odie91

is one considered better than the other? (especially for ss/fg purposes)?

Retem

I like both da and fsa but not truvativ
Squares are old school and I have some that are 30+ years old and they are still buttery smooth

operator

For conversion purposes, square taper FTW.

soze

Squares open up your crank options considerably.

sivat

Like the other 2 said, square taper is better for single-speed and fixed. Square taper bbs are available in just about any length from 103mm to 120mm. Somewhere in there you will find a length that will put you within 2mm or so of a perfect chainline. Since splined bbs are available in only 1 or 2 (depending on the kind) lengths, you just have to hope the chainline will be close.

As for which works better in general, without looking at adjustability, square taper has been around for years and is only recently being replaced by external bearings. It works well, lasts a long time, and is easy to install. There have been complaints that some of the spline designs tend to loosen over time.

trackstar10

square taper all the way. even campy knows this and has been using it forever just because they know that the other designs suck. the new ultra torque is not necessarily better, its just the first bb thats been *invented* thats probably just as good as square taper.

wroomwroomoops

Lots of BBs and crancks for square-taper. As sivat very correctly said, the vast choice of widths will allow you to adjust the chainline straight.

When Shimano had the bright idea to go with Octalink, we had suddenly Octalink V1, then V2 and somewhere in that time, also ISIS. A LOT of interfaces all came out in a short time. Then it turned out that the bearings on those BBs lasted way shorter than with square taper (less space for bearings in the new cartridges), so they had to put them outside.

Feels like VHS vs Betamax all over again, in a way. Or HD-DVD vs Blue-Ray. I'll wait this one out, thank you very much. In the meantime, I standardized on square-taper.

sers

while i was reading up on the benefits of ceramic ball bearings, i came across an interesting little tidbit in a usenet thread that jobst brandt was frequenting. in general a high quality square taper bottom bracket has less bearing drag than a high quality external bearing bottom bracket. also, a square taper campy record was found to have less bearing drag than the fsa ceramic megaexo.

however, it seems that unless you're putting out pro peleton wattage, the bearing drag of quality components makes no effective difference.

Retem

I have to say that the adjustable chainline on my isis plat track bb is very nice dialed that thing in dead silent

james_swift

It's hip(ster) to be square (taper). Couldn't resist.