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New BB30, BB92 Conversion Bottom Brackets from Race Face – Run Standard Cranks on Fat BB’s

Written by Tyler Benedict
5 Comments
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Let’s say you just got a new frame that’s BB30 or BB92 with the intention of building it up with some cranks to take advantage of it, but your budget gets cut short.

Or, suppose you just got one of the new 2×10 or 3×10 cranksets from Race Face, FSA or Shimano to fit your standard bottom bracket frame, but then you’re able to spring for a new frame and want the option of upgrading to BB30 in the future.

Go ahead and get that BB30 frame, my friend, because Race Face has your solution. They’ve just released three new bottom brackets to fit road and mountain BB30 bottom brackets but with interior bearing diameters to fit their X-Type cranks, which means they’ll also fit Shimano and most FSA cranks (sorry Truvativ/SRAM GXP crank owners, they won’t work for you due to the tapered spindle). They’ve also got one that converts press-fit BB92 (41mm) frames to use standard cranksets.

Best of all, they’re either the same weight or lighter than standard outboard bearing bottom brackets and they work just the same.

More pics and specs after the break…

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The mountain bike BB30 Adapter bottom bracket uses press-fit bearing cups that work just like outboard bearings. It, and the others, are precision CNC machined to fit standard BB30 diameters. The bearings are placed in the same wide stance as with their outboard bearing bottom brackets. Specs: 110g, 68mm x ø42mm BB30, black only, intended for XC and trail riding.

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The road bike BB30 adapter bottom bracket weighs in at 105g with the same specs as the MTB version save for road-oriented bearings.

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The ø41mm press-fit bottom bracket converts BB92 frames, road or mountain, and other sizes. Race Face says their design’s precision CNC machined and anodized aluminum alloy cups are more accurate and durable and have more stable interfaces than competing options with plastic parts. The bearings are serviceable, too. Specs: 95g, black, fits BB92 (92mm asymmetric, MTN), BB89.5 (89.5mm symmetric, MTN) and BB86.5 (86.5mm symmetric, Road), intended for XC, All Mountain and Road use.

Check this tech post we did explaining the different bottom bracket sizes and technologies.
Tyler Benedict
11,282 articles

Tyler Benedict is the Founder of Bikerumor.com, where he’s been writing about the latest bikes, components, and cycling technology for almost two decades. Prior to that, Tyler launched and built multiple sports nutrition brands and consumer goods companies, mostly as an excuse to travel and ride in new places.

Based in North Carolina, Tyler also loves the Vanlife & family adventure travel and is always on the lookout for the next shiny new part and off-grid adventure.

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Mtb Rider
Mtb Rider
13 years ago

Dear Tyler, this sentence you wrote is a very MISLEADING. “Let’s say you just got a new frame that’s BB30 or BB92 with the intention of building it up with some cranks to take advantage of it, but your budget gets cut short.” This is something I would expect Shimano to write, not an independent Bike Reviewer.

So how are you misleading us? Well, a BB92 bottom bracket just means this. It is going to be press fit and when all the adapters are put in place it would measure as you might guessed it, 92mm. The manner in which you are writing equates BB92 to BB30. I got a Giant Anthem with one of those BB92 bottom brackets and when the day came that i wanted to upgrade I realized there is not upgrade. There is no bottom bracket that takes advantage of a narrower width of Giant’s frame 89.5mm witdh bottom bracket. All you have to do for Giant’s 89.5mm wide bottom bracket hub,is put a 2.5 mm spacer to make it 92mm.

Today I called Giant to find out what is the optimal crankset to put in the bicycle to enjoy a lower Q factor and Giant replied with “We don’t know. Call Shimano.”So i called Shimano and I said “i don’t want to use the 2.5 mm spacer, what Crankset can i buy?” Their response was “We don’t know, call Giant”

So for the record there is no 89.5 mm crankset. (You can read all about bottom brackets for this same website https://bikerumor.com/2010/02/17/bottom-bracket-tech-breakdown/ ).

A BB30 bottom bracket is one that has 30 mm sized bearings and the width is very very different. It is narrower either 68 or 73mm, therefore having a better Q factor.

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Mike
Mike
13 years ago

Okay, so you can use your old cranks with this setup…well what adapter or options are available if you want to upgrade to BB30 crankset but keep the old frame?

CAN THAT BE DONE??

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Ki
Ki
13 years ago

Is there any answers to Mikes question? If you have a frame and would like to upgrade to BB30 is there an adapter for it or a way to do this at all?

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Steve
Steve
13 years ago

You can not go the other way – there are no adapters to do a BB30 crank in the BSA bottom bracket.

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Matt
Matt
13 years ago

What about the hive/e13 bb… Apparently it fits regular frame bb dimensions and runs a bb30 size spindle? Anyone know about this?

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