An Equal Opportunity Offender

┌∩┐

Saturday, March 10, 2012

Kestrel Bizarro World, Round 2

Some of you may have remembered our trip into Bizarro World where I was asked to assemble a Kestrel from Colorado Cyclist. When I removed the cranks to grease the BB threads, it was blatantly obvious that something was array. Namely that the cups were on the wrong side of the bike and that neither of them would budge regardless of the amount of force applied.

Through this experience I was forced to speak to a Colorado Cyclist to explain what was wrong with the bike. When he finally got it and said he would be sending the customer a new one, he asked, "May I ask why you took the cranks off?" Answer in my head, "Cuz you fuck wads obviously didn't."


Anyway, I got the opportunity to assemble the replacement bike. The customer wasn't taking any chances this time around and brought the bike completely packaged.

I didn't want to waste my time again, so the first thing I checked was the BB cups. Dammit, they're in there right.

Next I was forced to turn my attention to unpacking the bike. The bike was completely wrapped in Saran wrap. I quickly became apparent that my most useful tool for this build was this...


Once I had freed the bike of its plastic chains, I removed the cranks and BB cups. For those of you who suggested that this was a case of BB30 adapter pressed in backward, I present to you the aluminum cups and threads. Granted those threads do look like they are simply pressed into a bigger cup and bonded to the frame.

And then you have this...

I don't want to beat a circular bearing until it's oval, but wow that has to be some of the worst marketing of all time. Granted it describes about how cool Kestrel bikes are, they are oval when they should be circular.

2 comments:

  1. That bb insert is pretty much as you think it is. Its from FSA (natch), and is installed with green loctite. They have a tendency to develop annoying creaks after a while.

    ReplyDelete
  2. It's been my experience that all things BB30 creak.

    ReplyDelete