Cannondale Aficionados / Owners

35mm tyres fit comfortably on my caadx. Ready for 2 weeks of potholed roads and pathways.

Isn't there anything that the shop that you got it built up can do to help?

I'm trying to explore all options for resolution of this issue at the moment.

Ed- you asked how easily the axle/spindle went into the bearings recently, I had the whole thing apart last night and they do go in very easily - the OD of the sections that sit in the bearing is bang on 30mm, and go in more easily than I recall the older 104mm axles ever doing.

Was there a reason you asked this, i.e. have you seen variable results that you ascribe to different axles?

It seems to me that the axle is designed to float somewhat - just under 1mm of float seems to be granted by the wave washer. However it may be the axle fretting inside the bearings as it moves laterally under high load, rather than the bearings moving in the shells.

I simply don't know, so am seeking experience on this.

Here's what the inside of the BB looked like before I reinstalled everything last night (with grease):

To clean them up further will require the ream to be deployed (Monday), but what is the hive-minds opinion on the current state of cleanliness?

The bike was cracking away this morning.

Cleanliness? As in that minor patina might be causing a cracking noise? I don't see how that would happen tbh.

I had the same lateral movement with ultra torque cranks, on some frames it was fine, on others it produced a really annoying click once per revolution which you could feel through your foot.

On the annoying ones, I added extra wavy washers to take up some of the slack thinking it was just manufacturing tolerances in BB shell width. This worked on my Orrell (68mm BSA) and Olagnero (70mm ITA) , but inexplicably did not on my Roberts even with three of them, resulting in adding thread lock and partially unscrewing the drive side BB cup to manually load the bearings that way. This worked but having the cup 2mm unscrewed was a source of concern, and even then sometimes the click would return only to be solved by forcibly pedalling backwards a few revolutions before disappearing. This makes me suspect the way the bearings are seated around a fixed distance axle can be effected by frame/bb flex and that if your BB is not perfectly round or distorted this will accentuate any problems.

At that point I really despaired of fixed length BB's and went back to square taper on my tourer and had zero issues. All this made me highly suspicious of the SiSl's on my CAAD 10 but they've been hassle free and after changing the rings and spider over didn't secure them with loctite or anything; I do not have any gap exposing the washer at the bb though, it's near flush with the seal as it was prior to me servicing it which makes sense to me in terms of not wanting dirt and water flushing into your BB shell.

Anyway, if I were you I'd try another fixed axle crank to see if you still have problems, as if so it'd point to an issue with the BB shell.

Apparently the powermeter/spider lockring was fitted with grease rather than Loctite- which is hopeful as it gives me one more avenue to explore. I'll pull that and Loctite it on tonight.

Another suggestion: could the circlips be creaking inside their recesses?
Not sure if this is something people do (I've never owned/worked on a BB30 bike, or had ever seen photos of the system close up until lurking on this thread), but appears to be worth a try if you haven't already (remove circlips/fill recesses with copper grease/smear it on the clips/reinstall circlips and wipe away excess squashed out of recess/use excess to apply thin film for the bearings).

Also, hate to bring this up, but surprised nobody else has pointed it out: #tbt to all the anti-scoble copper grease bashing a couple of months ago (page 228 & 229), and the famous quote (post #5701):

I bet you £500 that I could build the bike without the creak, and there would be no creak until the bearings were ready to be punched out again. There's nothing wrong with BB30 if it's installed correctly - and the frame was manufactured correctly in the first place.

Photo above shows evidence of galvanic corrosion (surface where the bearings would be sat), due to moisture getting between the two. Not sure if it's a quirk of the design to outlaw its use, but copper grease would have gone a long way to prevent this.

I'm open to suggestions, the galvanic one is interesting, but the bike has been out in one very light shower, for not a great length of time (it was the ride that Scoble took the photo).

I can't see that single exposure to drizzle being able to penetrate the bottom bracket.

The bearings were also installed with an awful lot of grease, the ID of the bottom bracket was coated with it.

Moisture in a gaseous sense, i.e. in the air or oxygen in any fluid that can exist between the two metals. Like how steel headset bearing outer races cause the same type of corrosion to the inside head tubes all the time. Gently rubbing with fine steel wool might remove it (and make the BB shell un-round by 0.0001%), but realistically looks not worth bothering with because it's so minor.
I 'reckon' it's slightly oversized (OD) circlips causing the creaking, but again I've never personally laid eyes inside a BB30 BB, so know nothing.

EDIT: is there any axial play in the circlips when installed? Can they be moved up and down slightly, or do they not budge? Maybe as an experiment for all BB30 users, someone with a spare set of circlips could grind the circlip OD down a tiny bit; just enough for there to be a bit of axial play when installed, and the see what happens after installation with copper grease. They don't need to be a mega tight/accurate fit within their own recess because all they're doing is providing a surface for the bearing to press against.

Gaseous moisture that has penetrated a layer of grease?

The ream should take care of that on Monday, regardless of whether it's paint residue or galvanic corrosion.

Cannondale do recommend greasing the circlip groove: http://www.cannondale.com/~/media/Files/PDF/Dorel/Cannondale/Common/Support/Accessories/2003_si_hollowgram_crankset_bottom_bracket_owners_manual_supplement_en.ashx

So that's one more thing to try.

In my experiences, it usually easy to push in, but need a mallet to tap it in a bit to get ir in place.

If it only take just your hand to push it in and align it, then that doesn't sound right, it shouldn't be that easy.

And it would appear that in their older tech docs Cannondale actually do give guidance on the wave washer:

1. Check the compression of the wave washer; the wave
   washer (3) should be nearly flat (0.3-0.5mm of compression
   left is ideal). If you can easily fit the edge of a 0.5mm shim
   into the wave, then add another shim. If the wave washer has
   more than 1mm of compression left then the spindle could
   move from side-to-side and creak. You should be able to see
   the waves of the wave washer when you rotate the cranks.
   This means that the bearings are preloaded by the wave
   washer alone without being overloaded by the force of the
   crank bolt.
   

Looks like tonight will see another bottom bracket rebuild. What a time to be alive!

Have you considered square taper?

Too much grease is a stupid thing to do, even Moreso if it's not copper slip.

It should be very lightly greased that when you remove it, it should barely be noticeable.

You need to speak to the mechanic why he decided to overload it with grease.

@umop3pisdn I lolled

If it only take just your hand to push it in and align it, then that doesn't sound right, it shouldn't be that easy.

Yeh - never had one that didn't require the mallet.

Do you want to try my SiSL2s? Trying a crankset that's known to be silent might be a good way of narrowing down the culprit.

That would be very helpful - thanks. I have put my spider lockring tool down somewhere and can't find them, annoyingly.

With reference to the guidelines from the Cannondale tech-doc, this indicates that I need another spacer in there:

Check the compression of the wave washer; the wave
washer (3) should be nearly flat (0.3-0.5mm of compression
left is ideal). If you can easily fit the edge of a 0.5mm shim
into the wave, then add another shim. If the wave washer has
more than 1mm of compression left then the spindle could
move from side-to-side and creak. You should be able to see
the waves of the wave washer when you rotate the cranks.
This means that the bearings are preloaded by the wave
washer alone without being overloaded by the force of the
crank bolt.

I put the shim that you can see in the picture above into the shim-stack, it's now got the maximum three.

The whole thing has been assembled 100% in-line with the tech-doc, so lets see what happens tomorrow.

Is it your knees creaking?

Or what about the pedals or cleats?

I tried a different pair of pedals, and a different rear wheel. It's deffo the BB. Fingers crossed for tomorrow, I do feel a lot better for finding a tech-doc written by an engineer/mechanic.

Can anyone tell me what rake fork I'd need for a 2010 CAAD9? Current Easton fork is 43mm but Google tells me the original fork was 45mm. Has the 2mm difference changed the geometry/wheelbase at all?