Found out my "new" bottom bracket was actually 8 years old from a date code

I was rebuilding a used road bike frame last weekend and pulled the Shimano 105 crank off. The bottom bracket felt smooth but had some weird discoloration. I looked up the model number on the bearing seal and found a date code chart on some forum from 2016. Turns out that BB was manufactured in 2014, 8 years before I bought it NOS from a discount bin. Has anyone else gotten burned by old stock parts that looked new?

2 comments

2 Comments

jackson.sarah15d ago

Isn't old stock just someone else's "new" parts that sat in a warehouse?

james67215d ago

Yeah @jackson.sarah I read somewhere that old stock can actually be better than new because older parts were sometimes built tougher before they started cheaping out on materials.