Originally Posted by
Zaphod Beeblebrox
Do they reduce weight significantly? I'm just wondering if there's a stated advantage (read:Marketing Hype) aside from the Bearings being further outboard.
it sorta seems to me like an odd invention because I'd imagine it increases the Q factor...don't people usually want a narrower Q factor?
often lighter, much stiffer (is that desirable? I dunno -- that's up to you), incredibly easy to service/install/remove. tread is often increased quite a bit, yes, but the sugino that I linked to solves that problem.
downsides: bb's tend to wear out faster and the bb shell
must be faced properly (not a downside in and of itself, just more precaution is necessary with this type of setup).
that said, I use square-taper on all my bicycles and I'm cool with that.