Originally Posted by
rekmeyata
When you speak of sheer power there are no riders with more over all torque power being applied to cranks then track racers, and those people for years used square taper without issues. In fact NJS approved cranks, (according to this site) only use the square taper BB's to this very day for elite Keirin racing!
http://www.tracksupermarket.com/inde...age=page&id=12 Power of a track racer is so great that for years they still used double toe straps because clipless pedals were not strong enough to hold their feet onto the pedals, it's only been in the last 5 years or so that there are few pedals strong enough. Here is a store that sells bottom brackets for track racing, all but one is a square taper design:
http://www.tracksupermarket.com/inde...index&cPath=67
When I use to race I wasn't an average cyclist just having fun, I managed to get to the CAT3 level, not the greatest of course, but higher then just an average cyclist, and mountain racing required a lot of torque and I never saw a bottom bracket break in a race. I do remember that the low to mid lever bottom brackets were flexy, that's why I went with the Superbe BB.
I think today there are too many BB standards which blurs the lines at to which is the best. Back in the day of square taper it wasn't a big deal to use a Campy BB with a Shimano system as long as the axle length was good.
Again, please don't take this as an attack against you, it's just a series of comments that would be interesting to find answers for. I just don't think that the square taper design was as bad as people think they are today. I personally think we have a majority of young riders who have never experienced square taper BB's and since that stuff is mostly out of sight and out of mind replaced by splined cranks then the old school square taper design must have been a poor design, I'm saying that simply is not true having lived and raced in that era, not saying either that square taper is superior to splined, just saying it's not all that inferior if at all.
Nor do I want to throw square taper completely under the bus. It apparently served you and track riders as you say. Further, you don't seem to think the new stuff is better. I suppose this argument could be taken through the entire bicycle which has evolved considerably in the last twenty years...remarkably so. Virtually no component has gone unchanged. I can't think of a single component...be it threadless headset, carbon handlebars and frameset...even carbon wheels and groupsets with 11 speeds to more ergonomic saddles and more compliant seatposts to improved tires and tubes.
New bikes are not only more vertically compliant but they handle better with more rigid front end but are laterally stiffer. Further they are lighter. The crank has basically evolved with the rest and I would changes to the BB and crank are commensurate with the vast change in design. You can dismiss this...or perhaps not even see these changes, but to me its blatant.