Talking to a retired shop owner about bottom bracket standards changed my mind on something

I was swapping a crank for a customer last Thursday and this older guy who used to run a shop in the 90s was hanging around. He watched me reach for a BSA tool and said 'you know, those old square taper setups lasted 20 years with just a grease gun.' It hit me different because I had been chasing the lightest press-fit stuff for years. He showed me his personal bike with an original 80s Shimano 600 crank that still spun smooth. Has anyone else found that older standards actually hold up better in the long run?

2 comments

2 Comments

shah.ben11d agoMost Upvoted

Why do we keep chasing grams when old stuff just works? Square taper cranks are heavy but they last forever. I have a set of 600s on my commuter that have outlasted three pressfit bottom brackets on my race bike. The tolerances on modern stuff are too tight for real world dirt and weather. Grease ports were actually a genius idea that we totally abandoned for no good reason. Sometimes lighter just means you get to buy it twice.

amy_sanchez8d ago

Does @shah.ben still run that old 600 on his commuter? I had a similar moment last month when a friend showed me his dad's old Campagnolo Nuovo Record groupset from the 70s still shifting clean on a touring bike. The guy at the shop said it was funny how we spend hundreds on ceramic bearings but the old stuff just had loose balls and grease ports you could hit with a pump every spring. My personal takeaway was that the real genius was in the serviceability not the weight. Those old cranks might bend a chainring before the bottom bracket gives out.