I have a mongoose otero elite 2008 and the crankset is broke (wobbling) It's also bent, so time for a new one. I currently have a nice shimano deore crankset from an old bike, but it uses a different kind of bottom bracket (holllowtech) where as on my bike I have an octalink BB. Can I remove the octalink and buy a hollowtech BB to fit the deore crankset?
the spec says I have a Shimano ES25 Octalink BB
The bikes themselves - in this case, the frame - are pretty much standard on all the modern mountain bikes.
The Hollowtech and Octalink systems are different because you need to match the crankset to the bottom bracket, that is, you cannot use the BB from one system with the crankset from other system.
But any of the bottom brackets can be installed in the same type of frame (the "default"/ISO 68mm wide, 1.37in diameter, 24 TPI).
Hope it helps
You really only have 3 variables -- the width of the BB shell, it's diameter, and the threading.
To my knowledge the diameter is pretty much standard these days (though no doubt some fancy-smancy bike are outside the box), and there are only a couple of standard widths. And last I heard (which was about 10 years ago) only some Italian brands persisted in using oddball threading.
So the main thing to check is shell width.
