My one man jury is still out on the External BB. I have it on my new bike and while it is simple, light and easy to use, I dont think it is very well sealed. My old cartridge bb's lasted a few years at least and that was year round riding. I installed my first set of externals on my new bike in April 06 and in one year one side was not spinning freely. When I took them both off to replace I was quite surprised to find a fair amount of water pooled in the STEEL bb shell. So we will see how long this new set lasts. Other than that, I do like the new crank style and how it assembles. I should add that I am running and LX crank set with LX/XT bearings. Dont know what the other companies have in the way of quality. Consider to that it probably wont be long before the old style cartridge bearings and cranks are mostly obsolete.