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Spanish bb
Recently, our friends at Kink decided to make the switch from the Mid to the Spanish BB. This fact says a lot about the advantages of this BB size so we thought it was a good time to talk about it. Hopefully this will help other companies follow Kink and finally unify the BB system to make things easier for everybody.
It is clear that we fully support the Spanish BB, but this time we will let the others do the talking. First we start with a brief story about us for all the new blood in BMX.
After we invented the press-fit BB back in 2003, the next step for us was to decide the bearing size. Around that time there were two systems, the weak Euro and the over-built American BB. So the natural progression was to find a bearing size between both worlds. After testing many sizes the 37mm, OD / 10mm width was the Spanish BB size that had not given us any problems at all over the whole 7 years.
Darcy at Macneil really explains this with this great Spanish BB review. You can see every detail here. An amazing review indeed.
www.macneilbmx.com/blog/2009/05/spanish-bbs-are-the-shit/
Here is a very interesting article that Brian Tunney wrote.
assblasters.org/?p=348
Here is what the other BMX companies that support the Spanish BB have to say.
KINK
"The reason why Kink originally started testing the Spanish BB's in our frames was because I knew you could save a good amount of weight from the over all frame and bottom bracket set without sacrificing anything.
After talking to Darcy from MacNeil, David from Fly and many other riders, also hearing they never had any strength problem with the Spanish size bearing, I thought Kink should try it out.
If it weighs less and the strength is good, then I see no reason to stay with the Mid size BB anymore. We tested the Spanish BB for over a year before making our final decision and at first we were a little bit worried that some bike shops and mail orders would not be happy about the change to the Spanish size due to availability, but now it is very easy to find Spanish BB kits. "
Matt Antes
Kink Bike Co.
www.kinkbmx.com
DELUXE
"So, why did we choose Spanish BB? Well, I've been a major fan of Fly Bikes and David's work for years and years. Fly is an awesome company with great products. The Spanish BB size just fits our bikes a little better and when I was designing our frame the size of the bottom bracket seemed more in proportion with the tube set we use. It is a little slimmer than most frames, plus we've had no problems with bearings blowing out so far, especially since we all use 19mm crank axles on the team.
No worries. It's a super clean design, a really dialed size."
Mark Noble
Deluxe bikes.
www.deluxebmx.com
PROPER
" We never had any performance issues with either Spanish or Mid BB, so we use the one that seems to suit the style of the frame.
We sell literally thousands of Spanish and Mid BB’s a year with no issues.
The only bb problems we know of were when people had euro BB with a 22mm axle. "
Jamie Cameron
Proper bikes and IMG distribution.
www.properbikeco.com
www.imgdistribution.co.uk
Terrible One
" The Spanish BB has made perfect sense to me ever since it was introduction.
The huge old BB shells were outdated. So in came the euro BB craze. It didn't take long to see its flaws. Due to the size of its bearings, it couldn't take the pounding that BMX was giving. The size of the Euro shell wasn't the problem it was the size of the bearings and the cups that limited the bearing size. The Spanish BB was the solution. It introduced the idea to eliminate the bearing cup all together and all of the sudden a bigger bearing can be used, the tolerances of it was the icing on the cake. There would be no more pounding on your frame with a hammer and a piece of 2x4. The Spanish BB solved all the problems that ever existed with any other bottom bracket. Gooooooal! "
Joe Rich
Terrible One
www.terribleone.com
Superstar and St MARTIN
"Why do we use the Spanish BB on our Superstar and St-Martin frames instead of Mid BB?
Technically the Spanish and Mid BB are similar. Press fit solution works perfectly on BMX frames. The Spanish bearings are smaller and lighter than Mid bearings. Also, the frame bottom bracket is lighter.
We've never had a single issue with Spanish bearings. It would be silly to use an overbuilt solution, while a lighter solution is 100 % reliable."
Marc Etienne Dalgé
Superstar and St MARTIN
www.superstarbmx.com
www.stmartinbmx.com
It is clear that we fully support the Spanish BB, but this time we will let the others do the talking. First we start with a brief story about us for all the new blood in BMX.
After we invented the press-fit BB back in 2003, the next step for us was to decide the bearing size. Around that time there were two systems, the weak Euro and the over-built American BB. So the natural progression was to find a bearing size between both worlds. After testing many sizes the 37mm, OD / 10mm width was the Spanish BB size that had not given us any problems at all over the whole 7 years.
Darcy at Macneil really explains this with this great Spanish BB review. You can see every detail here. An amazing review indeed.
www.macneilbmx.com/blog/2009/05/spanish-bbs-are-the-shit/
Here is a very interesting article that Brian Tunney wrote.
assblasters.org/?p=348
Here is what the other BMX companies that support the Spanish BB have to say.
KINK
"The reason why Kink originally started testing the Spanish BB's in our frames was because I knew you could save a good amount of weight from the over all frame and bottom bracket set without sacrificing anything.
After talking to Darcy from MacNeil, David from Fly and many other riders, also hearing they never had any strength problem with the Spanish size bearing, I thought Kink should try it out.
If it weighs less and the strength is good, then I see no reason to stay with the Mid size BB anymore. We tested the Spanish BB for over a year before making our final decision and at first we were a little bit worried that some bike shops and mail orders would not be happy about the change to the Spanish size due to availability, but now it is very easy to find Spanish BB kits. "
Matt Antes
Kink Bike Co.
www.kinkbmx.com
DELUXE
"So, why did we choose Spanish BB? Well, I've been a major fan of Fly Bikes and David's work for years and years. Fly is an awesome company with great products. The Spanish BB size just fits our bikes a little better and when I was designing our frame the size of the bottom bracket seemed more in proportion with the tube set we use. It is a little slimmer than most frames, plus we've had no problems with bearings blowing out so far, especially since we all use 19mm crank axles on the team.
No worries. It's a super clean design, a really dialed size."
Mark Noble
Deluxe bikes.
www.deluxebmx.com
PROPER
" We never had any performance issues with either Spanish or Mid BB, so we use the one that seems to suit the style of the frame.
We sell literally thousands of Spanish and Mid BB’s a year with no issues.
The only bb problems we know of were when people had euro BB with a 22mm axle. "
Jamie Cameron
Proper bikes and IMG distribution.
www.properbikeco.com
www.imgdistribution.co.uk
Terrible One
" The Spanish BB has made perfect sense to me ever since it was introduction.
The huge old BB shells were outdated. So in came the euro BB craze. It didn't take long to see its flaws. Due to the size of its bearings, it couldn't take the pounding that BMX was giving. The size of the Euro shell wasn't the problem it was the size of the bearings and the cups that limited the bearing size. The Spanish BB was the solution. It introduced the idea to eliminate the bearing cup all together and all of the sudden a bigger bearing can be used, the tolerances of it was the icing on the cake. There would be no more pounding on your frame with a hammer and a piece of 2x4. The Spanish BB solved all the problems that ever existed with any other bottom bracket. Gooooooal! "
Joe Rich
Terrible One
www.terribleone.com
Superstar and St MARTIN
"Why do we use the Spanish BB on our Superstar and St-Martin frames instead of Mid BB?
Technically the Spanish and Mid BB are similar. Press fit solution works perfectly on BMX frames. The Spanish bearings are smaller and lighter than Mid bearings. Also, the frame bottom bracket is lighter.
We've never had a single issue with Spanish bearings. It would be silly to use an overbuilt solution, while a lighter solution is 100 % reliable."
Marc Etienne Dalgé
Superstar and St MARTIN
www.superstarbmx.com
www.stmartinbmx.com
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Spanish BB on American BB?
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