Right, come on, someone explain ISIS to me in terms of BB's!

[danson67]

Far more information than you probably want here at http://www.ISISDrive.com.
Full documentation and standards drawings here.

All the best,

 

[legrandefromage]

Re: Re:

I think of it like what betamax is to vhs, its a marketing ploy to improve something that nothing is wrong with to try and make you spend more money.

But you end up sticking with what you already know and trust... Ie a square taper

Apologies (and this is the internet after all) but the VHS/ Betamax thing is wrong diddly wrong

Its a bit more like DVD-HD and Bluray, both do/did the same thing with no real advantages over the other except one came as part of a rather popular games machine... (plus other reasons but you get the idea)

I'm going back to my shed now.

 

[danson67]

Re:

its a marketing ploy to improve something that nothing is wrong with to try and make you spend more money

More an attempt in 1999 to come up with a un-patented, open source standard BB system that could be used by any manufacturer of cranks of BBs.
Ironically this really happened a few years later with the outboard cup, and later the BB30/PF30 stuff, each of which has its own problems.

From the ISIS drive site:

The ISIS Drive concept began in 1998 when several companies in the industry started talking about how to compete with the “other” spline interface. This “other” interface was protected by several patents, which left most companies with the following choices: 1) never produce a spline interface, 2) produce their own proprietary interface with the result being a mass of non-compatible parts, or 3) work with other companies in the industry to standardize on a common spline interface. Obviously the third choice was the best.

The result of these initial talks among many different companies was … a lot of talk. Thus, at the 1999 Interbike show in Las Vegas, Truvativ, Chris King, and Race Face sat down and began collaborating on a spline interface for bottom brackets and cranks. All three companies immediately recognized the benefit to the industry this interface could have. They had the chance to fix a lot of the problems with the old interface and design something from the ground up. Further, they all agreed to give the resulting design to the public domain and freely provide it to the rest of the industry. The result is the ISIS Drive standard.

 

[legrandefromage]

Dammit!

It IS the Betamax/ VHS thing but for different reasons: JVC gave away their VHS licence to pretty much all and sundry whereas Sony held on to their Betamax license trying to force the industry into one format.

 

[SEANSTEPHENS]

Dammit!

It IS the Betamax/ VHS thing but for different reasons: JVC gave away their VHS licence to pretty much all and sundry whereas Sony held on to their Betamax license trying to force the industry into one format.

ive been schooled on the history of 80s video

 

[elPedro666]

This thread is great - I've learned about retro AV gear AND I'm sure it's put lots of folks off ISIS. Which is brilliant because I love the system - cheap, really simple, light, always lasted just fine for me (ISIS I mean).

Please keep doing it down so that I can keep buying NOS titanium BBs and Middleburn cranks for less than the price of Deore!

 

[legrandefromage]

Can't talk. Am watching my hd-dvd on my back projection TV.

 

[Raging_Bulls]

Re: Re:

You know what, this is starting to convince me of the advantages of good old fashioned old school square taper, and as I have a spare XT BB in that flavour...

Good choice. As an added bonus, discussing square tapers won't get you on the watchlist of certain intelligence agencies too. Can't say that about the other BB type.

 

[Rampage]

Dammit!

It IS the Betamax/ VHS thing but for different reasons: JVC gave away their VHS licence to pretty much all and sundry whereas Sony held on to their Betamax license trying to force the industry into one format.

Similar to Minidisc then? You'd have thought they'd have learnt.

 

[elPedro666]

Re: Re:

You know what, this is starting to convince me of the advantages of good old fashioned old school square taper, and as I have a spare XT BB in that flavour...

:mrgreen:

Would they be good old-fashioned JIS or ISO taper though? And 102, 103, 104...134, 135, 136mm axle, 68, 70, 73, 83, 100mm shell, British, Italian, French, threadless or chamfered Mavic? Sealed cartridge, serviceable, cup&cone, with lockrings or without? And are going to grease the tapers...? (don't answer that last one else we'll be on page 37 before elevenses)