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BH, FSA Launch BB386EVO on New Ultralight Road Bike – 10.66lbs Complete!

2012 BH Ultralight road bike with new FSA BB386EVO bottom bracket standard
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2012 BH Ultralight road bike with new FSA BB386EVO bottom bracket standard

Last week, we got word from Chris Cocalis about the new BB386EVO collaboration between BH and FSA, with a promise that all the details would be provided at Sea Otter and shown on their new bike.

The bike in question is the new 2012 BH Ultralight, a 747g frame that uses the new BB386EVO bottom bracket standard to great effect, saving weight and increasing stiffness. Before we can get to the bike, though, we need to run through the new BB standard and what it means for you and the future of road bikes. Click ‘more’ for the full technical rundown and see how they built up a 10.66lb Ultralight using (mostly) regular parts…

BB386EVO – The Future of Road Bottom Brackets?

Before you groan about another standard, let me explain it and, like me, you’ll probably click away thinking this is actually a really good idea. Here’s the deal, in convenient bullet point form:

  • Current road BB shell width is 68mm.
  • BB30 and PFBB30 systems have a 30mm spindle diameter and set the bearings inside the frame with the outer edge remaining at 68mm, so the crankset spindle is designed around a 68mm system.
  • Standard systems use external bearing BB cups that push the edges to 86.5mm.
  • GXP, Shimano standard and FSA MegaExo, etc., basically have crankarms designed around a 24mm spindle diameter and an 86.5mm spindle length since they require the external BB bearing cups.
  • BB386EVO is designed with a 30mm OD spindle and an 86.5mm wide bottom bracket shell.
  • Therefore, BB386EVO uses the larger 30mm spindle (lighter, stiffer) of the BB30/PF30 and the 86.5mm bearing width (wider, stiffer), giving it all of the benefits of each system with none of the drawbacks.

The result is an overall lighter, stiffer, stronger system that also allows for frame builders to make a lighter, stiffer and stronger frame. It’s a true win-win.

Plus, if you were to buy a frame with the new BB386EVO standard, you could retrofit any non-BB30 crankset to it because they’re all based on the same 86.5mm effective BB width. They’ll offer sleeves to downsize from 30mm to 24mm for the retrofit.

The Parts, For Now.

The system uses press-fit bearings contained in their own sleeve as shown on the bottom left, similar in design to current PFBB30 systems with the same 46mm frame hole and all, it just sets the bearings wider. It gets better: The external BB cups on the right are English thread that’ll fit current standard 68mm BB shells and allow you to run the new BB386EVO cranksets! You read that right, you’ll be able to retrofit any non-BB30/PFBB30 frame to fit these new cranks, too. (byTheHive have something similar but it’s proprietary to their cranks)

FSA will launch the system with two cranksets, a K-Force and SL-K Light, that should be very similar to their corresponding MegaExo models in spec.

One measurement they mentioned heavily on the new cranks is U-Factor, which is the distance between the planes created by the crankarm bolt and the outer surface of the pedal threads. BB30 systems offered a 15mm distance, creating more of a curve in the crank. Standard systems have about 5mm, and the BB386 systems (FSA’s anyway) will have about 10mm, splitting the difference. This means a slightly curved crankset for better comfort and heel clearance but a stronger system than BB30 because the crankarms are straighter.

Real World Application – The 2012 BH Ultralight

2012 BH Bikes Ultralight 747g carbon road bike frame with BB386EVO

BH’s new Ultralight takes full advantage of the new system to create a 747g road frame (size 56) with no rider weight limits and a lifetime warranty:

For comparison, a smaller size-54 G5 with extended seatmast is 810g out of the mold. The frame above had been ridden by Chris for two weeks prior to this presentation.

2012 BH Bikes Ultralight 747g carbon road bike frame with BB386EVO 2012 BH Bikes Ultralight 747g carbon road bike frame with BB386EVO

The BH Ultralight uses a new precision carbon molding techniques that is not only really light, but claims to set benchmarks in stiffness. The BB386EVO system allows for an all carbon bottom bracket shell, and BH USA president Chris Cocalis says it could eventually lead to breakthroughs in component construction like full carbon cranksets, including the spindle. The seat tube is a box section with extensive shaping to accommodate the front derailleur yet put the biggest contact section with the BB possible.

2012 BH Bikes Ultralight 747g carbon road bike frame with BB386EVO

2012 BH Bikes Ultralight 747g carbon road bike frame with BB386EVO 2012 BH Bikes Ultralight 747g carbon road bike frame with BB386EVO

Frame is designed around the new FSA cranks, but is easily adaptable to Campy Ultra-Torque, Shimano 24mm, SRAM GXP and FSA’s MegaExo designs. The design allows for a full 80+ mm downtube width at the BB shell, larger diameter chainstays for a much stiffer frame where the power transfer occurs.

2012 BH Bikes Ultralight 747g carbon road bike frame with BB386EVO 2012 BH Bikes Ultralight 747g carbon road bike frame with BB386EVO

The Ultralight is 166% stiffer torsionally than the G5 and 125% side-to-side stiffness increase at the rear axle. Claimed weight is 747g for a 56, and there’s no rider weight limit and it comes with a lifetime warranty. Weight is with 17g worth of Parlee-developed matte clearcoat and decals, just like it’ll be sold. If you’re keeping track, yes, that’s an insanely light amount of paint.

2012 BH Bikes Ultralight 747g carbon road bike frame with BB386EVO 2012 BH Bikes Ultralight 747g carbon road bike frame with BB386EVO

It has a tapered headtube and nicely shaped junctions between it and the top- and downtubes. The derailleur hanger is forged from 7075 aluminum and is designed with FEA to determine the stiffest structure for precision shifting. The new fork is under 300g out of the mold and has an integrated crown race to eliminate a heavy steel part found on many carbon forks.

2012 BH Bikes Ultralight 747g carbon road bike frame with BB386EVO

Downtube cable guides are fully slotted to accept barrel adjusters if you want them. The cable guide under the bottom bracket allows the cable housing to come from the shifters around the head tube to keep them from rubbing on the frame then, thanks to separate channels inside it, can criss-cross the cables inside the guide. This also keeps things cleaner looking, but you can run it crossed under the downtube, too, if you want.

Frame cost is going to be about $4,199 for the frame/fork/headset/seat collar. Available in July in XS through XL (53/54/56/57/59). Will also be offered as a complete bike. Spec isn’t finalized, but look for three to four builds for the U.S., more in Spain where they’re headquartered. No current version for Di2, but it’s on the books for development soon.

And here’s how you can build one up at 10.66lbs without any crazy parts…except perhaps the cassette. Build is Reynold’s RZR Wheels with Vittoria Crono Evo CS tubular tires; BH’s foreign-market-only Titan brakes (that looked remarkably similar to Feather brakes); FSA’s K-Force bar and post and OS99 stem; SRAM Red levers, chain and derailleurs; BB386EVO crankset/BB, Prologo c.one carbon saddle and a Driven cassette that I haven’t seen before:

lightweight driven road bike cassette

At first I thought it was a custom machined-out SRAM Red cassette…it looks to be one piece but with a lot of material cut out from between the cogs. If anyone’s got any intel on this piece, leave a comment. Chris Cocalis said he can’t remember where he found it but has had it laying around for more than five years and just pulls it out when they’re building a showstopper lightweight bike…like this one.

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Kovas
Kovas
12 years ago

Square taper, Octalink, Octalink 2, ISIS, BB90, BB95, BB30, PressFitBB30, BB386 (& I know I missed a few)…. Sheesh! With so many “standards” nothing is standard anymore.

Well, at least my 10 year old Chris King a-headset is still good… …oh wait. shoot.

breadandbits
breadandbits
12 years ago

is this proliferation of standards a result of companies trying to make an extra dime off of licensing?

(…+ “BBright”…)

stevo
stevo
12 years ago

the cassette (or at least the lockring) is a SunRace Driven model. Yep, SunRace.

Bubba
Bubba
12 years ago

Gonna be tough to ride that 10lb bike without pedals…

Ben
Ben
12 years ago

that sunrace cassette is actually pretty good, and is 105g compared to sram’s 155g cassette.

ColoradoGoat
ColoradoGoat
12 years ago

Well – maybe I am completely ignorant here, but I thought the entire point of BB30 was to maintain (even increase) stiffness whilst reducing weight and Q-Factor. Isn’t this similar to BSA30 from Rotor as well? Seems to me the new BB386 means you get more weight and wider Q-Factor, for a supposed increase in stiffness? I guess if you prefer a wider Q-Factor…it does offer this as alternative to BB30. But it seems narrower Q-Factors are the goal nowadays, not less.

The one benefit to this system is to people buying the frame only, and want to save money initially by buying a frame with a BB shell that can take both old cranks and newer 30mm wide diameter spindles.

Spencer
12 years ago

86.5mm is still < Trek's 90mm that has been out for a few years now. No BB30, though.

Darcy
Darcy
12 years ago
Geoff
Geoff
12 years ago

Very interesting. Wonder how long us normal folks would have to wait for one.

nick
nick
12 years ago

not to rag on what i think is a great concept – i love BB30, PF30 is better for framebuilders, and this effectively makes the benifits available to those with older or “std” bb frame – i think this is a great concept.

BUT

i think this is a little rich to claim that it’s “developed” by FSA and BH.
http://www.bikeradar.com/gear/article/pro-bike-ned-overends-specialized-rockhopper-sl-singlespeed-27076/
this article points out 2 things:
1. this is the same as a Zipp Vuma Quad in design.
2. this is the same as the specialized MTB cranks in design (an 86.5mm wide version of “bb30”)

give the credit to the real inovating companies.

Alex
Alex
12 years ago

And here I was thinking that BB386EVO was an april fool’s joke 😛

Richard
Richard
12 years ago

Sunrace Driven CSRZ AO, 11-23, (M) Ceramic Coated, Weight 105g Gear Ratios: 7075 Aluminum / CNC Alloy Lock Ring

http://www.velosupply.com/store/sunrace-driven-csrz-ao-11-23-road-cassette.html

Italian Cycling Journal

Back in March I published that the Wilier 799 was going to use evo386 and that it had been developed in collaboration between Wilier and FSA. I see a lot of BH/FSA stories. What happened with Wilier/FSA?
see for March story: http://italiancyclingjournal.blogspot.com/2011/03/wilier-799.html

gay for bikes
gay for bikes
12 years ago

maybe fsa will collaborate on a bbbbevo386985498 fixture for my meth lab to make it do something no meth lab has done before… explode

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