Quote Originally Posted by Marco View Post
40 years ago bikes had loose ball bearings in the bottom bracket cups, and some had cages to hold the bearings together. If the cage split then this could cause a sudden slackness in the area; Tony Doyle lost a major British race when this happened to his Campagnolo (NB Graham) bottom bracket.

I haven't seen a bottom bracket with loose ball bearings for over 25 years, as they've all been sealed bearings - even on cheap bikes. It may be that yours is loose bearings, but I'd doubt it.

Opening up the bottom bracket is quite difficult, and there is a special tool which will depend on the model. This actually might be a bike shop job. If you intend to do your own bike mechanics, (which may be advisable because of your locality as much as the cost), it would be worth buying the relevant tool. Graham will hate me for saying this, but one of the reason I stick with Shimano is for compatibility - I have the removal tool and it also works for the very cheap far East products which copy the design
I used to love taking apart the bearings on my road bike as a kid and repacking them and putting them back together, a great grounding in basic mechanics after my old man had shown me how to do it. I remember my first ever sealed bottom bracket, a plastic FAG one which cost about a fiver and lasted about 2 months it gave up the ghost somewhere around Middleton in Teesdale although in its defence I was able to get home as the threads stripped from the ends and the whole thing turned in the bottom bracket