do we trust Octalink?

[curzons246]

I'm looking at getting an early 90's shimano 105 Octalink crankset. I know people only tend to report faults so does anybody have any good news about them? They'll have to work hard 18st 100mls a week. In anticipation thanks Bill

 

[Chute55uk]

I have ultegra 6500 octalink on my road bike and deore octalink on my gt and they have never given me any trouble. I had to buy the proper crank puller as I got bored of sticking a drill bit down the axle for the normal puller to push against but it was only 12 quid from evans with a free pedal spanner to use as the tool arm.
I dont grease the axles on the bb or the cranks and I tighten the bolts to what feels right prob about 40nm

 

[curzons246]

Thanks Chute that's great news cheers Bill.

 

[pigman]

problem with octalink and Isis were a main bearing used small races, so you get premature wear. This was done in the interests of getting a fatter (hence stiffer) BB axle into the same BB shell. Also, these days bottom brackets are getting harder to source.

If i had Octalink, i wouldn't bin it, but I wouldn't enter the world of Octalink either. especially if i were a big lad, riding considerable mileages in all weathers

 

[Woz]

Ditto. Would not enter an obsolete flawed system although there are plenty about still.

 

[Jonny69]

They don't look difficult to find at all. All the usual cycle spares shops on eBay have them?

I've read it's a flawed design, but then so is the old square taper design and I haven't heard anyone saying they wear out any faster than square tapers. The only moan I've heard is that they quite regularly creak. To be fair, even good quality sealed cartridge square taper bb's only last a few thousand miles before they get all grindy feeling, so I can't see an Octalink one being any worse.

 

[hamster]

The bearings are substantially smaller than square taper, my experience is that they don't last. I typically get 5,000+ miles from a UN72.

As for spares, square taper has been around for 60+ years and so there is a huge installed base to support unlike Octalink (and all the other flavours like ISIS) which was only produced for 5 or so.

 

[pigman]

I haven't heard anyone saying they wear out any faster than square tapers.

sorry to differ, but I have. I'll go as far as say Ive never heard someone (till now) say they last just as well as sq tapers. Like Hamster says, the bearings are tiny in comparison.

As for availability, I cannot comment on octalink, but last year my mate was struggling to get an isis BB of the correct spindle length

 

[curzons246]

One thing I've learnt nothing is black or white. Thanks for all your advise

 

[PANZR]

Yes, I do
When I used to be a cycle courier, my wet-weather bike used a Deore octalink and I usually rode 80-120km a day with it, most often in really poor conditions
It's so far done over 6000km with no issues...yet