I'm just hoping that in the future when I need to replace the BB, which I believe regardless of design, it's inevitable due to the amount of torque that's centralized on that one area, that I hope I won't come up short finding an Octalink BB replacement similar to my stock one.

It's at least somewhat comforting to know I can just swap in another crank with a matching BB, such as a Hollowtech setup. They cost quite a bit though, for a full crank. For what I'm doing I wonder if I can get away with a slightly cheaper crank without sacrificing a truckload of quality.

Those of you who use Octalink - What's your personal opinion on it? I'm not really talking about Octalink versus (insert BB maker here), I'm talking about the longevitiy of the part itself, is it stable, does it creak under high torque up a steep hill, etc. I guess the reason I'm so concerned about this is because of the BB being the only part I ever had to replace on my older bike. I just want to be as aware of the parts on my bike as possible so I know what I'm looking at for replacements, if need be.