I already have judged & I'm sticking with the Ceramic. Results are all the "facts" I need. If we all read an article based off someone's testing results, rather than our own, we'd fall for a lot more marketing scams. There are products I've tried that have not yielded results that testers say is faster, for me. Thus, I try something, and see good/bad results, then I go with it. Maybe you didn't have as crappy of a steel BB as I had--or maybe the bearings were so shot, that I would have noticed it with just another steel BB. I had the shop replace it and that was it.

I'm not saying friction facts is way off, or you, or what you did or did not notice, I can tell you the difference in my case, was quite massive, when I went from the previous steel BB (SRAM), to the SRAM Black Box.

I've been using Wheels Manufacturing angular steel bearing for years now... roll great, last a whole season at least and they're not $$$. I replace them once a year on my TT bike just because, they're pretty cheap comparatively.https://wheelsmfg.com/bottom-brackets.html[/url]

Ha!

Someone saying they "can feel the difference" is not evidence of a bloody thing. It is worse than useless without a hell of a lot of explanation.
How many times has he switched back and forth? Same bike or different bike? Same day or different day? Same road or different road? Same weather or different weather?.........
Has he checked the veracity of his "feeling" with an instrument of any sort?

If he thinks telling you he can feel the difference is good enough, he's not a solid source....in my humble opinion

.

His palmeres is far better than 99% of ST as a WC duathlon athlete, multi time overall winner, and actively involved in the bike industry for over 30 years. Sorry, but I’ll pick his thoughts over your acidic ones any day.

I'm sure he's a far better athlete than me. He may know his stuff too, but that comment is useless.

As is yours. While many find me also wrong when I put my race wheels on and feel a difference, I'll go with experience and what a pro athlete says ( with NO sponsorship involvement).

No, mine is cautioning against taking your suggestion regarding ceramic BBs, based on 2nd hand "feeling" based assessments of performance at face value. What's wrong about that?

I'm a mechanical engineer and aerodynamicist. I do performace testing for a living.
Do you know how much weight "feeling" carries in performance testing? - Bugger all, and rightly so.

Do you know why? - It doesn't provide any credible, repeatable or provable data upon which to base any comparisons, calculations or decisions.
It is mostly worthless. The same applies here.
I didn't say anything about ceramic BBs. I only spoke to the quality of the information provided, and I stand by that assertion.

I apologise if my tone was too harsh, long day, but I do not apologise for the central point of my comment.
Bad information must be challenged or this will just become an echo chamber.

You feel faster, you are faster!

No pink needed there.....that is somewhat true. The mind takes one to higher places many times.

to summarize the older thread, about 1-2w improvement in friction. Most of this is from the reduced spring tension on the derailleur. The larger pulleys and ceramic bearings add up to less than a watt of savings.

No known published measurements of aero effects, manufacturers claim to have done tunnel testing and no losses found. Believe what you will..

The bottom bearing is unlikely to have any effect as noted in the article linked at the end of that thread,
https://road.cc/...arings-pros-and-cons
That bearing will max out about 120-140 rpm, which is too slow for any of the marginal friction gains from ceramic bearings to show an effect.

I upgraded a fishing reel from brass bushings to ceramic bearings. The reel spool spins about 15-18 000 rpm during a cast. The ceramics are a significant improvement over bushings, gets another 5-10 yards distance on a cast. Next test is with ordinary bearings instead of the bushings, I am curious to see how that compares..