Ceramic bearings are a joke for bicycle hub applications. They are a ploy by certain manufacturers to separate you from a little more of your money. Standard bearings work great as long as they are replaced and/or lubed as appropriate.

I used a pair of Ceramic Bearings in a pair of my Velomax Wheels, they made a HUGE difference. You could definitly notice the difference between the two types of bearings. the downfall, if of course the cost. the only reason I did this is because I got them for free!!! There is one thing better than cheap: Free!!!

The fact that the little balls are ceramic has absolutely nothing to do with whatever improvement you think you noticed. If the cartridge you're replacing is crap to begin with (and *most* stock cartridges are total garbage), anything will improve. A bike wheel is a low speed, low load application. Ceramic bearings are designed for high speed applications. The difference you're seeing is mainly the lack of low speed hydraulic drag when you play with the axle with your fingers. This has absolutely nothing to do with "riding" the wheel. A high quality, 100% grease fill, chrome steel balls bearing will feel sticky when new ... for about 1000-2000 miles, and this is normal and everybody knows this. The reason ceramic bearings "feel" better is because of low grease fill, not because they're better.

Dre'

What a bunch of shit - YES they ARE BETTER - it is PROVEN...Why is it when something new and cool comes out most of y'all poo poo the idea and claim it is a waste of money? If it is not worth YOUR money does not make it wrong for another person to spend thier money on it. (Very good example is people telling me in the past I am dumb for buying Zipp wheels over the Renn....not saying that the Renn is not a good wheel - but even Frank has complimented the Zipp 909's).



However, maybe if "good enough" is "good enough" for you then stick with Steel in grease.



And another thing....cones and balls are faster than cartridge bearings any day...just some people cant or dont like to adjust them properly.

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What if the Hokey Pokey is what it is all about?

This is why I ride cones and balls ...

I don't claim it's a waste of money, I honestly don't give a flying fuck what you do with your money, I claim it's inappropriate in that application, as ceramic bearings are designed for high-speed applications and a bike wheel ain't one (and nobody can argue with that). Last I checked, wheel hubs *never* cracked 2000 rpm (that's about 75 mph) ... But you're such an outstanding cyclist, I bet yours do.

Dre'

My understanding is that ceramics were used in motors, etc. because of their heat tolerance... which would make sense in high-RPM applications (and of no advantage in low RPM applications like a bike).

what i hear from a company that offers it is that it's 1 watt. maybe yes, maybe no, but that's the claim. $1500, 3 or 4 seconds over 40k, at best.

that's not be saying it, that's them saying it.

so, yes, in the best case it makes sense for lance and co. but otherwise...

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

Dre - my comments are not directed at you - as you are probably right about what the ceramic bearings were originally indented to do...but then again Aluminum and Titanium are only for airplanes right? Carbon fiber only for airplanes too....just because things are designed in one place (In cycling seemingly most often aerospace) does not mean that we can not benefit from the use of the same products in other applications - such as cycling.

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What if the Hokey Pokey is what it is all about?

Correct ... withstanding huge amount of heat and keeping their shape is what makes them good in stupidly fast applications (north of 80,000 rpm, like turbo pumps and stuff). This is also aided by the fact that they can be made about 10 times more spherical than steel balls (2 millionth deviation Vs about 25 for chrome steel), thus the need for grease is minimized, as friction is minimized.

Dre'

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Is a 'flying fuck' anything like joining the 'mile high' club?

My friend who is sharing my booth and showing his super light-weight (300+ grams including BB) super stiff cranks (Negative Mass cranks) that will be avaialble soon at over $1,000 (final price not known) uses ceramic bearings in the BB cup. He does this for several reasons including improved wear (for longer life) and they allow him to have a bigger axle (24mm) which is part of where he gets his improved stiffness from.

They are cool but clearly not for everyone. But, I can assure you that lots of people here are wanting to buy this puppy now.

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Frank,
An original Ironman and the Inventor of PowerCranks

OK ... if I see my "name" in the subject, I assume it's directed towards me ...

Now, I fully understand (and agree with) your idea that successful technological advances *must* be applied to other fields. I, myself, own plastic wheels (Hed) and 60% of my bikes are made out of beer cans, so don't go assuming I'm a (exclusively) Rivendell/Phil Wood kind of guy ...

I see a flaw regarding ceramic bearings applications because riding a bike isn't performed in a clean room. Under controlled applications, like vacuum pumps, you can fully exploit ceramics stunning properties by running your cartridges dry (the Teflon retainer is the dry lubricant), thus minimizing resistance. In a bike hub, you then *need* to somewhat fill the void between the balls to reduce the danger of race contamination (thus increasing resistance) and further isolate the balls from the elements with one of two lip seals, which again increase resistance tremendously.

Cone/balls track hubs are as fast as they can be because one lubricates them with tapping fluid and they have no seals. but we all know 'Drome guys are nuts ...

It just seems to me that there's big money spent on a fairly high tech product which is unfortunately "dumbed down" because it needs to be overly modified to withstand cycling's requirement.

I have no doubt that someone will come up with a way to make it work well (I bet the first plastic frames were pretty scary to ride), but until then, I *do* believe them to be a total waste of money. A lot of companies make scary smooth, long lasting steel balls based bearings.

Dre'

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> Is a 'flying fuck' anything like joining the 'mile high' club?

No no ... it's what most undergrads *don't* give when you teach them Quantum Chemistry ...

Dre'

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In my vast studies, ceramic bearings are equal to one less trip a month to McDonalds, 5 more miles of training and just riding harder.

I think this proves the "overkill" argument -- $500 per second per hour (!!).

I'm sure even most pros could gain far, far more than that over 40km by trimming back their derailleur and brake cable ends a cm or two, trimming their helmet strap end, not wearing a wristwatch, and routing their cables a little more tightly at the front. All of which costs $0.