well i saw these carbon/ti BB’s on ebay and thought the price was right BUT price means not alot if it doesn’t perform. it does have a 2 year warrenty though. so has anyone used one of these? comments positive or negative? i’m just looking for a reason to upgrade to a BB with ceramic bearings because i’m tired of spending money on my kitchen (a new dishwasher & stove is gonna cost how much?!) and want to buy something for my bike.
Not sure about their BBs, but their Wheels are legit.
I have used this bb with a token crankset and it has worked great for me…no complaints. Pull the trigger.
so can you tell a difference between the regular and the ceramic bearings? is it really worth the extra coin? does the spindle spin easier? which crank/BB combo were you using before? any input is appreciated. thanks.
Being someone who slings bearings for a living, I can tell you that ceramics dissipate heat in high rpm applications much faster than steel.
Weight savings might be marginal. They certainly are more expensive.
My two cents is that the wheel companies (hub companies) have done a pretty good job in marketing this “new technology”. I haven’t researched any studies ceramic vs. steel in the cycling world, so I couldn’t tell you if you’d gain anything by going to ceramic.
I’ve had one in my Pegoretti for about four months. No complaints thus far.
I talked to Mavic about the ceramic bearings in hubs. they were against using them. I think they said too fragile. I don’t know if there is a difference in BB or hubs for wear & tear. They thought it was a lot of hype.
I only used it for one season…before that was a cannondale bb and crank. So, I can’t say much for the wear and tear. I would say it feels marginally smoother but I wouldn’t make it a point to go out and buy another one if it was considerably more money.
I couldn’t pull the trigger on carbons so I decided to upgrade my Am Classic 420’s by getting ceramics installed and a new FSA Ceramic BB. The guys at my LBS were not pro or con on the bearings only worried about the cost benefit.
When I went to pick them up they commented about how long both the front and rear spun compared with other non-ceramic wheels sitting in a truing stand. (to keep things fair they used an air compressor to rotate the wheels up to speed rather than using their hand to spin them) The AC wheels with the ceramic bearings out spun every wheel tested. After putting them back on my P2C they compared the ride quality with a stock P2C they had ready to ride. They all agreed that it seemed to have less drag and coasted at a higher rate and further once they stopped pedaling. None of this is scientific by any stretch of the imagination, but I’m a year older and my bike times are less than they were last year.
I say if you can afford it do it.
thanks for the replies everyone. sounds like monies might be better spent getting some ceramic derailleur pulleys…plus they come in different colors so there’s a definite “bling” factor 
Very interesting Trisporter. Sounds like a pretty good test. Glad it worked out. Thanks for the info.
has anyone ever conducted a study on cermaic bicycle bearings? I’d be interested to see a comparison between ceramic and steel bearings that were machined to similar tolerances. It’s always been my suspicion that the benifits of ceramic bearings come from tighter tolerances in manufacture, and that their performance in a bicycle application and that a steel bearing with similar quality would perform the same. It’s just that you get more cheap steel bearings out there, so generic spin down tests usually result in high grade ceramics being compared to lower grade steel.
My LBS recommends upgrading your BB and your pulleys to get the best of both worlds. Friction is caused by parts i.e. pedals/bottom bracket, chain, pulleys all moving together, so if you lower your friction you go faster. I have attached a couple of websites I like the enduro site but both are good for information.
www.velocarbon.com/ceramicbearings.html
www.enduroforkseals.com/index.html
I plan to upgrade my BB soon and will do the pulleys next.