Originally Posted by
ign1te
When was the last time some one sheared off a crank or an axle like that?
Don't know. Of course it's rare. Crank arms are built to take the forces expected to be put on them.
But you'd mused earlier and thought it strange......
In general it seems like a strange move to go for a hexagonal axle like that. Only works with 6-sided cranks and square axles have been the norm for 100 years or so.
I was just telling you why they might have tried it. Spreading the load around the hole in the crank arm potentially allows other potential benefits of design and maybe weight savings. And IMO for the last 50 of those 100 years, square taper cranks are mainly found on low tier bikes. So I wouldn't consider them the norm.
The fact they didn't catch on shows that other designs for the spindle and crank arm interface were better than just the hexagonal. ISIS and Octalink being very common today.