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T47 Bottom Bracket to the Rescue

Jim’s Tech Talk

by Jim Langley

The new T47 bottom bracket comes to the rescue! I’m joking with this week’s title, but only a little. I’m poking fun at the bicycle industry, which in my opinion – and many other two-wheeler trade pundits’ views – took an ill-conceived detour about 12 to 14 years ago. That’s when most of the major bike makers started to adopt new designs for frame bottom brackets, which the T47 BB now looks to solve.

What’s a Bottom Bracket?

The bottom bracket is the part of the frame where the crankset is installed. The crankset is the mechanism that the pedals are attached to. The crankset turns when you pedal because it’s held inside the bottom bracket of the frame with a mechanism containing bearings.

Unfortunately for anyone learning bicycle terminology, the mechanism that the crankset turns on – the one that holds the bearings, is also called a bottom bracket. So, to try to keep things straight, the frame’s bottom bracket (an integral part of the frame), is best referred to as the “bottom bracket shell.” To simplify a little, the bottom bracket is often abbreviated as “BB.” So you can say “BB shell.”

And, the mechanism that is installed into the frame bottom bracket shell, is best referred to as just the “bottom bracket” (or, say “BB”). Confused? Sorry. Please visit this bicycle anatomy page on my personal bike website and look at the labeled picture. Also, scroll down just a bit and read where I explain and show the bottom brackets: https://jimlangley.net/wrench/bicycleparts.html.

That Detour

Briefly, what happened back then was that companies went away from the tried-and-true threaded bottom bracket. Instead, they switched to a myriad of different press-fit systems where the bottom bracket bearings are held in place in the frame’s bottom bracket shell primarily by friction, not threads.

Depending on the specific design, sometimes bearings fit inside cups that are pressed into the frame. Other times the bearings are held in place with thread lockers or special carbon glues.

There are reasons why these designs came along and why these types of BBs are still found on the majority of bicycles. Mostly it was because carbon frames require metal inserts in order to provide threaded bottom bracket shells (cutting threads in carbon weakens it). So it was easier and lighter to stick with just the carbon shell without threads.

Noisy, Loose or Binding BBs

But, unfortunately, as often happens with new ideas, there were and still are lots of problems with some of the designs and how they were implemented. It’s not just the design, either, problem can occur from mismatching cranks and bottom bracket parts and improper assembly techniques, too. Because there are so many different designs, it’s easy to make mistakes.

The issues usually were/are caused by bearings and cups in the frame that don’t stay fixed and begin to move slightly. It’s easy to understand how this can happen when you consider the massive pedaling forces bottom brackets have to withstand.

And, when cups or bearings move, it can make a bike click or tick or clunk with every pedal stroke. Or, if the bottom bracket part moves enough, it could even cause worse problems. And, it’s possible to have binding with problem bottom brackets, too.

Tip: If you’re having problems like this with a non threaded BB, they can usually be fixed by a mechanic with enough experience with your brand and model of bottom bracket. So, for example, if it’s on a Specialized, you would try to find an ace Specialized mechanic. Failing that, there are a few innovative companies that provide aftermarket BB solutions. A few examples are Wheels Manufacturing , BB Infinite and Praxis Works. (Disclaimer: I work for Praxis.)

The T47 Threaded Bottom Bracket

It’s these problems with the non-threaded bottom brackets, that has me excited about the relatively new bottom bracket type, called T47 (T for “threaded,” and 47 for their 47mm nominal cup diameter). Finally, we will get back to bottom brackets and cranks that get installed once and run trouble-free.

And, at 47mm, the T47 cups are significantly larger than the roughly 35mm diameter threaded cups on the old standard BBs. So this new threaded standard accepts the oversize axles on modern cranksets, which is arguably the best thing to come from the industry’s detour to no-thread BB designs.

Already some major players are using T47 BB shells in their bicycles, such as Trek and Specialized. They’re not on every bike model, so if you’re shopping, look carefully at the specifications to make sure.

If you’ve ever had a problematic bottom bracket, this new back-to-the-future standard should be welcome news. In fact, I just bought an Ibis Hakka MX partly because it was the only bike of the ones I was considering that has a T47 BB.

Ride total: 9,459

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. kenneth says

    November 13, 2019 at 9:56 am

    Oh noooo! Here we go again, another BB standard.

    Reply
    • Bill Brannon says

      November 14, 2019 at 9:33 am

      And likely a new tool to go with it.

      Reply
      • Jim Langley says

        November 14, 2019 at 11:20 am

        Yes, good point, Bill, the T47 BBs take a different tool. But, because they’re threaded, I know some people will just wing it and install them with pliers, hammer & screwdriver, etc. as always happens with nuts and bolts. The tool is nice, though, and mechanics will wan’t to have it to properly torque the cups and to install/remove them without scratching them up.

  2. william henry wilson says

    November 14, 2019 at 10:00 am

    Get the CK T47 and be done with it. I did…

    Reply
    • dennis noward says

      November 25, 2020 at 12:24 pm

      Just get the “old” style threaded BB and be done with it.

      Reply
  3. Richard Handler says

    November 14, 2019 at 10:38 am

    Solution of this type came to me in 2012 when the BB90 on my Trek Domane failed in its 2nd month of ownership. Repeated failures, returns to factory followed. Oversized bearings were replaced at 2 month intervals, more often than rear tires.

    Eight years later my simple solution of an oversized metal sleeve with threads, bonded into the BB shell, has been developed. Why so long?

    Reply
    • Gary Smoot says

      April 1, 2021 at 8:15 am

      Whats the best lightest t47 bottom bracket for my emonda slr disc h2

      Reply
  4. Joe says

    November 14, 2019 at 10:52 am

    How does this get threads in a carbon frame? I thought that was a problem.

    Reply
    • Jim Langley says

      November 14, 2019 at 11:07 am

      Sorry, I should have explained that, Joe. Using my new Ibis as an example, there’s an aluminum tube/sleeve bonded inside the carbon frame. And that tube is threaded to accept the T47 cups. Just like the “old-school” threaded British/English cups, the new ones are regular-threaded on the non-drive side of the frame and reverse-threaded on the drive side. Which ensures that the cups stay tight in the frame. There are T47 designs with external and internal bearings. Back to the threading, there might be other ways to thread a carbon bottom bracket shell that I’m not aware of. I bet engineers are working on it at least.

      Thanks for the great question,
      Jim

      Reply
      • Chris Riegert says

        August 10, 2020 at 9:40 pm

        so we’re back to the old issue of aluminum and carbon interacting and failing as we used to see at BB and tube joints.

  5. Walt says

    November 24, 2019 at 11:27 am

    Yes, new “solutions” often create more problems than they are supposed to solve. My experience with the many different BB press fittings is that at one bike shop, the press fittings were 2mm too large and the attempt to install resulted in ruined BB press fit bearings. Even worse, one bad fit resulted in a BB shell crack.

    I now do my own installations.

    I give the biking industry poor marks for what they are doing – which means less uniformity/compatibility and results in the need to find different components for different bike brands. This plus other “innovations” are the result (in my view only) of their quest to sell more new bikes (must have the latest and greatest).

    Sorry for the negative views but, as a non-professional bike builder (do not work for a bike shop), it is a major frustration.

    Reply

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