Most Track bikes are still made with Threaded Bottom Brackets for stability and strength. The ISIS cartridges thread in and can be fitted to most frames and have some adjustability to fit differing chain lines and carbon tolerance imperfections. The normal threaded BB is 68mm in diameter and the standard width of the ISIS BB for a track bike is 108mm.
These are readily available anywhere in the world and many track bikes already have them installed. Hence, Verve does not supply the BB, allowing you to choose the quality that you prefer. The downside with ISIS (or Square taper) Cartridge BB's is that the bearings are quite small and they "wear out" quite quickly. However, they are also not very expensive generally.
Some people ask about Ceramic ISIS cartridges. The only ones that we are aware of come from a US company called Omni. We have not tested them, but they make big claims about them. We have attached some screenshots of a couple of well-known versions.
Our testing, performed on our behalf by British Cycling, utilised Truvativ 108 ISIS bottom brackets. These were fitted to Cervelo T4 Track frames. Other ISIS BBs were also tested. However, among the name brands, we also found that at least one of them did not preload sufficiently, in our view.
The attached PDF shows the difference between the Truvativ and the FSA ISIS BB with an InfoCrank pushed on till it pre-loads. As you can see there is not much tightening space on the FSA model. Some other ISIS BBs have even greater capacity than Truvativ.
We therefore tested a random sample of this batch of cranks to check them against various Bottom Bracket cartridges. Our view is that the Track InfoCrank® is best paired on a bike to the Truvativ ISIS Bottom Bracket Cartridge. We do not supply these at this stage, but it the demand is there, we will consider doing so. If you cannot source a BB in your location, please contact us for assistance.
