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Yeah, I get that. But I'm not talking about the cookie-cutter bikes you get in the shop where sealed BB is set it and forget it thing, and will last them as long as they are riding the bike. Talking about the crowd that knows the difference, is it so hard to check and service the BB once a year?
bukowski-
Talking about the crowd that knows the difference, is it so hard to check and service the BB once a year?
Which crowd? :-)
You and I can strip and rebuild a conventional BB (although I personally CBA), but we're a long way from typical, even among 'proper' cyclists. As I pointed out in an earlier comment to @umop3pisdn , a loose ball BB isn't likely to be worth more than about 50mW to a racer, so having something which requires skilful and frequent maintenance seems a bit pointless.
gbj_tester
Labour is expensive, manufactured goods are cheap. You can buy a new cartridge BB and have it fitted by any spanner monkey for far less than the cost of stripping, cleaning and reassembling a loose ball BB, which needs to be skilfully adjusted to work properly. Also, loose ball BBs seldom have seals, so they actually need maintenance, whereas cartridge units with rubber contact seals can survive bad weather.