The Battle of Standards – Confused Much?
There are a lot of standards when it comes to bikes and the number seems to get significantly larger every year. Just look at Bottom Brackets over the past decade or so. We have Spanish BB, Euro BB and Mid BB, we have widths of 68mm, 73mm and 83mm. Mounting standards like Square taper, isis, octalink, Hollowtech II, Howitzer, GXP, and now BB30… I probably missed a couple as well.
Each and every one of these standards serves a purpose. They were each developed with the purpose of making the bike, lighter, stronger, faster or smoother. Over time this has meant that some have stuck, others have failed and we will likely see more coming soon.
This is not isolated to Bottom brackets either though. We have numerous standards for hubs, headsets, bars, stems, posts and more. I will do my best in this series of articles to clear up the most confusing of these.
Over the next couple of weeks I will be discussing the most common Mountain Bike Standards:
Hub Standards
- 135 x 10mm rear hubs
- 135 x 12mm rear hubs
- 142 x 12mm Syntace Rear Hubs
- 150 x 12mm rear hubs
- 9mm front hubs
- 15mm front hubs
- 20mm front hubs
Headset Standards
- 1 1/8″ Headsets
- 1 1/2″ Headsets
- 1 1/8-1 1/2 Tapered Headsets
- Integrated Headsets
- Semi-Integrated Headsets
- Standard Headset
Bottom Bracket Standards
- 68mm
- 73mm
- 83mm
- Octalink
- Isis
- GXP
- Hollowtech II
- BB30
WOW, that is a REALLY LONG list…..
Check back soon for the first installment.
Dustan
