Originally Posted by
Duragrouch
We are in agreement about what constitutes external bearings. Let me find my notes, this has been brought up enough that I copied it. Your concern is mentioned below:
Some useful info I posted on a different thread; Advantages and disadavantages of internal cartridge BB, versus external bearings with hollowtech II style crankset:
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,,,thanks for the reply. I remember all the press about the larger bearings, and the stiffer assembly at the time they were first introduced. I guess my experience with them(limited as it is to fixing co-op donations), is not sufficient to judge their plusses and minuses with regard to durability. I'm pretty sure they are manufactured using sealed cartridge bearings, so I'm a little uncertain how the ability to readjust preload at the spindle is going to significantly extend life once those cartridge bearings start to wear ...the races are internal to the cartridge. But I'll take your word for it.
I guess like anything else in the bicycle world, they are made and sold at varying price points and to varying standards of quality. Some are probably sealed against the elements better than others.