Tight BB and reluctant freehub.

[Tom B]

Team,

I'm not the best with this modern stuff. Give me square taper and 8speed Shimano anyday.

So, I have a Boardman Team FS 2016 bike.
It has seen about 2k use (not as much as I'd like)

The drivetrain has never been great, it has always dropped the chain like nothing else.
Money has always been tight with this bike given it is more of a toy than a necessity so I haven't done as much as I would like to it.

The wheels were dreadful with both hubs sealed with old banana skin and the bearing becoming shot with about 500miles. I picked up a bargain front wheel a while back as that was worst. Then got a superstar V6 rear hub during lockdown 1 and rebuilt it onto the rim.

The freehub worked fine but there was some resistance to freewheel you could turn it by hand but not spin it with free movement that you'd get with a Shimano unit. I put it down to newness. It seems a great improvement in-terms of engagement but when free wheeling the resistance sometimes means the chain goes slack on top. Probably not helping with my chain drop. I pulled the bike out a few days ago after not using it for a month or so yesterday and it was initially worse than ever but then eased off some. The wheel itself rolls well and initially transformed the handling of the bike and helped shifting and keeping it in gear as the cassette wasn't rocking around.

Any ideas what is going on here?


Problem 2

The bike is fitted with a FSA comet crankset and FSA mega exo BB. I blame this thing for some of the chain drops and have been meaning to change it forever.

However the BB feels stiff, with chain off there is a resistance to turning. Rather like the freewheel it's a bit like it's running in cold treacle, feels smooth enough and no play. Desperate squirting of gt85 around the cracks doesn't seem to help. The BBs seem jolly expensive and need a tool to remove.

Can I change the BB to something else? Or will I need to do that with a new crankset. I'm keen to move to Shimano deore or the likes and retain the 24ish/38, but of course there isn't much around at the moment for sensible £££.

Finally the SRAM GX rear mech seems to have a lot of play /waggle in it. I read in the reviews which are like marmite this is a common complaint.
I have a couple of videos of me wiggling the mech (ablely hampered by a 3yr old)

View: https://youtu.be/DNgPWApB2zI


Does this look excessive, I have again little experience of these mechs and certainly none of these supposibly clutch mechs.
Again replacements are limited in availability, I'm probably going to go over to Shimano of need be.

 

[DRM]

Perhaps the BB has alignment problems, there are plenty of Hambini videos on you tube about this, the free hub may not be the best either
it may well be a case of a new wheel set, and a new BB, be aware though he swears....alot

 

[iluvmybike]

Re the freehub - it sounds as though the adjustment on the bearings is too tight. Re the bottom bracket - if it is still without the chain on then needs replacing. If the chain is constantly coming off and everything is right with front derailleur adjustment then look for a bent chainring or chainring teeth

 

[fossyant]

That GX mech looks knackered. I've got the X9 on my 2015 FS Pro which hasn't got any play like that.

You probably need to remove the cranks and check the BB bearings. GXP on mine, but replaced it with a Praxis Works GXP. My rear hubs have had the cartridge bearings replaced, again you may need to pop the freehub off the hub and check it.

 

[Gunk]

I think you could easily waste a ton of money trying to sort that out, if it were mine I would get rid of it on Gumtree and put the money you were going to spend on replacement parts towards a superior used bike.