i love that bike.
Sealed BBs & cartridge bearing hubs have only become common in the last couple of decades.
As LWaB says, people have raced, trained, commuted, toured in all conditions with loose ball hubs, headsets, pedals & BBs ever since the Wright Brothers. Takes a little more maintenance, but it’s not the end of the world.
If someone wants to use a Superlap BB in a Melbourne winter, that’s their call. The grit may end it’s life earlier, but it’ll have done more kms than it ever would on the track.
Yes, I wonder how long those polished races stay polished in weather like this… 
I am not disputing history.
A lot of loose ball hubs and BBs (mostly road gear) are quite sufficiently sealed (think Campagnolo road hubs). Gear made specifically for the track are not sealed in the same way.
I don’t know what else to say. To me, sealed makes sense. Why run a super low friction loose ball BB on the streets when a sealed unit is cheaper, more reliable and arguably as smooth?
+1
its just a Bottom Bracket
there is absolutely no reason to use an unsealed track bottom bracket on a street bike
i think zoltan commutes all through winter too, so even more reason to get a sealed unit
Here’s my reasoning… got a pretty much complete bike for less than $300. It happened to have unsealed track hubs and an unsealed bottom bracket on it I’ve swapped out the wheels for some Mavic’s with Formula hubs (I’m keeping the wheels for something special), but haven’t really worried about the BB til now, purely cause winter has started. I’ll look at getting a sealed unit when I get back from Japan, but right now it’s not a huge, huge priority.
It’s not like I deliberately went out and purchased the crank set and BB to use on the street, I just happened to get them for cheap.
yes zolty i believe in this instance its no big deal
when it dies you can just replace it with a sealed one
my rage is around people who would replace it with a campy pista or some sort of NJS BRO for some sort of street cred (its a bottom bracket for fucks sake!)
you are a great man, there is no doubt in my mind 
Yeah no worries mate. It is not like it is a Campy Pista BB or anything like that.
Miche could be an option, cheap and adjustable chainline!
Sorry to thread jack!
But what grease is best on a un sealed BB?
I am currently using Tap grease (silicone grease) as i get it for free and its water proof and can take high temps, but am frightened that it is too thick.
Cheers Hugo
What you are using is fine. The thicker the better!
Spinzzz.
If the bb is adjusted properly, packed with good water proof grease ( I use dura ace grease) and the plasitc seal is between the cups then you pretty much have a sealed bb
I pulled my sugino bb the other day cause it had seen a lot of rain and it was totally dry and grit free… There was a lot of crap in the bb shell but none of it had made past the dust cover in the bottom bracket…
Unsealed in the street is fine has been that way for most of history of bikes so I think it’ll be ok…
Marine Grease everytime.
so are the catridge bearings in a campy pista bb open without dust seals?
that seems weird that they wouldn’t have any seals - even phils have exposed bearings?
I can’t really tell from this picture
The cylinder on the lefthand side of the BB is a sealed bearing.
But be careful…
‘sealed’ can mean loose ball bearings with a dust seal, as opposed to a sealed cartridge which does not have user serviceable loose BBs (although sometimes you can, despite what the instructions say) and are generally better protected from the elements.
The Record BB above uses sealed cartridge bearings and are not intended to be serviceable (probably so Campag can make more money).
Those bearings are the SKF ones as in the Record and Chorus eh? In that case they’ll be unservicable.
when we pulled my 3yr old chorus bb (totally ratf#cked) earlier this year, dan shifter noted that the bearing were actually a common type and could be replaced without lining campys pockets. not sure if this applies to record et al, but worth knowing before you buy a whole new BB.
According to my cupboard, the Chorus and Record have the same bearing sizes. Looks like there’s 3 smaller cartridges on the drive side.
I don’t think there is such a thing as a proprietry sealed bearing. Go to any bearing shop and quote the number on the bearing and you will most likely be given the choice of several bearing manufacturers. Most are easy to pop out and drive back in if you know what you are doing.
I haven’t replaced the bearing on a BB before, but have done a few (velocity style) hubs with great success.