Assuming there is nothing WRONG with your jockey pulleys....NONE. If there is something wrong with them, replace them with stock pulleys and move on down the road.

For as much background as you can stomach....search "jockey pulley". Or buy the friction facts report...for a slightly more efficient answer.

Top pulley has nothing "wrong" with it, but there is drag due to the seals. You can feel it when you try to rotate with your finger.

bottom pulley spins for several revolutions with a flick of the finger.

it's costing "something", whether that's one watt, 2 watts, 20 watts, I have no idea....

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

you think the top pulley is half your total drive train losses?

No, I don't.

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

then toss 2 out the window.....magnitude or 2 too high

It's on the order of a single watt (for the entire pulley...seals, bearing, all of it), probably less.

I race with Dura-Ace pulleys (bearings in both pulleys), seals removed, with a super thin lubricant.
Cost me something like $20 and I am willing to bet it is within .3 watts of any $100+ ceramic pulleys out there. From a bearing friction perspective..... oversized pulley gains, to be debated.

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Alex Arman

Strava

considering your bet is more than an entire DA pulley set uses without doing what you did... yeah, it is :)

So.... you're saying I need ceramic bearings then, right?

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

For my ultegra derailleur, looks like I can save about 1/2 watt with swapping out the upper pulley.

http://aerogeeks.com/...leur-pulleys-review/

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

I seriously doubt you can save 1/2 watt with one pulley on the ultegra unless the other pulley(one not being swapped out) is 100% frictionless. you cant even get 1/2 watt by swapping top and bottom ultegra for DA

but if it floats your boat, and/or the current one is effed up then DO do

Your virtual FTP test was ~200 W? Spend less time on ST & more time on your bike. You could easily gain 20-40 W on that with less effort than you have put into thinking about friction from derailleur pulleys.

How much advantage does ceramic have over, say, some BBB Rollerboys, which I can also afford? (nay, have).

And if you want bigger pulleys, just get an Acera derailleur.

my virtual ftp test was about 207 power units. today, I switched to 165 mm cranks and was at 212 power units (but only did 1x8 instead of 2x8, got interrupted)

those power units, if they are equal to watts, is purely coincidental. I'm sure they aren't watts.

as for the time I've spent thinking about it, the only time I've spent thinking about it was when I took off the chain to shorten it for the different crankset. I spun the pulley and said, hmm, this doesn't spin.

asked a question, it was answered, done....

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

Make sure you log all your "tests" with different setups (cranks, pulleys, whathaveyou) and publish it here for us to discuss. Bonus points if you find a banned user (Paulo?) you can sock puppet for.

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Citizen of the world, former drunkard. Resident Traumatic Brain Injury advocate.

I don't do pink font....

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

at least I did the entire test in aero.... While watching the Punisher.... awesome series.

I wonder if what you are watching on Netflix influences power output?

oh, my 165's are a track crankset, but I think I'll keep the front derailleur and shifter on the bike for chain retention and a bit of extra reach.

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

The sarcasm was still understood.
I was just pointing you to a cheap ball bearing jockey wheel set if it floats your boat.

Nah, I'm not gonna spend any money on it. I do have an old derailleur lying around that I could have swapped the pulley with if it made any difference at all. But since it doesn't, never mind.

My aero helmet arrived today! So that should be actual watts...

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

I thought that was obvious. Next time I'll be more clear. :)

Watching anything with action will cause my HR to spike in the middle of an erg session where it should be pretty steady. It would make sense that if it triggered your FOF response you could get a little boost...

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The point is, ladies and gentleman, that speed, for lack of a better word, is good. Speed is right, Speed works. Speed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit.

If you are looking for a great set of free spinning pulleys without breaking the bank, then get these: https://hawk-racing.com/...ailleur-pulleys.html