Square-Taper has been around decades longer than Octalink. I guess it's been thrown onto the scrap heap along with rim brakes, quill stems and friction shifters: a bad idea that never did work.

Shouldn't be a problem at all. You might want to take the bike to a shop and get the BB faced to insure the faces are parallel. You're bike is pretty new so it probably isn't an issue, but worth it to make sure. Those external bearings don't like being misaligned one little bit.

Oh, I'm sure they'll come up with something new. Just read that BB30 stuff closer - that doesn't sound good at all! You'll need a press to work on the friggin thing.

Millions of square tapers have lasted decades. Like I said earlier, Phil Wood makes the best BBs and they're all square-taper.

A press? Really? I guess that makes sense. I was wondering how a "threadless" bottom bracket would stay in place...

I can only imagine what kind of tool would be required to replace a BB30 bottom bracket... Any images, anybody?

It'll look something like this

As I mentioned in my post, the Octalink was designed to provide a lighter and stiffer bb - not to rip off consumers through planned obsolescence. I hardly think there is a bb conspiracy afoot. It is my opinion that while it did meet those goals, the design compromised some service life due to the smaller bearings necessitated by the larger hollow spindle.

Regarding a high failure rate for square taper bb units, I would suggest that it was unusual among quality units. The design has been around for a long time and as other posters have said, some of the best on the market are square taper Phil Wood lasting many years. Again, the Octalink also known as Hollowtech was designed to address weight and stiffness.

The Outboard bearing designs bay various manufacturers were designed to be lighter and stiffer without using the smaller ball bearings thereby answering the longevity issue. Shimano calls theirs Hollowtech II

You can find low, medium and higher quality parts for any application. The lower end parts will tend to be best suited for very casual use while the mid and higher end components will usually weigh less and outlast their less expensive brethren. I abuse my hardware racing off road and find the best overall value usually lies in the high/mid-range stuff. I get decent longevity without springing for the all out race hardware.

FWIW YMMV

+1 - Wow! That's a bit more than the Park tools for working on square-taper and Octalink/ISIS.

Geez. I'm more shocked by the price than the tools themselves. 140 bucks? Are you absolutely kidding? 40, maybe. MAYBE. 140? Joke and a half.

So basically it's like a two piece... thing... an anchor and a threaded bolt to "pull" with the anchor to extract the BB. Sounds like a half decent idea. I just still don't get how this is beneficial from threads.

But again, 140?! GAHH!

On mountain bikes the bottom bracket shell can be either 68mm wide or 73mm wide, and you have to get a BB that matches.

Hollowtech II is the external type.

Hollowtech II is integrated and external! Integrated refers to the axle which is attached/integrated with the driveside crank. External refers to the position of the bearings set which sit outside the BB shell on a bike frame!

Then, don't buy Sonny's tools! Buy the cheaper FSA stuff.

https://road.fullspeedahead.com/fly.a...duct&taxid=279

But it doesn't have gold! Waaaaaah!

Seriously, I've had excellent results with FSA. Looks like the way to go for these oddball BB's. Thank you!

I'm gonna go all Fast and Furious on ya here.

"What's the retail on one of those?"

I doubt that the FSA is going to be much cheaper, however. You'd need to buy 6 different tools to do the same job as the tool set I linked to. I wasn't endorsing anything by the way. That was just the first BB30 tool I came across with Google.

Guys! I know what the difference between Hollowtech and Hollowtech II is. However, Hollowtech cranks were...and are...available for use with Octalink bottom brackets. I was clarifying Panther007's post about Hollowtech

Hollowtech II is indeed a 2 piece crankset with a crankshaft swaged to one arm and a pinch bolt on the other and it utilizes an external bearing. Hollowtech (notice the lack of the Roman numeral) was, and is, a system utilizing an Octalink bottom bracket. Two very different systems with similar names.

My turn to clarify:

I dislike Shimano. By the time they have forced all of us to switch to Hollowtech II - aside from radical hold-outs living in caves with their 'cups & cones' BB's - they will spring another innovation with a plethora of advertising. And bike mechanics will have to shell out some ridiculous sum for a ridiculous tool to install the bugger. Such as the current TL-FC16*.

I'll use the Hollowtech II - but I'll have a slow-boil about it.

Rant over. Pardon me!


* though cheap - ridiculously so - it's the thought that counts.

Very informative thread.

no, it is different.

Help, I have an FSA gossamer triple crank, I bought it on ebay. Does anyone know if fsa octalink stuff takes v1 (short spline) or v2 long spline. I can't find info on the net anywhere!

FSA octalink triple road cranks take 118mm V1 BB.

That's great - how did you find that out?! I couldn't find it anywhere!

I've used the octolink BB for years now - I've got both the 571 and 752 version which was the LX and XT offerings. The Shimano Cranks of the mid 2000s were very good - the LX was almost Identical to the XT version. I have used them on 3 or 4 different frames and put 1000s of miles on them with no trouble at all.
I would love to try the Hollow-tech LX or XT cranks just so I could use a new Chris King BB but these Octolink BB keep running strong so I don't need to spend the money just for the sake of upgraditis.

Ok, please help me. I've received various mixed messages re. v1 or v2 octalink for FSA gossamer. FSA themselves say v2, longer spline version. So now I've bought on of both to try and find which fits... but neither seems to! Please can you guys answer two questions?

1) If you have a crank not on a bike, is it v1 or v2, and how long are the grooves on it?
2) When you fit the crank on the bike, how far along the splines does the crank fit before you need to pull it on with the bolt? Is it just a tiny bit, or a great deal?

Thanks very much. Please help me sort this!

I think the Octalink is doomed, unfortunate for such a tough usable system. It was always better than ISIS.

I purchased an Ultegra Hollowtech 11 with BB for under $200.00 and the BB's are around $30.00, the last Ultegra Octalink BB I bought was over $100.00. Dura Ace octalink Track gear is still stratospheric as it hasn't been replaced yet.

The new systems are cheaper to manufacture and perform fantastic. The market will determine Octalinks fate which bums me because I'm stuck with a few sets.

Square Tapers live forever.

Not so at all. Once they become obsolete all their owners will start posting on the Classic & Vintage forum.