Thanks guys, went for quick ride around the city last night and found the bike felt a lot smoother and much easier to peddle.
A friend of mine tried carrying the bike and said he could really notice the bike was much lighter then it was before.
ekwj wrote:Just curious on how you went with replacing the bottom bracket as I'm about to do it myself soon. You mentioned having problems with replacing it. Was the 36-piece toolkit from cycling deal insufficient? What extra parts did you have to buy?
The (right) drive side fixed cup of the bottom bracket was the hardest piece to remove. That sucker is on really tight, even my local bike shop mechanic couldn't get it off with a proper fixed cup tool. (weak)
I purchased the 8 piece tool set
here because the 13 piece one was not available yet. I'm glad I did because I didn't really need the bigger ones.
I only used the Allen keys, bottom bracket tool, the crank puller tool and chain rivet extractor from the tool set.
The rest of the stuff you can just use an adjustable wrench, which I previously had. You will however need a bigger Allen key to put on the cranks, the ones that came with the toolkit were all too small, lucky I had one around the house(8mm I think).
I had to buy a socket wrench plus a socket wrench extension from Bunnings to get the fixed cup removed. You also need a Hex bolt, a nut and some flat washers ($4), I used 3 washers myself.
I used the socket extension to tighten the bolt and nut from inside the bottom bracket, as the adjustable wrench is too big to fit through.
Here is Sheldon Browns link for the
BB Tool, You basically tighten the bolt and nut as much as you can until it fuses together with the fixed cup so that when you keep tightening it eventually comes off.
Best to use the socket wrench and hammer at the wrench handle a bit to loosen it a little. Then use all your strength until you see a few stars. After a few manly yells and shouts it will eventually come off.
Oh yeah, remember it is CLOCKWISE to loosen the right hand side fixed cup.
Any questions just let me know.
Cheers,
Backdoorboss