From Token Ninja to BB Infinite: Finally Solving My Press Fit Bottom Bracket
Gravel and Water are relentless. They doesn’t care how well sealed your components are or how carefully you wash your bike. Eventually, they find a way in.
After a season of thousands of miles on the gravel raid trails, my Token Ninja pressfit bottom bracket was done. The bearings were binding badly, felt gritty no matter how much I cleaned around them, and the cranks had that unmistakable something’s wrong resistance. My original plan was to press out the bearings and upgrade to Enduro MR 2437 LLU/LLB A5 cartridges.
That plan didn’t survive contact with reality.
Instead of throwing more time and money at a system that had already proven vulnerable, I pulled the Token Ninja completely. I’m glad that I did. My bike had approximately 5 pounds of gravel and small stones inside of the frame that I was able to remove.
After getting that out, I went with a one-piece BB Infinite BB86, using their CeramiTec bearings. It took more effort than expected to install, but the result was absolutely worth it.
Why I abandoned the bearing swap idea
On paper, swapping bearings made sense. In practice:
- The Token Ninja cups had already seen grit and moisture.
- Even with upgraded bearings, the two piece press-fit design still relies on multiple interfaces that can move, creak, or let contamination in.
- I didn’t want to be back in the same spot after another year of riding on gravel roads/trails.
BB Infinite’s one piece design appealed to me for a few reasons:
- A single, solid shell that aligns both bearings perfectly
- No plastic cups
- Much tighter tolerances
- A reputation for staying quiet and spinning freely in rough real world conditions
If I was going to pull the whole thing apart anyway, I wanted a more permanent fix.
Installation challenges I didn’t expect
This is where things got interesting.
The BB Infinite BB86 is a true one piece unit, which means it has to slide through the shell in one clean, uninterrupted motion. Anything that is in the way, is a problem. On my Canyon Endurace, two things got in the way: the rear brake line and the rear derailleur guide. I needed to slightly reoute the brake line and use some of my needle files to file down the top edge of the guide.
Installing the BB Infinite BB86
With clearance issues solved, the actual install went smoothly:
- I started the bracket squarely on the non-drive side and aligned it by hand.
- You don’t apply any grease or Vibratite at this point.
- Used a bearing press (Master Press MTS1-01-SS) to push the bb into the frame slowly and evenly.
- Pressed until it was half way in and lose. Then, I aligned the cup on the drive side by hand. Making sure that all edges of the bb were square and visible.
- At this point, you apply a thin coating of Vibratite on the bracket on the non-drive side and on the cup on the drive side.
- Now, you finish pressing. Once, it’s done, add the dust caps.
Because it’s a single piece, alignment is automatic once it’s square going in. No fighting with opposing cups or hoping things line up.
Reinstalling the crankset
Reassembly was standard:
- Reinstalled crank spindle and arms
- Set Magene preload
- Torqued pinch bolt to 14mm
- Torqued preload to 12mm
- Torqued preload innner bolt to 12mm
And then came the moment of truth. It was AWESOME! Spinning for days…
The result: better than it’s ever been
The difference was immediate and obvious.
- Cranks spin freely and silently
- No gritty feel
- No resistance
- No play
This is, without exaggeration, the best my cranks have ever felt on this bike. Even compared to when it was new, the drivetrain feels dramatically smoother.
There’s also a mental benefit: I’m no longer wondering when the next creak or grind is going to show up after a muddy ride.
Now, get out there and ride! 