Velo Orange Eccentric Bottom Bracket: Review

Note: The Velo Orange Eccentric English Threaded Bottom Bracket for 24mm spindle cranks was purchased by Guitar Ted at retail. Velo Orange did not ask for this review and all opinions are Guitar Ted's.

In my posts about the "Crazy Idea" Singular Buzzard makeover, I have mentioned one of the key components to making my idea work was to somehow have the ability to convert the Buzzard to a single speed, should the need arise. The Buzzard has vertical dropout6s and a standard, threaded bottom bracket. So, how would I be able to convert to single speed?

I could pack a chain tensioner device, but many rear derailleur mishaps involve the mangling of the frame drop out, and this might be a hindrance to using a chain tensioner device, which is essentially a derailleur cage without the parallelogram bits.

The other way to go about this would be to use an eccentric for the bottom bracket. This would allow a small amount of chain tensioning. Hopefully just enough to get you back home in case of an emergency/accident out on a bike packing trip. I'm not expecting a device which would allow single speed performance at a very high level, but if this is the case, I won't be angry about it! (If you need an explainer for my idea and how a single speed adapter would work in this scenario, see my article HERE)

The Velo Orange Eccentric Bottom Bracket comes with everything you see here and a wrench!

What It Is: The Velo Orange Eccentric Bottom Bracket is a device which allows for a small amount of chain tensioning via the offsetting of the spindle of a typical two-piece Shimano type crank. The device also comes with a shim to allow for certain SRAM crank sets to be used as well. It is important to note that any crank set with a larger than 24mm spindle will not adapt to this product.

Since the bike I am using has a Shimano SLX  2X crank set, I was hoping to be able to employ the VO bottom bracket as a way to tension my chain in case an emergency set up for single speed is required. There are shims and a wavy washer in the box which should allow one to properly set up the bottom bracket with your compatible crank set, but I do not expect these will be necessary in my case. Of course, I won't need the SRAM non-drive side spindle adapter either, but it is there in case you need it.

 The spanner wrench you get with a purchase of this component is actually pretty nice. It is steel, pretty beefy at about 3mm thickness, and is not only useful for setting up this bottom bracket, but might come in handy for track lock rings or old-school bottom brackets you may have around. 

The Velo Orange Eccentric English Threaded Bottom Bracket 24mm sells for $100.00 plus shipping. My first take on this bottom bracket is a good one. It is well made, the bearings are smooth, and in typical Velo Orange style, it looks great.. Read on to see how the eccentric works.  

Technical Details: The eccentric works  by way of three grub screws in the rim of each bottom bracket cup. When loosened, this allows the outer bit of the cup to rotate which changes the position of the eccentric hole, thus allowing for a small bit of chain tensioning. The bearings are pressed into this cup and it uses a similar "top hat" shim for the inner diameter of the bearing which the crank spindle comes into contact with.

It should be noted that the cups and the adjustment of the eccentric is independent on each side. Meaning you have to be careful to visually align the cups to get the bearings to line up symmetrically to avoid binding. While the instructions do not say this, I would suggest leaving the grub screws loose in one cup so you can insert the crank and move the loose cup's adjuster to align with the other, then tighten the grub screws to the indicated torque setting on the cup housing.  

The cups are threaded as with any traditional, threaded bottom bracket, with the left side being right hand thread and the right side being left hand thread. Velo Orange marks the cups so you won't get confused. There is no provided 'tube' between the cups, although I found a typical Shimano tube plugs right into the inner part of each cup perfectly.  Installation is pretty simple and the spanner wrench comes in handy here. 

Problems: Unfortunately I ran into a couple of problems with this bottom bracket. First off, I found the Shimano SLX 10 speed crank I wanted to use would not pass through the bearing/plastic shim on the drive side. It was as though I had the wrong size crank spindle for this bottom bracket. I tried two other HollowTech, 24mm spindles cranks and neither of those would pass through the bearing/shim. So, I disassembled the bottom bracket to do a few measurements.

Using a digital calipers, I found the inside diameter of the Velo Orange top hat shim on the driveside to be 23.92mm. Compared to the top hat shims in the Shimano bearing cup I saw a measurement of 23.97mm. This would account for why the inner diameter of the Velo Orange bearing/shim would not pass over the spindles of my crank sets. Oddly enough, inside diameter of the top hat shim in the non-driveside cup of the Velo Orange bottom bracket was slightly larger in diameter  So, placing it into the drive side I was able to insert the crank into the bottom bracket which led me to the next problem. 

The mounts for the inner chain ring on the crank would not clear the cup's outer dimension, so full penetration of the spindle into the cup was not possible. In effect, this means this bottom bracket likely is not compatible with any 2X HollowTech MTB crank set from Shimano.

Obviously I was very disappointed. This information was not available on the Velo Orange site, so I was unaware this might be the case. But I have informed Velo Orange of the issue. In response, my contact mentioned the design was "...really designed around being used with a 1 x set up". My contact person also very graciously offered a refund, but I have decided to keep this and try a 1X or find another application for it. Sadly, it means the idea I had for the Singular Buzzard will have to rely on a tensioner now for single speed set up if I stick with the SLX crank set. (Unless I decided to go 1X, which would fix the issue. I'll have an update on the "Crazy Idea" bike explaining my choices later)

So Far... I would like to see a product like this made with round cups instead of the current hexagonal shape which I believe would help the cups to clear a crank set like the one I am using currently on the Buzzard. My contact at Velo Orange when presented with this idea agreed it might help with a 2X set up.  I also would like to see a better quality control for those top hat shims. But in theory, this is a good product. I'll get this on the Buzzard with a 1X or on one of my other bicycles soon.Then I will be able to give further impressions on this product. 

Stay tuned....