We’ve been selling SKF bottom brackets for a while now and we’re increasingly of the opinion that for most people they are the best high-end square taper bottom brackets.
Read on for why.
SKF bottom brackets are incredibly high-quality with great bearings, fantastic seals, flawless quality control and a great finish. In these respects they are no different to Phil Wood bottom brackets which we also stock and love.
Everything on the SKF bottom brackets is guaranteed for 10 years, including the bearings! You can almost expect them to last forever though. Though Phil bearings do not carry the same guarantee, in practice you can expect the same sort of lifespan from them.
The two main things reasons we slightly prefer SKF bottom brackets to Phil bottom brackets for most people are a) they don’t require a proprietary tool to install and b) they are slightly cheaper, especially when taking the cost of installation into account. At the time of writing the SKF is $150 and the Phil Wood is $175 plus $25 installation.) The tool SKF use is also used on ISIS bottom brackets, so most shops will have one, and if you need to remove one yourself you can use a C-spanner if you’re careful about not letting it slip.
The reason we say “for most people,” and the reason we stock Phil Wood bottom brackets, is that there are some cases where the versatility of Phil bottom brackets makes them better for the task. Phil Wood bottom brackets come in more variations than SKF, with JIS and ISO spindles in any reasonable length you can think of. Having said that, the range of SKF bottom brackets covers most set-ups. Phil bottom brackets also give you some chainline adjustability which is especially useful for single ring set-ups.
If you can’t make it in to the shop you can buy them online here.
July 28th, 2012 at 10:09 am
My new skf feels very smooth. Cheers guys.
October 17th, 2012 at 3:40 am
As someone who recently traversed Africa on a LHT equipped with an SKF square taper bottom bracket, I could not recommend these highly enough.
12,000km in some of the toughest conditions imaginable and the SKF did not skip a beat!