with heavier materials and the rim width was identical (20.8mm). The main difference is that the rim depth is ~24mm on the Ultegras and on the RS330 it's closer to 30mm. Finally, I trust the Shimano brand and the fact that I've got 6 years and 13,000 miles (with more wear left) meant it was not really a risk.

Here's a stock image of WH-RS330 wheels (as you can see from here - basically the same wheels):

 

I also needed to replace the tyres on the Ultegra wheels. If I could, I would have bought another pair of GP4000S but these are no longer available having been replaced by the GP5000S. Given I was letting the weight go up on the wheels I decided to put a pair of Continental Grand Sport Race on. I have a pair of these on my Pinnacle (winter and commuting bike) - and they have proven hard wearing currently at 7000 miles so far with more wear left, but with good grip all year round. However I am sure the rolling resistance is probably higher than the GP4000S and they are heavier. But they are also a lot cheaper and hence these seemed a good compromise as well.

So I spent a Saturday morning swapping the wheels over. It's always exciting to get new bike bits to open:

 

 

I was running a 105 11-32 Cassette but put a new (spare) Ultegra 11-32 Cassette that I had lying around on the RS330 wheels. Thus with new wheels, tyres, tubes and cassette I now have 2 sets of wheels for the Scott ready to go that I can just swap over.

Given the concious decision to allow the weight to rise I also weighed various components as I went to see what I ended up with after the wheel swap. This is shown in the table below.

Note that the scale is a simple and cheap luggage weigher device with a display resolution of 0.01kg like this

I doubt it's that good in the 0.01kg range but actually calculating the wheel weight change seperately to the whole bike weight change only gave a discrepancy of 0.01kg - so actually not that bad! It would be interesting to use it on some calibration weights and also do a Gage R&R to see how good it is

Whole Bike: Initial Weight: 8.28kg
WH-RS330 Rear wheel (bare): 1.19kg
WH-RS330 Front wheel (bare): 0.91 kg
Continental Grand Sport Race 23mm: 0.25kg Note continental clain 0.245kg in the spec so not too shabby  For the GP 5000 in 23mm claimed weight is 0.20kg - so I could save 90g total running these tyres
Continental inner tube 42mm valve: 0.11kg
Ultegra 11-32 Cassette: 0.29kg
WH-RS330 Rear Wheel, tyre, inner tube: 1.56kg
WH-RS330 Rear Wheel, tyre, inner tube & cassette: 1.90kg
WH-RS330 Front wheel, tyre, inner tube: 1.32kg
WH-RS330 Total Wheel weight: 3.22kg
Ultegra Rear Wheel, QR, tyre, inner tube & cassette: 1.60kg
Ultegra Front Wheel, QR, tyre, inner tube: 1.07kg
Total Ultegra Wheel weight: 2.67 kg
Additional weight: 0.55kg (3.22-2.67)
Whole Bike: Final Weight: 8.82kg
Bike weight increase: 0.54kg (8.82-8.28)

A few other things I was interested in

I usually use 105 cassettes although my Giant does have Ultegra. What I'd not realised is the Ultegra cassette has 2 spiders - the first is for the biggest 3 gears as per the 105 cassette, but gears 4 & 5 are also on a spider that's made of plastic of some sort!:

 

Also I knew the chain was quite worn but was not aware it was this worn - the full 1% and more: