Took me 45 minutes to realize my bottom bracket tool was backwards

2 comments

2 Comments

Oh man, I feel your pain on that one. Max388's idea about marking the drive side is good in theory, but you really just need to feel for the little retaining clip or notch on the tool (they all have one, even the cheap ones). That little lip should be pointing away from the bike frame when you're installing it on the non-drive side, not toward it. Found that out the hard way after stripping a cheap plastic tool that came with my first bottom bracket, had to drive all the way to the hardware store for a new one. The paint dot trick works too, I guess, but once you learn to read the tool itself you never second-guess it.

max3886d ago

Oh man I have totally been there. The best trick I learned was to mark the drive side of my tools with a little dot of paint or tape so I always know which way is which. It feels dumb in the moment but once you do it you never get stuck staring at the tool for ten minutes again. Another thing that helps is putting the tool on before you even get the cassette or cranks off, that way you can feel if it's seating right. I wasted a whole afternoon once because I kept trying to force it backwards and stripped the splines a little. Now I always check twice before I start cranking hard because that little mistake can mess up your whole day.