I have used the thread together bottom bracket for this same bike. Since the frame as titanium the dissimilar materials almost fused together making it really difficult to remove. To answer your question, yeah I prepped the surfaces before installing. Anyway Its odd that I would pick a bottom bracket based on removing it but did. I expect to wear it out. I put over 6,000 miles on the commuter per year. I'm expecting to replace this every two years. On the bright side this part is about a third of the price of that wheels manufacturing thread together, so win/win?
Purchased these to control a Reverb AXS xplr dropper post I added to my gravel bike. These with a blip box are the best way to control the dropper post on a Shimano Di2 drop bar bike. Blips won't work with the dropper post. I like the dropper post for 200 mile unbound North course because it helps on the steep rough descents. These are easy to install near the shifter with the formable holders and route the wires under the bar tape. These are mirror images of each other so you can put them in the same location on both sides if you want and not have to do a 180 with the control wire to get back to the blip box. I also have these on my TT bike at the brake levers and they work great there too with a blip box.
Simple installation, they last, and I've never had a pair fail. I ride lots of hill repeats throughout the year in all conditions, so I'm trying out the variety of materials, from the organic quiet, to the powerful sintered copper options. The latter seem to provide more miles on hills, albeit with more noise. I'm an advocate of changing out brake pads well before the minimum thickness specification as opposed to having to replace rotors, so I keep several pair on hand.
The pads my Aeroad came with were junk. I replaced them with these pads last fall and Ive been pretty happy with them. Keep your rotors clean and pull your pads for a cleaning when things get wet. Wet conditions bring grime and abrasives into your braking system. Pull your pads and clean with rubbing alcohol, let dry, reinstall. Pad life will increase and rotor wear will decrease. These pads are kinda noisy when wet, but that's a fact of life with disc brakes. If you have your music loud enough in your ear pieces you will not hear the noise. ;)
