Our 2019 team bikes, a mix of Cervelo R3 and R5 machines, came straight from Cervelo built up as complete bikes. We have some fantastic sponsors that give us components to upgrade our bikes, including the badass new Praxis Carbon Zayante crank (which looks so good I like to refer to it as “functional artwork”). That means I just got done pulling off the stock Shimano BBRight bottom brackets and cranks that came with the bike, and I installed the Praxis M30 BBRight bottom bracket and M30 Carbon Zayante crank. Since I did this 4 times in a row over the weekend, I figured I could write a quick post to explain the process.
Step 1) Pull off the Shimano crank. Start with the non-drive side of the bike facing you. Remove the 2 bolts that hold the crank arm on with a 5mm hex key. If you look in the little crack that opens up when you remove those bolts, you’ll see a small little piece of plastic. Stick a small flathead screw driver in there to hinge it up. Remove the crank arm cap by turning counter-clockwise with a Shimano Crank Arm Cap Tool (TL-FC16).
Step 2) Pull out the stock Cervelo branded BBRight bottom bracket. This bottom bracket is different than what I’ve worked with before. It has a standard threaded non-drive side bearing that threads into a press fit sleeve on the drive side. To remove the non-drive side of the bottom bracket, turn the threaded external BB cup counter-clockwise with a FSA Mega Exo BB tool. This is a special 16 notch tool with a larger diameter (44 mm) than the standard Park Tool BBT-9 (42 mm) that most tool kits come with. I didn’t have this tool and had to go out and buy one. Once the non-drive side BB cup is removed, you need to remove the drive side press fit cup with your bottom bracket removal tool. A few gentle knocks with a hammer and it will pop right out.
Step 3) The next step is to install the Praxis BBRight M30 bottom bracket. They have perfect instructions provided with the BB and on their website, so instead of writing them out I’ll include the link at the end of this paragraph. The only thing I can add is a small potential hangup that is easy to fix. This happened on 2 of the 4 bikes I installed the BBs on. Inside the Cervelo BB shell, there was a very very slight rim on the otherwise smooth BB shell. This tiny little lip can stop the press in sleeve of the Praxis BB from sliding in smoothly. I took the plastic Praxis BB shell and sanded off a tiny bit of material to make the edge a bit angular so it smoothly slides over the bump. Here are the install instructions straight from Praxis: https://praxiscycles.com/wp-content/uploads/M30_BBRight-1.pdf
Step 4) Install the Praxis M30 Zayante carbon crank. This goes on just like any SRAM crank with an 8mm hex key. Once again, Praxis provides instructions that make it easy. Here they are: https://praxiscycles.com/wp-content/uploads/M30-Road-Standard-3.pdf
And here’s the bike!
SHIMANO Hollowtech-II Crank-arm/Cap Tool, TL-FC16
