Bicycle Mechanics - Bottom Bracket Trends??

If I buy a crankset now that uses the square tapered ends, will I have difficulty finding a replacement BB?

Is the trend moving towards the octalink & splined ends? I don't want to make a purchase that I will have to scrap whenever I need to replace the BB!

You will have no problem finding square taper bbs. Which crank are you looking at?

i think the square tapered BB's will stay until your next crank upgrade (say 2yrs?).

I beleive Campagnolo is still using square BBs(correct me if I'm wrong, thanks) on all groups..

Parts for the square tapers will be around for a long time even if the ISIS and Octalink become the standard. Parts for the old pinned cranks are still readily available and they've been out of fashion for years.

The problem will be in finding Shimano Octalinnk when they change the design.NB there are 2 standards of square taper, Euro and Japannese.

Originally posted by MichaelW

The problem will be in finding Shimano Octalinnk when they change the design.

Probably by next month! :)


NB there are 2 standards of square taper, Euro and Japanese.

It's even worse than that, since many of the non-Shimano Japanese manufacturers actually followed the European standard. Actually, the taper is the same 2 degrees, but the size of the end differs just enough to cause incompatibilities.

There is a persistent rumour that Campagnolo will license the ISIS spline for 2005. Square taper may be disappearing for good...