Originally Posted by
Jose Mandez
I, too, am not sure why anyone would want to go to the old school BBs when the after-market fixed cartridge ones are so cheap and user friendly. Those old-style bottom brackets seem to give out after a lot of use...I've had three different 1980's bicycles in which those bottom brackets went bad and needed replacing...I stuck a new after-market BB in my 1987 Trek 400 about 6,000 miles ago and it's still working well.
A high quality cup-and-cone bottom bracket will last indefinitely with regular maintenance. A person may find this preferable to a modern disposable cartridge unit for a number of reasons, particularly if the frame has odd threading for which reasonably priced cartridge units are not readily available.