FSA BB Systems

Common Issues With Traditional Bottom Brackets
The standard in ISIS drive, Octalink or square-tapered bottom brackets have always been plagued by two annoying weaknesses.  First has been poor performance or mediocre performance at best. Why haven’t you noticed it? Why, my dear Watson, simply because you’ve had nothing feasible to compare it to.  Secondly, and much more notably, the main issue has been durability. A problem arises when a manufacturer must accommodate for a large spindle within a casing, all jammed inside of a small BB shell . . . oh, and I forgot the most important part— the bearings. Two sets of bearings get crammed into a tightly packaged space, or the equivalent of whatever space is left over. Thus it becomes evident as to why performance and durability issues arrive with this system.

If you aren’t familiar with either of these problems, now ask yourself why ALL of the manufacturers have spent time coming up with the answers?

FSA Platinum Pro MegaQuad (ISIS)

So what then is the “standard” bottom bracket answer? FSA’s answer to the standard ISIS or Octalink bottom bracket systems is a total of 4 sets of bearings. By adding more bearings to a bottom bracket it makes the action smoother and more durable. Bearings wear out much faster when they are under the combination of weight load and torque. By doubling the ball bearings, the weight load is better distributed, resulting not only in a significantly longer durability, but it also results in smoother action from the first day you ride and far surpasses the incredible feel years into owning this BB so that the fade in performance is much, much longer.

Wow, this all sounds wonderful but how much does it weigh? Less than nearly all Shimano, Race Face and Truvativ bottom brackets! Wait, what? How does it weigh less than other BBs if it has twice the bearings? That is the genius of FSA engineering. At a target weight of only 199g, it has a lower target weight than most other systems with fewer bearings. View the chart below.

Better performance. Significantly more durable. Even still lighter. Did I leave anything out?