Originally Posted by
Maelochs
Anyone who has tried to remove a frozen square-taper BB cup is rolling on the floor choking with laughter right now.
I built some Sheldon Brown contraption out of threaded 1/2-inch rod and multiple massive bolts and washers, and still needed a giant breaker bar to get one stuck cup free .... I bent the shaft of my ratchet (!) and sadly, some of the threads came out with the BB cup. Frame is worthless for anything but a threaded "repair" square-taper BB which weights even more than a regular square-taper unit.
As I mentioned above, I could easily remove and install a HollowTech with a set of channel-locks padded with a rag----have done so.
Not that this means either system is "better." I still maintain that some people are so blinded by their debate position that reason has fled .... so go with what you know or like and after all .... BBs usually last a really long time even when mildly abused. I say still, the best system is the system each one Thinks is best.
But the whole "square-taper is so much easier to remove" .... sorry, that is crap. The surface where the tool grips the inside slotted area of the cup is narrow and shallow, and after a long time with the cup in place ..... Yeah, I have to call "BS" on that particular portion of the claim.
In many years of being a bike shop mechanic I have never had to remove a stuck square taper crank arm with special tools. People like to talk about these things as if they happen all the time - but they only seem to happen with any frequency to ham-handed home mechanics who don't know how to use a crank puller and tear out their crank threads, then try to fix it themselves. Square taper is so reliable that Campy stuck with it years after Shimano did for their racing groups.
It isn't a question of square taper being "easier". It isn't. But it isn't "harder" in any meaningful way if you actually install your nice components in a way that insures their proper function - and that doesn't involve channel locks, bubble gum or hammers.