I get what your saying we are more on about his bb not his yt
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Do they though? If I can buy brand X bottom bracket, put it in just about any frame and it works, but I buy his and I canāt use it in 9 out of 10 frames without problems, his product isnāt fixing short comings.
Iāve been in the automotive industry since the late 90s. I spent a good part of 2 decades working in the performance aftermarket side of it. I still love that part as a hobby and still work adjacent to it, but that industry is just toxic. Unfortunately a good portion of that toxicity comes from the customer base not the companies but there are plenty of companies that fuel it.
In that industry (most really) there are 2 ways people market:
1 We are better than our competitor because X so buy our product
2 Our competitor sucks because Y so buy our product
Two ways of saying the same thing, I wontā do business with one that does the second one. From the dozen or so videos of his I have seen he falls solidly into number 2.
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To be fair, yes, they do fix problems and they do work in probably 95% of frames, no reason why they wouldnāt, they are effectively a new, solid BB shell. I wasnāt impressed by his recent Giant TCR YT video, he previously highly praised Giantās QA processes and BB shells. Iām not convinced the frame he had was genuine, it definitely wasnāt team issue as it was claimed. It did seem that slating the frame had more to do with self-promotion.
For me, it is all related. His YouTube channel sets up a problem that doesnāt really exist (massive carbon naufacturing issues) and he further refines that by focusing on pressfit BB issues (which clearly do exist) and then magically he has the ābestā solution.
I have no direct experience with his BBās, but by all accounts they are very goodā¦but also very expensive. There are a lot of other options out there, most of which are significantly cheaper and work just as well.
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Interesting take but I did not portray my post well enough it seems.
I find it hilarious that both you and I have a background in aftermarket automotive performance (Mine being turbocharger manufacturing). It is not very often I hear someone say this haha.
The bottom brackets fix the short comings of carbon fiber QC issue with incorrect bore diameter and bore misalignments. When you purchase the BBās that we are discussing depending on which BB style you have you are either using a 1-piece press in which corrects the alignment issue and typically has enough tolerance to resolve the bore issue.
The single piece also stiffens the bottom bracket area and as said above gives proper spindle correction giving the crank fantastic flow characteristics.
If you have a threaded BB the 2 piece bottom brackets once again help with proper alignment and also stiffens the area up.
I am referring to BB infinite and Hambini bottom brackets as being better because they areā¦ they are also reflected by the cost and specific to whatever BB type you are using so they are not universal. I will try to take a video later of how well my crank spins with a Hambini in it.
I also have to agree with you, automotive is so freaking toxic. I didnāt even know how bad it was until I was gone and although miss my customers/friends and trips to the tracks I am beyond glad to have moved on.
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FYI, I made a press for the BB infinte bottom brackets I have. I just pieced random Drifts, washers and pipe haha.
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According to Hambini my Cervelo with the time-bomb BBright is one of the worst on the market. Strange - I havenāt had the slightest problem with stock (cheap) BBās - not even a creak!
I watched one of his YTās. To be honest I find him to be a bit of a dick. No idea what his BBās are like but Iām not going to spend that kind of money to find out when the problem doesnāt exist in the first place.
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I have his bb386evo bb in my road/gravel bike. And I really like them.
Iām not going to speak about (lateral) stiffness or other marketing bull**** bingo words. But his bb is flawless.
They run great Easy to install. You never need to remove them and maintenance on the bearings is easy and can be done by everyone with some cheapish tools he also sells. Or you can make the tools yourself if you want.
Besides that he was always professional and quick to answer questions. So great support as well.
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I started looking up his BB to see if it might help with a creak Iām getting. Ended up stumbling across the story of him and Michelle Arthurs-Brennan and decided not to spend any money with him.
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I have a Hambini Racing BB30 on my Venge. Silent, stiff, smooth. Would recommend. Priceyā¦ is it worth the expense? Dunno about that, but I wasnāt worried about it and wanted to get rid of my two piece Praxis when I was hunting a noise in my frame (turned out to be my seatpost).
That said, Iām not sorry I got it and would recommend them to anyone who doesnāt mind spending $$$ on that kind of thing. Look forward to being able to easily service the bearings when the time comes.
If I were building a bike from scratch, I would probably go with his BB personally. YMMV.
Yeah, I donāt think Hambini is a particularly good dude, but I do think heās a good engineer and I know he manufactured at least one good BBs (with online reviews demonstrating it as well). So weigh that in with what you thinkā¦ you might buy a Praxis BB, but what do you know about the people at Praxis? (or anywhere else for that matter).
Hambini himself says the same thing. Heās said in his videos that his BBs arenāt worth the money for a micro-upgrade in performance, but if you believe you have some kind of a BB defect in your frame, etc., his BBs can resolve that.
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Here is a video of a Hambini BSA bottom bracket installed on my 2022 crux. This is NOT ceramic bearings also.
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Thatās kind of the point of some of the posts above saying heās doing himself a disservice with his channel though. I mean, Durian Rider could sell the worlds most luscious bananas, but there are some who wouldnāt buy them thanks to his YouTube content.
Having said that, Hambini knows this and has clearly decided heās willing to lose those sales, just like anyone who owns a business has every right to do. Iām sure he sells more BBās than he loses thanks to his personal behavior.
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Canāt say I like him but as an engineer understanding what he is talking about I have to agree with most things he says and would invest in his BBs if a need arises. Sometimes he does make a huge issue out of a minor thing but still I think the bike industry is so screwed up and too often lacking basic engineering and manufacturing quality that they do deserve the bashing imo.
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His business model follows the rule 1 of the advertising industry playbook. Make the customer feel unsatisfied with their lot - ideally make them concerned or better still worried, and then offer them the solution - your product.
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Iām not a fan of his YouTube channel but buying bearings and bbās has been fantastic.
I first bought some bearings for a creaking Cannondale, I had hoped buying good quality would resolve the issue. In short it didnāt. Hambini then machined me a gauge to put in the bb hole to measure, the hole wasnāt round he then built a custom bb (for hole size and cable routing) that fixed that bike. Similar thing with my dadās Cannondale and a standard hambini bb fixed that.
My second bike a specialised had a praxis crank and bb which ticked, a stock hambini fixed that.
I now have a new Giant which after 100 miles is making a noise when the left pedal goes down. I am pretty sure I know who to contact to get this fixed!
As has said above when you contact Hambini direct its nothing other than pure professionalism.
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I donāt own any Hambini products at this point, but simply subscribe to his Youtube channel and watch his videos. I canāt attest to his products, but as an engineer, I appreciate the engineering content in his videos. He clearly understands the fundamentals (aero, strength of materials, GD&T, etc.), but communicates them in a way that mostly everyone can understand. I also appreciate him talking about inspection/metrology methods, particularly the pitfalls of measuring certain features/geometry with a given instrument.
If you enjoy this type of stuff, Peak Torque is another Youtube channel to check out.
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I bought one of his bottom brackets for my Allez Sprint.
I went through a lot of bearings and another BB before I bought one of his.
I did purchase mine back in 2019 while I was living in the UK so it was WAY cheaper than heās now chargingā¦(wow, quite an increase). Anyway the old mechanic I used in the UK was sure impressed with the BB (had a difficult time installing, however). And I put thousands more miles on my Allez with no issues having his āraceā BB in there. I was a satisfied customer.
I was under the impression that his YT channel was a joke? I mean itās supposed to be a joke right (with the overly loud intro, āprincess blanketā, and winkwink āshite engineeringā by a 5 year old). Iāve not watched in a while butā¦people take him seriously? Anyway I had good success with the BB I bought.
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They are non-contact ntn steel bearings, they probably are popped out and cleaned every race season (which hambini and bb infinite are easily serviceable for this).
The bikes are hand washed with a splash of sprinkler hose. 4 bikes total currently run the bottom brackets (1 hambini, 3 bb infinite) with lots of other bikes owned using them.
The Hambini BSA BB was chosen over bb infinite because he is the only one with a 2 piece. I find the quality between bb infinite and bambini to be equal.
I suspect that I replace the bearings ($70) every 2-3 seasons. I just do the spin test, when they donāt spin well I replace them.
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Except he literally says in his videos that if you donāt have a creak or noise or some other issue youāre looking to resolve, donāt buy his BB. Thatās not really marketing all that well.
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