Two Wheel Blogs

Bruno from Phil just called me back regarding my Phil Square Taper Bottom Bracket (you may recall this post). His first words to me were, "Ken, Where do you ride?". I told him and confirmed the mileage and time on the unit, and his response was along the lines that I should seek a career in product testing! Another comment was, "I opened the seals on the bearings and immediately showed them to the guy sitting next to me and said, 'check this out...this guy is good'".

I had to giggle...I think it was meant as a compliment. Certainly, I took it as one. Finding time to ride this year has been difficult and conditions are not always that great when I do find the time to roll.

He reported that they installed new bearings for me and will send the old ones back for me to take a look at (I will post up some pics later). He seemed (and flat-out stated) that he was very impressed by the condition of the bearings. The report was that they had a great deal of contamination and the grease was gone. Further, the appearance was of a BB that had a considerably longer use period and much higher mileage.

I asked if I should consider doing a bearing replacement annually as normal maintenance. Bruno said that he hopes that I do not have to do that, but probably should monitor things for changes. He packed a bit of extra grease into these bearings for good measure and will send them out to me today. What a great bit of customer service!

I was asked recently by a very close friend if I would still recommend this product. I must conclude (still) that it has lasted longer on my bike than any other comparable product, and I can now add that the customer service is absolutely premium. Additionally, the BB is still totally fine, the bearings and seals are what wore out...so one might argue that I have not truly conquered a Phil BB (the spindle and shell are fine).