BB30 Bottom Bracket

74 Main Street Middlebury Vermont (802) 388-6666

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What Are the Benefits of BB30?

Pioneered by the Cannondale CAAD6 aluminum frames, the BB30 bottom bracket significantly stiffens a metal frame. BB30 has been adopted by many respected companies for some or all of their competition-level frames and cranks. These include Specialized, Jamis, Raleigh, Cinelli, Orbea, Parlee, Van Dessel, Titus, SRAM, FSA, and Zipp.

The BB30 is now available in three Lynskey Performance House Blend frames:

	BB30 Cooper $1595
	Helix OS $4195 -- See our Cat I road racer Charles McCarthy's review of his BB30 Helix OS
	Pro 26 $1895
	BB30 is also a custom option for any other Lynskey model. Contact us for pricing.

See for Yourself

If BB30 appeals to you, but you want to see how much of a difference BB30 really makes, we are your test lab. Take our BB30 Cooper for a test ride, and then try out our standard Cooper. One customer's comment: "The Cooper is a sweet ride, but the BB30 Cooper is a rocket!"

What exactly is BB30?

BB30 was originally developed by Cannondale, but the design is available to any manufacturer who wishes to use it:

http://www.bb30standard.com/

Here's how it's done:

Build a a perfectly round, unthreaded, oversize bottom bracket shell, which acts as the bearing races for your bearing set.
Press oversize bearings into your bottom bracket shell, as you would press your headset races into your head tube (FSA manufactures a great tool for doing this).
Insert a lightweight aluminum bottom bracket axle that is 30mm in diameter, instead of the current standard, which is 24mm steel.

If you've never seen a BB30 bottom bracket shell before, here it is, in 6Al/4Va titanium, manufactured by Lynskey Performance Designs. This is an '08 picture of a Level 2 frame with a 1.5" round down tube. The production models Lynskey introduced in their '10 line use 1.75" ovalized downtubes.

The diameter of the frame's bottom bracket shell is 8mm greater than the diameter of a normal threaded bottom bracket shell. The width of both bottom bracket shells -- BB30 and standard -- is 68mm.:

Limited Crank Choice?

The ultimate combination of light weight and stiffness in cranks is Cannondale's Hollowgram SL, which we offer with any of our BB30 Lynskeys. Other companies making BB30 cranks included SRAM, FSA, and Zipp.

If you like the stiffer BB30 frame but want to stick with a conventional crankset, like Shimano 7900 or Campy Ultra-Torque, Wheels Manufacturing and Campagnolo both make press-in adapter kits that will allow a BB30 frame to use a standard crank.

Test Ride

In spring '08, we were one of the first two dealers in the U.S. to acquire a Lynskey R220 (House Blend Level 2) frame with a BB30 bottom bracket. Since we are a Cannondale dealer, our build kit included a Cannondale Hollowgram SL crank, along with a SRAM Red group. We have since added a SRAM XX rear derailleur and 11-32 cassette, for navigating ultra-steep climbs:

Even though the R220 does not have the massive top and down tubes of the R320, the first two strokes of the first test ride, we could feel the difference in stiffness, which we attributed to two factors:

	The outside of Lynskey's BB30 bottom bracket shell is 8mm wider than Lynskey's standard bottom bracket shell. Wider = stiffer is the rule in frame building, and the bottom bracket shell is subject to more lateral force than any other part of the frame.
	The Cannondale aluminum Hollowgram crank is up there with Dura-Ace 7900 for stiffness (and also more than 100gm lighter).

Normally the perception of an improvement in stiffness is subtle and goes away after a few days of riding. In this case, however, even with thousands of miles logged, the perceived stiffness is still there.

Feeling is believing, so we have two BB30 Lynskeys for you to try out. Our BB30 R220, and our BB30 Cooper outfitted with the 2010 SRAM Force group.