chriswoody
Legendary Member
- Location
- Northern Germany
So the Spring fettling on the Kona continues. I needed a new bottom bracket and chain. Whilst I was there I also decided to fit a smaller 32tooth chainring on the front, a job I've been meaning to do for a while. So after work today this little package of bits was waiting for me.
The existing bottom bracket is a Race Face one and looking around at alternatives I found that a Shimano XT one would fit the bill nicely. Except when it arrived, I noticed a problem straight away, it was far too small. Lots of cursing followed by checking online, everything should be right, but it was demonstrably smaller than the one I had. You can see the problem when compared to the standard Hollowtech spanner:
Then ratcheting through the box, I discovered a plastic widget thingy and the penny dropped, clever Mr Shimano had included an adapter for my spanner so I could fit it. Apparently this is some new advancement, shrinking the bearing sizes so they wear out quicker and leave you out of pocket sooner!
With the drama of the BB sorted, it was onto the crankset. It's a lovely light design, closely resembling an Octalink fitment, frustratingly my old Square taper remover won't remove Octalink, so I had to buy a new crank puller. The crank came off easily enough, and on the back is a small lockring holding the chain ring on. The lock ring is removed with a Square taper bottom bracket removal tool. All very neat and no crank bolts in sight.
With the chainring on, I re-assembled it and then cut the new chain to length. With everything back together I must admit I really like the new smaller black BB cups. I'm not normally to obsessive about colour co-ordination, but these small cups set against the rest of the black transmission looks really nice, so much better than those large silver cups on before.
Pleased with the way it's all turned out and it rides so much smoother than before.
The existing bottom bracket is a Race Face one and looking around at alternatives I found that a Shimano XT one would fit the bill nicely. Except when it arrived, I noticed a problem straight away, it was far too small. Lots of cursing followed by checking online, everything should be right, but it was demonstrably smaller than the one I had. You can see the problem when compared to the standard Hollowtech spanner:
Then ratcheting through the box, I discovered a plastic widget thingy and the penny dropped, clever Mr Shimano had included an adapter for my spanner so I could fit it. Apparently this is some new advancement, shrinking the bearing sizes so they wear out quicker and leave you out of pocket sooner!
With the drama of the BB sorted, it was onto the crankset. It's a lovely light design, closely resembling an Octalink fitment, frustratingly my old Square taper remover won't remove Octalink, so I had to buy a new crank puller. The crank came off easily enough, and on the back is a small lockring holding the chain ring on. The lock ring is removed with a Square taper bottom bracket removal tool. All very neat and no crank bolts in sight.
With the chainring on, I re-assembled it and then cut the new chain to length. With everything back together I must admit I really like the new smaller black BB cups. I'm not normally to obsessive about colour co-ordination, but these small cups set against the rest of the black transmission looks really nice, so much better than those large silver cups on before.
Pleased with the way it's all turned out and it rides so much smoother than before.
The bike looks ace, definitely worth saving - can't help but think you'll need to use period second hand parts though as compatibility is generally rubbish between the current stuff and older bikes 
Down came the bike, down the stairs and over to the garage to connect to the PC via USB to recover the firmware. I connected it up and, guess what, the PC app was out of date and needed updating 
10 minutes later it had done its thing so I whipped the seatpost out and disconnected the battery to reset the Di2 then connected it up. It immediately told me the firmware was bricked (as if I didn't already know 
