Ahem...Hambini?

Mike Ashley ain't a great guy either

Genuine question: Who is that guy and how is he affiliated with Hope?

And yes, please don't give Hambini any money.

This - bang on. He might be an ass, but that doesn't mean his products are. I have some friends in the business of selling high end road bikes who've come across his BBs. They're not exactly Hambini fans but have rated his BBs as being among the best they've seen/tested.

Price and product-wise, they're more comparible with something precision engineered like a Hope BB, not some basic but good BB with a plastic sleeve that costs pennies in comparison. So £80 does look like 'decent' value, if the hype is real.

Morality is highly subjective and individual - no point on going on a high horse over it, but I totally respect the choice and reasoning for those who boycott his products and channel. To me, the negative impact of what's probably a one-off purchase from a YouTube keyboard warrior is far less problematic in scale, than buying carbon fibre parts from the East where there are accusations of forced child or Uyghur labour, and even lower on the list than me buying from brands supporting the blatant sportswashing of a certain nation being charged with committing genocidal acts live right now, or buying from Mike Ashley owned brands etc.

Would I buy one? Probably not, but I'm not about to join a Hambini boycott bandwagon over it. To each their own I guess.

All of this.

You don't have to boycott someone's products because you don't agree with their opinions. Putting £80 (or £800 or £8000) in Hambini's pocket isn't going to change the world.

Evans/CRC/wiggle are all Mike Ashley Frasers group. Mike Ashley has nothing to with Hope the company apart from selling their products through his outlets. It looks like Hope are no longer selling through Ashley outlets as only showing a couple of lights and small part spares on the websites. I hope no pun intended that was a decision at Hopes end to wind down than relationship. Renthal seem to no longer selling through his stores either. I hope this is a good move for our great independents. Buy Hope just not from Mike Ashley.
Hope=Great
Mike Ashley=Pretty fucking bad
Hambini=Despicable

You don't have to boycott someone's products because you don't agree with their opinions. Putting £80 (or £800 or £8000) in Hambini's pocket isn't going to change the world.

You don’t have to, I will. Especially when there are alternatives to his products which are neither more expensive nor inferior in quality.

There are few situations where giving them £80 for something Shimano can sell to you for £17 is the best thing to do though.

^also this.

To be honest, in over 3 decades of riding and 2 of working in the industry, I’ve never felt like there was a problem with any bottom bracket that warranted shelling out 4 or 5 times (or more) as much on the premium alternative.

Agree with a lot of these comments. There are so many harder moral decisions. This is such an easy one. There are loads of great alternatives.

Putting £80 (or £800 or £8000) in Hambini's pocket isn't going to change the world.

I don't even want to support his morning coffee.

P.S.: thanks @Retro_Bastard for the info on Mike Ashley and Hope!

Also, isn't the issue with BBs, as I believe he has literally posted about himself, that frame shells are pretty poorly made/finished, and that's what causes premature wear/failure in modern BBs?

Does his kit somehow ameliorate that? Is it somehow better than paying your LBS £80 to chase and face your frame and then going back to Shimano?

Pretty much. He's made and sells these BBs that are within tight tolerances that need to be perfectly aligned, but they don't fit in a small(?) subset of frames that have bent shells that perhaps shouldn't have passed QC, so he's pissed off his product don't work/sell?

To be fair, I do get the whole argument about shelling (pun unintended) thousands on a frame where the BB shell is out-of-spec, but I don't think I've either had issues with a good old threaded frame and BB anyway, so defo not for me.

Oh I’m not in the market for a BB and if I was, I wouldn’t be spending any more than necessary on one - be that Hambini or Hope.

I don't even want to support his morning coffee

If he was selling something for £3.50, which was a tenner elsewhere, then he’d get my £3.50.

There are better things to spend energy on than worrying about small fry like Hambini.

I’ve never felt like there was a problem with any bottom bracket that warranted shelling out 4 or 5 times (or more) as much on the premium alternative.

On bikes which don't have English, Italian or T47 BBs, the aftermarket types which thread one side into the other and clamp the frame can definitely improve the situation if it's outside the proper tolerances. If you're chasing a creak it could be worth a shot.

but they don't fit in a small(?) subset of frames that have bent shells that perhaps shouldn't have passed QC, so he's pissed off his product don't work/sell?

Not here to defend him as a person(ality), just explaining the product: He's pissed at the poor QC in general, and his product solves the problem by being a one-piece BB (or the thread-together version) with the bearings much better aligned within that BB. There are products with the same idea, in a similar price range by other brands like bbinfinite.

My frame's PF30 BB was creaking crazy with the basic shimano BB, but a Wheelsmfg thread-together BB solved the issue entirely.

If you follow someone less abrasive like Rhino's workshop you can see other people being fed-up with having to face surfaces and chase threads on brand new premium £3-4k frames.

I don't think a tiny cilinder of alloy can straighten an offset BB hole in a modern carbon bike, they're way stronger than that. If anything it will stop movement, and that's something you can achieve with loctite anyways.
Only worth it if you're ready to replace bearings instead of the whole BB, and even like that it can be cheaper to get a new shimano PF

It doesn't straighten the hole in the frame; it mitigates the effects caused by the hole being out of tolerance.

Yeah, I'm being a bit cynical as to why he's so vexed and how he goes about things, but the frustration is justified for end-users. Imagine spending that much on a premium frame with misaligned, oval, shell faces and having to resort to a more premium or niche product. I've not had issues with my DUB PF frame/BB but would be pretty annoyed if I did.

"Bicycle frame bottom bracket shells are notoriously misaligned, inconsistent, and out of round, and so it’s inadvisable to use the bike frame as the primary aligning member for bottom bracket bearings. Yet, that’s what our multi-piece bottom bracket competition does, and this explains why their systems frequently fail prematurely and creak.

A BBInfinite OPD (One-Piece-Design) bottom bracket module is a CNC precision-machined hub---like the front wheel hub on your bike---that you press into your frame. And just like your trouble-free wheel hub, BBInfinite OPD bottom brackets have perfectly aligned bearings regardless of your frame’s BB shell alignment and tolerances. Perfectly aligned bearings are essential for thousands of miles of trouble-free use and extreme spin performance."

235 quid. But oh shit I read the blurb and now I want one of those and my Spesh doesn't even creak.

For the BBInfinite or Hambini, or both? If Wheels Manufacturing, Hambini, BBInfinite and others one -piece, precision designed BBs are similarly priced, then fair play to Hambini on that one. I don't think he's ripping anyone off anyway, I can imagine the cost of production for smaller batches won't exactly be cheap, which reflects in his newer line of cheaper (relatively put) stock.

I'm not bothered about Hambini's pricing. I wouldn't buy from him no matter what he priced stuff at. I do like the look of the BBBInfinite BB though. Not sure it would work with the Shiv with its Cannondale cranks though.

Another thing to consider with the one-piece that you need to have a clean full bb-shell width hole through the frame. No brake cables, rivets...etc in the way of the shell to go through.

But in most cases the frame is good enough and people it's just fretting because you google creaks and go down Hambinis rabbit hole.
Doesn't help that every professional mechanic have a way instead of having training on a standardized way to do the job. Quite frustrating and doesn't help customer confidence.

who other than hambini himself is benchmarking his products?

If I make something and have an ecosystem of vlogs to basically say 'this is the best' its not really objective is it.

Its textbook grifter, make snake oil, say its the best, get vulnerable punters to pay for it. Happens in wellness, politics, nutrition, gaming, you name it .. if you have fallen for it and actually bought it, you are as gullible as a Liz Truss/Farage voter or Owen Jones/Novara Media enjoyer.

Shimano HT BB is just fine.

That was my point