Originally Posted by Tourist in MSN

Grit?

I have only had to replace one square taper bottom bracket, I bought a used bike for $5 USD and it needed a different one when I bought it. But I have never worn one out yet.

I did one group tour a couple years ago, there were only two mechanical failures (not counting flats) for 16 riders of loaded touring in the mountains for a week, one of those failures was a nearly new external bottom bracket. I was happy to have my square taper one.



If your external bottom brackets go out often, I can see the merit in standardizing on one.

I do not see any advantage to standardizing on parts that are really long lasting like a square taper bottom bracket. I will probably wear out at least five chains for one bottom bracket, so in my opinion it makes more sense to standardize on chains and cassettes. All of my bikes except an old 3 speed use the same eight speed chains. And all my bikes with cassettes use the same eight speed 11/32 cassette, I just bought three more cassettes a few weeks ago after I used my last spare. Exception: one bike has a 7 speed cassette, but I don't put too many miles on that bike.

But if you want to keep running to the latest out of the manufacturers, go ahead. I am content to stay with good stuff that keeps working like the Energizer Bunny.