Well made
Stainless steel ball bearings
Serviceable

None yet

I purchased the Chris King MTB Bottom Bracket because I had an excellent experience with the Company's ISO rear hub over the past 7 winter seasons and over 17,500 winter miles. I have fully serviced the rear hub over 8 times and with the exception of upgrading to a stainless steel drive shell it still has all of its original parts. It spins fast and works great.

I am expecting the same performance out of the Chris King bottom bracket. Since I ride exclusively in the winter I needed to change out the original grease with Finishline Flouro grease before installation. I found it fairly easy to take off the clip and gasket to flush the bearings clean with WD-40 and then lube them up. Of course I had many years of practice though.

I was very impressed with the bearing race as it looks like a very high quality bearing set and configuration. The real key is whether the bearings will keep working when exposed to 2,500 miles of winter riding each season on salted roads. My plan is to clean them out every 3 months of riding and at the end of each winter season using the same process of pulling the clip and washer and flushing from behind the bearings with WD-40 before greasing with Finishline Flouro grease.

The reason I plan on manually cleaning these bearings is because I want to ensure I clean out all of the winter riding contaminants before greasing. In my opinion, taking off the clip and washer and spraying the bearing from behind with WD-40 is really the only way to ensure that the bearing is flushed clean around the race where the ball bearings ride.

Compared to other Bearings

Prior to the Chris King Bottom Bracket I was using Bearing Kits from Real World Cycling inside of Shimano BB-70 Bottom Bracket Shells. I would flush and repack them with Flouro grease before the first installation. The left, non-drive bearing would wear out first after about 1.5 to 2.0 winter seasons and have to be replaced. Wear out for me is when the bearing begins to roll rough when spinning by hand.

Unfortunately, the Real World Cycling bearings are not meant to be serviced because you have to pull off with a pick both seals on each bearing to clean out and lubricate the bearings. So it is basically one installation of Flouro grease for me and ride the bearings until they fail. The Chris King Bearings are serviceable so I can thoroughly flush them out from the rear of the bearing and install new grease every three months easily. That should work much better.

Second, when the Real World Cycling bearings fail when installed they put small gouges in my expensive crank since the metal bearing race is directly in contact with the metal crank. With the Chris King Bottom Bracket there is a plastic shell between the bearing and the crank so I do not have to worry about gouging my crank should the Chris King Bearing fail while I am riding.

The reason I do not use a stock Shimano XT BB-70 bearing for $25 is two-fold. First, most of my rides are in temperatures below well below freezing and the stock grease gets thick in those low temperatures and causes drag on the cranks. Second is that the Shimano XT BB-70 is not suppose to be disassembled. It states that right on the Bottom Bracket Shell. As a result, I cannot clean out the stock grease and grease them with Finishline Flouro grease.

I plan to post a review updates on the Chris King Bottom Bracket at the end of each upcoming winter season on my website Icecyclist.com.

Similar Products Used:

Shimano XT BB-70 bottom bracket
Real World Cycling bearings

Good colors selection

Very temperamental compared to other comparable BBs. So-so tech support.

I really wanted to like this BB. Chris King's reputation is one of stellar quality... However, after installation this BB turned out to be defective. I had a very tough time getting this issue resolved as they could not believe that it was defective. Buyer beware... I'd only purchase from a quality LBS or online shop with a good return policy. IE only purchase from a shop that has a 100% satisfaction guaranty. This was a $130 lesson on where to shop and where not to shop.

I finally ended up going with another brand with no issues form a different shop. I am done with Chris King components.

Similar Products Used:

Sram, Shimano

It's a bottom bracket. It's made by Chris King components. Rebuildable with no special tools. It comes in colors.

Weak sealing, near constant need for regreasing/cleaning, expensive.

Bought a nice new CK bottom bracket to go along with my new bike. Three months down the road it had completely seized up. Chased, faced and blew the house down on install. Rode only a handful of times in those three months, but it was either in the sloppiest of Wet Western Oregon weather (near the Chris King factory none the less) or in really cold, icey Eastern Oregon trails. Rebuilt, but then repeat. Ride in the rain a lot? Don't buy this unless you fancy rebuilding all the time. I now ride 3-5 times per week with most just being a 1.5-2 hour ride. Many of these are on muddy trails (it's okay, we live in Oregon, it's a different game here) and probably have the need to rebuild this thing every 1.5-2 months. I clean my bottom bracket area with a brush after most every ride and never shoot it with the hose. POOR DESIGN.

In the same time I've had the CK, I've also owned a shimano SLX BB on another bike that has likely been ridden more in the first year (and harder as on a SS) and still remains completely viable to this day. From now on, I will likely just buying cheaper BB and getting a custom tool to change the cartridge bearings on them when, and if they ever go out.

Similar Products Used:

SLX, Forward Components, Phil (square taper), lots of other sq. tpr.

None

20 rides and none drive side bearing is destroyed.

Worst bb I have ever owned. Nothing on a bike should wear out this fast. I have CK hubs and a couple on headsets that have been bombproof. 95$ to have CK replace both bearings? I don't think so. My XTR bb lasted 4x as long. My 35$ fsa has lasted longer. These things are garbage.

Looks great

This is my second set of Chris King BB, the first one started making noises in less than a year despite being serviced and despite the fact that I keep my Foes FXR 2:1 in top shape so I thought it was a case of a bad set so I bought a new one, well guess what, it is now the same way with less than a year on my bike so as much as I love Chris king (I have their hubs and headset on my bike) I would have to say that their BB are just disappointing and I would not recommend them. I just bought a set of the Hope Stainless Steel Bottom Bracket and I do hope that it will provide me with smooth and silent pedaling; something the Chris king just does not provide me any longer.

I am very disappointed with this BB, just not up to the Chris King standard and you should look elsewhere for a BB.

Similar Products Used:

Shimano XTR

smooth, quiet, easy to install, serviceable, blingy, and made in the USA.

they released ceramic bearings the day after this one arrived :/

So the XT that was installed when I got my bike a few years ago finally froze up this season. I once spent a bunch of coin for a RaceFace BB and the bearings toasted in a couple of months and the replacements even faster, so I was a little hesitant to spend the money on another expensive BB.

However, King has a reputation, and all the other bearings on the bike are already King so I made the plunge and bought the BB and grease injector as a package from CC.

Installation was a breeze; old Race Face Deus XC cranks fit perfectly though I had to add a spacer to get the bolt to tighten down.

On the first ride on it I was able to climb the same trails I've been riding for a few years now 2 gears harder on the back cassette. Granted the XT was completely toasted on 1 side. Also, the creaks the XT made are gone, just silent spinning.

Happy customer; while I don't like watching my money flow away, I'm happy to trade it for super high grade products made by ethical companies. Thanks Chris King!

Similar Products Used:

Shimano XT

Bling. Matches my headset and hubs :-)

Creaks! Not very user serviceable...

My old Shimano BB failed, so I spent the $ on a green King BB. Super sexy. I didn't want creaks or issues, so to be on the safe side, i had the shop chase and face my frame. New bracket went in like expected, slapped on cranks rode. After a few weeks of riding, a creak develops. I swapped the cranks (New XTRs for my old Race Face) and still creaked. Put in *new* pedals (they were old anyways)- still creaks. At this point I had the LBS remove, clean, and put BB back in place. Still creaks. Removed bottom bracket and put in an old 'spare' (and cheap) set. No creaks. Put ALL of my original stuff back on (old pedals, old cranks, old spare bottom bracket) and no noise. So now I have about $250 invested in what should have been the best bottom bracket, just to go back to a boring bracket.

I'm not sure why it creaks, but damnit, it creaked and I'm not down with that. Another item of bling for my kid's bikes...

Similar Products Used:

Race Face, Shimano, etc etc etc....

Beautiful.. Probably bulletproof. Smooth

Tries to be too much.. SRam Shimano.. FSA etc Use this shim and this washer and this sleeve etc.

Squeak Click Squeak Click Squeak Click Hmmm??? Shim Shim Spacer Spacer Shim Spacer sleeve Spring washer Shim sleeve.. Follow drawing, Squeak Click Squeak click.. Shop was super but combination of an EBB and a do it all for everyone bottom bracket leaves a lot of room for imagination.. Discard parts B. C. and E if running a Shimano crank.. Insert parts A.C. D and F if running a Tru Vativ crank.. I got Truvativ.. Going back to a Tru Vativ BB and Truvativ crank.. Sorry Chris You are outta here..

Similar Products Used:

FSA Sram truvativ..

It's Chris King....

It doesn't make you faster or more handsome.

Good looks, great company with matching track record, user serviceable, and cheaper than a few others even with the extra grease injection tool. It is the best bottom bracket made yet not the most expensive, doesn't get better than that.

Similar Products Used:

Sram, ShimaNO, Hope

Looks only.

Serviceability

During my first grease purge the rubber "washer" came out with the grease. Schematics do not depict this washer but written instructions allude to it. Very dissapointed that what is supposed to be a shortcut to greasing / replacing BB ends up being the same as before - pull it apart and fix it. Poor design of grease seal. Note that I did use th CK grease tool too.
BB looks great and overall manufacture seems top notch, but I don't look forward to pulling it apart every time it starts to creak - that was the intent of the quick grease tool was it not - to eliminate that time ?

Similar Products Used:

Race face, shimano