ISIS Drive

ISIS Drive, the International Splined Interface Standard, is an open standard splined specification for the interface between a bicycle crankset and the bottom bracket spindle. It was created by King Cycle Group, Truvativ, and Race Face in response to the proprietary Shimano Octalink splined bottom bracket standard. Because the Shimano splined interface is covered by patents, the ISIS Group created the standard and put it in the public domain so that other companies could make interoperable components. As the standards are separate, parts made for one are incompatible with those made from the other; an Octalink-standard bottom bracket (8 spline) cannot connect to an ISIS crankset (10 spline) and vice versa. One shortcoming in the design of the ISIS bottom bracket is the decreased bearing life compared to square taper bottom brackets. This is because it uses a larger diameter spindle in the same sized shell, so the bearings are smaller. Arguably, it was this shortcoming that led to the development of external bearing designs.