Chris King or Enduro XD-15 BB

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Cashman
Posts: 45
Joined: Thu Aug 19, 2010 7:33 am

by Cashman

Hi Guys

Im struggling to decide for my newly ordered frame.

Chris King or Enduro XD-15 Bottom bracket.

The Chris King is Chris King and the Enduro apparently is the best BB in the world.

I need help deciding please

Help me decide.
Cashman
Baum Corretto - Sram eTap (until I can get 12s Dura ace
Kavenz VHP16 - XT 12s
Revel Rascal- XTR 12s

by Weenie


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Briscoelab
Posts: 1513
Joined: Thu Jan 26, 2006 6:01 pm

by Briscoelab

King!

It looks killer, is very smooth, will last forever, simple to service.

jizzling
Posts: 16
Joined: Mon Jun 20, 2011 4:17 pm

by jizzling

I have the Enduro and love it. Looks cool too.

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Scottybee
Posts: 406
Joined: Sat Aug 23, 2008 5:31 am
Location: Santa Barbara

by Scottybee

A coworker of mine (and budding framebuilder) had installed a King BB with a Sram Red crankset on his first frame- the seal drag is rather... prominent. Wasn't impressed. Maybe for the types that like to abuse their bike without having to touch it with a wrench.
17 and stupid, bear with me

kbzoo
Posts: 29
Joined: Mon Oct 11, 2010 3:47 pm

by kbzoo

I've found that the Chris King BB seal drag reduces noticeably after several hundred kilometers but it's not as low drag as some ceramic BBs.

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lasrever
Posts: 136
Joined: Tue Jul 27, 2010 9:47 pm

by lasrever

i'm going to vote for the enduro - i just installed one on a client's bike and was extremely impressed.

i am unsure if the king uses angular contact bearings but the xd-15 does which is just better for what's going on down there - since the move to the cartridge/outboard bearings i've always wondered why we are building a system that places side (clamping), and torsional (pedaling) loads on bearings that are designed pretty much for radial load only.

in fairness this is somewhat true of many hubs as well.

anyway - the xd-15 spins amazingly out of the box and only gets better with miles.
quite light but not as many colors.

and, well, angular contact bearings just make more sense to me.

flame me at your discretion.
thanks,
nick

ty-ro
Posts: 666
Joined: Sat Nov 22, 2008 11:15 pm

by ty-ro

In my experience, it depends on what you want.

I have 2 Chris Kings & one Rotor with Enduro ceramic bearings. The Kings have been bulletproof but do not spin nearly as smoothly; with a significant amount drag even after several hundred miles. The Rotor spins way easier but crapped out after about 1.5 yrs. Rotor replaced it with a new BB, no questions asked though. (They were fabulous to deal with. Kudos!) To be fair, I have more miles on the Rotor/Enduro.
Last edited by ty-ro on Sat Oct 01, 2011 4:12 am, edited 1 time in total.

Ruds
Posts: 765
Joined: Thu Jan 25, 2007 3:56 pm

by Ruds

Does anyone know where you can buy a XD-15 in the UK? I'm struggling to find them.

jizzling
Posts: 16
Joined: Mon Jun 20, 2011 4:17 pm

by jizzling

Scratch my previous praise of the XD-15. I went to swap it over to a new frame and noticed the internal cup was shattered around the edge. Contacted Enduro and they sent me new pieces to fix the internals and about 300 miles later....Snap, crackle, pop!! It went again. I contacted Enduro again and they said they may have got a bad batch of metal and didn't know why that was happening. Luckily the shop I bought it from refunded my money even though it was 9 months old. I definitely do not trust these BB's. I have a Chris King on the way and I'm excited to try it out and I love the grease exchange system.
Attachments
Busted inner Cup
Busted inner Cup

jizzling
Posts: 16
Joined: Mon Jun 20, 2011 4:17 pm

by jizzling

Chris King installed and and running. Feels good and normal, may need a little break in period I'm thinking to feel all the way good. Install was fairly straight forward, a little bit of prep work is needed in insure the spacing is correct but it's all covered in the installation directions. I have SRAM Red Crankset so I needed the stepped adapter kit.

Only thing I thought was strange was there was no way to tell which cup was drive side and non drive side. They were not marked so I'm assuming it doesn't matter.

Hope this BB holds up better than the Enduro XD-15 (fingers crossed)

eric
Posts: 2196
Joined: Tue Nov 11, 2003 9:47 pm
Location: Santa Cruz, California, USA
Contact:

by eric

Using the Chris King BB on a GXP crank wastes one of the main advantages of the GXP scheme- not having to set bearing preload. Instead, the NDS bearing has a smaller bore and the crank spindle traps the inner race on either side. So the NDS bearing provides lateral location, while the spindle floats in the DS bearing.

It's simple and foolproof and ensures that there is never excessive preload on the bearings.

I've read that early GXP BBs had a lot of seal drag but there's a new model. The one I installed this year is the freest spinning BB I have ever installed.

by Weenie


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jizzling
Posts: 16
Joined: Mon Jun 20, 2011 4:17 pm

by jizzling

eric wrote:Using the Chris King BB on a GXP crank wastes one of the main advantages of the GXP scheme- not having to set bearing preload. Instead, the NDS bearing has a smaller bore and the crank spindle traps the inner race on either side. So the NDS bearing provides lateral location, while the spindle floats in the DS bearing.

It's simple and foolproof and ensures that there is never excessive preload on the bearings.

I've read that early GXP BBs had a lot of seal drag but there's a new model. The one I installed this year is the freest spinning BB I have ever installed.


I'm happy with it so far and after my experience with enduro I just want something that's good quality and durable and isn’t going to literally explode. I've had mediocre luck with GXP BB in the past too so even if the "new model" is better I'd still rather go with a quality, trustworthy manufacturer like Chris King.

I can't feel any negitive difference and I'm not losing any speed or fluidity in stroke so I'd just assume "waste one of the main advantages of the GXP scheme" if I can get more benefits when it comes to quality, durability and maintenance. sodifferenceI Grease tool is a cool concept for maintaining and flushing out old grease.

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