Which bottom bracket

[PhilipD]

I'm building up an expedition touring bike.  All is in place and I have chosen an XT groupset as my experience with these in the past has been good.  However, the octalink bb I installed very rapidly gave up the ghost.

Should I replace the octalink or go for one of the new external bearing system sets?  What are peoples' experience of these?  Part of me thinks I should revert to a good quality square taper set as at least these can be found anywhere with ease.

Oh, before you mention it, I  know I'd be better off with a rohloff, but I think the raven nomad of my dreams is good while off just yet!

Thanks

Philip

[stutho]

quote: Part of me thinks I should revert to a good quality square taper set as at least these can be found anywhere with ease.

If you are travelling outside of western Europe then I would go for a square taper for exactly this reason.

Some people have had a problem with Octalink cranks (especially XT) clicking once per a revolution.  (look on MTBR)

[rogerzilla]

Octalink V1 has a design flaw which tends to make the crankbolt loosen (worse than square taper).  This is why it's no longer made.  In my experience the actual BB holds up OK, and I destroy the normal Shimano BBs with depressing regularity.

[vik]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"> Part of me thinks I should revert to a good quality square taper set as at least these can be found anywhere with ease. <hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
If you are travelling outside of western Europe then I would go for a square taper for exactly this reason.

+1 - good advice, square taper BBs are also quite inexpensive to purchase