Needing to replace my bb bearings. I know the gains by going ceramic would be super small, but I work at a bike shop, so I can get stuff at cost. Any reason to not go ceramic?
I would suggest Phil Wood “Carbonyte” steel bearings.
Care to elaborate on why?
They are as fast as ceramic bearings and won’t crack like ceramic.
They are as fast as ceramic bearings and won’t crack like ceramic.
Is there any data on this?
Check out Hawk Racing. Years ago the Friction Facts reports gave them a really good nod.
I got sick of having to replace my bottom bracket several times a year using ceramic. The balls are harder than the steel races and they wear our quicker. The gains over steel are minimal and for the cost and reduced amounts of maintenance savings I’m back to steel. Nothing worse than just before a race finding your expensive ceramic bottom bracket feels rough. I now run angular contact bearings as the load theoretically should be spread across the whole bearing, reducing friction and wear.
Hi, we recently reviewed the friction vs wear vs cost of ceramic BB (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4-39TuvOCs). I guess it’s a personal choice (cost-benefit) but the number one thing you can do would be to simply clean out your BB area.
maybe 0.03w gains using the best ceramic bb, vs steel. Some ceramics were worse than comparable steel.
BB are relatively low RPM so it’s unlikely the marginal friction gains from ceramic will ever be significant.
Add the wear factor as Shambolic mentions…
even at cost I wouldn’t consider it…
Install a crankset into a bottom bracket with Carbonyte bearings and give it a spin without the chain installed and you will have all the proof you need.
I have some available on eBay or you can buy them from me directly for a bit less.
Ceramic bearings offer less resistance , but most of the time the difference in drag is not from the ceramic coating on the balls but because in the seals. When everything is new this is fine, but after a while dirt/contaminant can get in and produce more drag than steel with equivalent mileage.
Personally, I replace them more frequently with steel version rather than use ceramic. It depends on the riding conditions too…
A high tolerance steel bearing from a well established companies such as NTN, or Schaeffler is going to be just as good as a good ceramic bearing from say CeramicSpeed or Enduro while costing less than half the price.
I usually get one of those, remove the factory grease and run a low drag bearing grease instead.
I’ve only had a bottom bracket go bad twice. Once was after it was submerged in dirty water during Dirty Kanza and the Nashville flood, all in the same brief time period. The other was a SRAM ceramic BB that began to sound like it was grinding sand within about six weeks of being installed.
As has been mentioned, it seems to me that differences in seal friction are greater than differences in steel / ceramic bearing friction for bottom brackets. IMLTHO, ceramic bearings (even at cost) aren’t worth the difference in cost. If you offered me two bottom brackets for the same price, I would still choose steel over ceramic.