Originally Posted by
Mike Mills
If you are far from home and your bike breaks down, your key concern will be maintainability/availability of parts, not stiffness or "stability" of the spindle.
well, in that case, I'd rather have a external bottom bracket than a square taper. I never bring a crank puller and a lockring wrench, but I certainly bring allen wrenches. I'd rather deal with an external bottom bracket / crankset on a dark, rainy roadside than a square-taper setup.