New Litespeed Ti Bottom Bracket

The NEW Litespeed Ti B/B is departure from Litespeed's older standard type B/B, but not startling enough to ever really succeed. This B/B is a standard style with a fixed drive cup, adjustable non-drive cup and fixed bearing width. The spindle is machined from Ti 6al 4V rod. It has 2 degree tapered ends for use with all aluminum cranks. Each end of the spindel is bored to a 1 3/4" (44.44mm) depth and tapped with the 8mm x 1mm threads.

The spindle isn't drilled through. A 90 degree shoulder is cut for each of the sealed bearing cartridges to butt against. Litespeed ahs chosen the Chinese ESB bearing of the 6903-2RS variety for both bearings. They are machine pressed onto the spindle. The cups are amchined from aluminum rod. The outer side of each cup has twenty equi-distant 2mm diameter holes so a Park BBT-2 tool can be used for installation. The spindle exit point in each cup has no O-ring or additional seal.

The spindle with the installed bearings are machine pressed into the drive side cup and is installed together fromt the right side of the bike. The left, (non-drive) cup is screwed in separately after the drive side has been tightened. Once the left cup has been tightened with the Park BBT-2 an aluminum look ring tightens on the exposed non-drive threads to fix the cup. Generally lockrings have small notches or flat areas to grip with a wrench or spanner so the non-drive cup cannot loosen in use. The lockring has no notches or flats making final tightening impossible. The aluminum parts are anodized Black.

The Litespeed B/B does not come with crank arm bolts and is available in 103mm, 107mm, 113mm, or 118mm spindle lengths to fit English threaded shells only. This B/B is not one we would recommend for the price, because of the lockring, Chinese bearings, non-hollow spindle, the lack of O-rings at the spindle exit, and no Ti crank bolts. The weight of the New Litespeed Titanium B/B with a 113mm spindle is 161 grams, (10 grams more than its predessor). Crank bolts are not included.

Spindle Length-03-07-13-18 $Price in Catalog