FSA's BB30? I understood it was a free standard pioneered by Cannondale http://www.bb30standard.com/ - unless this is some different standard with the same name.

You are right aracer, I don't know why FSA often gets the credit but BB30 was developped by Cannondale many years ago, they later had the carbon BB30 or SI crankset manufactured by FSA (the lighter and better alloy Hollowgram is still made by Cannondale themselves). Then, Cannondale opened the standard and FSA, SRAM and others just recently adopted it...

But it's good to see more brands adopting it.

I thought Greame Obree did it first, with his oversize, narrow, low Q factor, BB system!

I'm sure he would enjoy the royalties....It would stop those washing machine jokes too.

I'd be more annoyed at Specialized for once again stiffing anyone buying their bikes. Industry standard - nah? Just pay twice as much from the Specialized dealer! Yay!

From this article I gather the bearings are a press fit directly into the bottom bracket shell which means it is defiantly not a diy replacement job, it will have to be done with the correct tools by someone who knows exactly what they are doing!

No more buying bottom brackets from discount mail order suppliers, we will all be forced to pay whatever price our local specialist demands. Fine for Road Bikes where my bottom brackets lasts for years but I get through at least 2 every year on my Mountain Bike, (no I don’t use a pressure washer, just bucket and brush,) by riding it in the wet sticky clay conditions around here. Is a low Q factor that important on a mountain bike? Give me practical low cost maintenance every time.

It's great that the BB30 standard is being adopted so widely throughout the bicycle industry, ultimately it means that thousands of riders will be able to tap into this technology and the associated benefits that it brings in areas such as performance and weight savings.

Just to set the record straight, although FSA have an extensive array of BB30 cranksets for 2009, the standard was developed by Chris Dodman (Chief Engineer in Cannondale's Advanced Products Division). It was first introduced at the 2000 Tour de France by riders on the Saeco team, racing on Cannondale's CAAD6.

In 2006 Cannondale held an open conference at the Eurobike tradeshow inviting bicycle and component manufacturers (including FSA) to learn more about the BB30 standard. At this time the website www.bb30standard.com was also launched by Cannondale to provide technical details to manufacturers wanting to adopt the standard.

So whilst time has passed and facts can become blurred if you remember two things (1) Chris Dodman and (2) Cannondale you'll always come out on top of the mid week BB30 pub quiz!

Park has introduced a set of tools for installing and removing BB30 and BB90 Bottom Bracket Systems (Item #BBT-39). The bearings are pressed into the bottom bracket shell with a headset press. They are removed by inserting BBT-39 and tapping with a hammer. It looks pretty straightforward.

fantastic another standard,octalink,powerspline,outborad fsa/shimano/raceface fit, outboard truvative fit. How long will it be before one of the big groupset makers decides they need to be different again. Is this not just an exercise in making the previous obsolete. Were the old models that bad! Will i have to buy a new frame to fit this-Yes. Will I need to buy new tools-Yes. Will I soon be needing a new creditcard-Yes. Marketing is a powerful thing lighter,stronger,narrower must surely mean I will go faster?

Nothing at all wrong with square taper...

It seems to me that there are way to many 'standards' out there. I wouldn't mind, except that every time something new comes out the old stuff seems to move towards obsolete. Well I want reliability, not necessarily weight saving, and for MTB I don't think I want an alloy axle. Enough steel BB axles snap on people to make me think alloy is a bad idea, and won't an alloy axle wear out due to the softness of the material? There's too much hype and too much marketing of cheap rubbish with high price tags. Look at HTII and equivalents - the bearings wear out in anything from 6 months down to 3 rides. Why? No idea, as a cheapish square taper used to last a couple of years minimum. So I'd be pleasantly surprised if this new standard is actually an improvement. Lets hope so, but I won't be holding my breath...

thank god, someone has finally created another BB design.

It was about time that the boring old simple BB got shuffled into this standards nonsense. As this industry always says "if it ain't broke, bring out something new so everyone will think it might break..."

Personally I really don't like the sound of bearings being pressed directly into a frame. How often do you change your BB? - some people every 6 months - that's a lot of pressing in and out - bad for the frame material.

You will have to have it done at a dealer to ensure the gurantee from the manufacturer and it won't be cheap. Alloy axels? just that extra bit of flex you always wanted.

But not to worry there'll be another standard out in 6 months anyway...

Will be interesting to see now many manufacturers eventually build frames supporting BB30.

I've used Cannondale's BB30 aluminium cranksets for 3 years now, it looks and works great and no issues (haven't snapped the aluminium axle, no creaks, etc).

In fact this is a key factor determining which bike I go for next (if its not a C'dale).

Also stripped and rebuilt the system myself upgrading to ceramic bearings, the tools were supplied with the bike (easy DIY job).

To answer some of the points there:

1. The small diameter of square taper axles demanded stronger materials to achieve stiffness and durability. Hence the search for something new and better.

2. The next generations increased axle diameter but not shell diameter. This means you have slimmer bearings being protected by slimmer, less flexible seals and whilst the axles didn't break, the bearings did.

3. Press fit shouldn't be a problem for the home mechanic. If you can make a bearing press from some threaded rod you're on your way.

4. This looks like a great system but what i'd really like to see is a modular one with the availability of legacy axle fittings.

My concern is with potential damage to frames after repeated replacement, as raised by others above.

http://chrisking.com/files/pdfs/Int20HeadsetsExplained.pdf

There's a good description here of the merits of different styles of headsets and I would think the negatives of an integrated headset apply to the BB30? I can't see any reason why CK would want to sell less product other than engineering integrity?