Originally Posted by
roadwarrior
I'll add, since the bb is larger, you can incrementally expand the down tube size, seat tube and chain stays which adds efficiency to the bike, typically without adding weight. You lose less in the translation of your pedaling and what is being transferred to the rear wheel. to offset the additional stiffness, many companies have added seat and/or chain stay shaping to keep a comfortable ride.
Personally, it works for me without issue, and when I take it apart to service and clean that part of my bike it's maybe a 10-15 minute ordeal. I truly do not care if people do not like it. I'm not being rude, I just do not get the bickering about what is best. If you don't like it don't ride it, but you will be hard pressed anymore, in the nice road bike arena to not find some iteration of this on bikes. BB somethingorother is on most mid and higher range bikes.
What you write is spot on but to add, there is nothing about BB30 that mandates a large ball shaped BB that increases stiffness and chainstay section strength which increases pedaling efficiency as you explain. The same could be applied to an English threaded BB. Just historically this isn't as prevalent. Bike makers almost concurrently discovered that a stiffer BB30 and bigger BB juncture to the chainstays creates a sportier bike.
My favorite bike for example has the same size BB as PF30 and BB30 on other high end Specialized bikes but happens to be English threaded.
English Threaded with large spherical BB below:
