Thursday, April 1, 2010

Three piece bicycle bottom bracket basics - free DIY tutorial from AtomicZombie.com

Unless you are building a motorized vehicle, you will probably need to salvage the bottom bracket and cranks from a bicycle frame in order to give your creation a human power transmission. A bottom bracket is the small tube that supports the bearings and crank hardware, creating a junction for the seat stays, chain stays, seat tube, and down tube on a standard bicycle frame.

The bottom bracket is kind of like the kingpin in a bicycle frame, holding the main tubing together, as well as the transmission system. A bottom bracket and the included bearing hardware are easy to maintain, repair and modify once you know the basics.



A 3 piece bottom bracket and crankset
Figure 1 - A 3 piece bottom bracket and crankset


A 3 piece bottom bracket gets its name from the fact that there are 2 crank arms and an axle that make up the crankset. A 3 piece crankset is easy to identify because each crank arm will have a center nut or bolt that fastens it to the axle, whereas a single piece crankset has a solid S-shaped crank arm.

Figure 1 shows a typical 3 piece crankset and bottom bracket with a triple chain ring. Higher quality crank arms are made of aluminum, whereas inexpensive cranks are made of steel.


Removing the plastic dust cap
Figure 2 - Removing the plastic dust cap


To remove the crank arms from the bottom bracket axle, the two bolts (or nuts) must be removed. There might be a plastic or rubber dust cap over the crank center as shown in Figure 2. This can be removed by unscrewing it using a penny or screwdriver, or by popping it out with a blade (if it is just a rubber cap). On bikes that have had a lot of sun exposure, the plastic cap may break due to being brittle, so take care.


Removing the crank axle nuts
Figure 3 - Removing the crank axle nuts


The axle nuts are both standard right hand threads, so they are loosened using a counter-clockwise rotation as shown in Figure 3. Most of the department store variety cycles will have bolts holding the crank arms to the square tapered axle, so they can be removed using the appropriate sized socket wrench.

Some bolt heads may require a hex key as well. The crank axle may have a bolt or bolt hole, but both types work essentially the same way, working the crank arm onto the tapered axle where it is held securely by friction.


A crank puller is a useful tool
Figure 4 - A crank puller is a useful tool
 
 
More of this free and other DIY plans, www.atomiczombie.com