interesting comments, this touches on cost, and I'm not keen on getting a $120 or more skf bearing when my real life experience has shown that a $40 shimano un55 gets great life, but this also touches on cost thing--the fact that I can get an entire Deore trekking type crank with the chainring sizes I know from experience I want plus the bb for about 100 bucks is a good deal. I could put my old mtn crank and un55 from my old mtn bike over to a new frame (Surly Troll type sort of thing) or just use the crank and put in a new bb, but for 100 bucks give or take, I can leave my mtn bike as is and still use it as the visually battered commuter it is, and I do have confidence in Shimano mid range stuff like Deore being a good bang for buck, especially for a touring application where I dont want to have too too much money in the bike in case of unlikely circumstances (theft, whatever)--yet still have perfectly well performing parts, ie "its the trip, not the fancy doodads" attitude.

thanks for your GXP experience. Being new to this, this is the sort of real life experience I would like to see here. Is your bb situation unique? Who knows, but I will certainly remember GXP with a bit of reserve now.