Originally Posted by
Duragrouch
Stainless steel spindle, good seals, and roller bearings on the drive side, me thinks it may be more durable. But yeah, I used cheaper Shimano square taper cartridges until I discovered external bearings on HT2 cranks, and I'm never going back. The problem with even the SKF cartridge, is you cannot readjust over time to take out any slack and restore the preload. Slack speeds up bearing wear and stretches seals. With external bearings, you can adjust over time.
That also means someone would need to buy a new crank which may or may not be compatible with their existing drivetrain. I have a number of square taper bikes that I'm certainly not going to replace the crank instead of just replacing the cup & cone or cartridge