EfficiencyWeenies - New Friction Facts Report on Bearing Lube and Seals

Triathlon Forum
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Friction Facts has a new report out on lube efficiency in bearings, specifically bottom brackets. They also did testing and removed the seals as well to see what difference they made. Interesting stuff for the efficiency weenies out there.

As for takeaways, I was a little surprised at how low the improvement was from the removal of seals. End result was about 3/4 of a watt difference between best and worst lube. I think that is a fair summary without stepping on their hard work. The $10 I paid I still consider to be one of the best investments I have ever made.

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Thanks for the heads up!

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The report is free right now for anyone that wants it
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Didn’t notice that, even better, nothing to lose but a little bit of time reading the report.

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I’m not sure I would use 25% grease fill. That seems low and you could potentially damage the races. Ceramic Speed recommends 75%.

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The Cannibal used to lube his bearings with motor oil.

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interesting results, SLIP R/C car bearing oil is only $5 a tube :smiley:

The 25% fill should be fine so long as you were doing this for big races and not day in - day out use. Same thing with the seals… probably wouldn’t want to roll like that for a long time, but should be fine for an important race. (Or you could remove the inner seal and leave the outer one)

Surprised the dry lube did so bad, wonder if adding it to other lubes would have an effect. (- or +)

Still, slight gains to be made!

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I’m not sure I would use 25% grease fill. That seems low and you could potentially damage the races. Ceramic Speed recommends 75%.

I feel like manufacturers will always recommend more conservatively so customers have a better experience. However, if it was me, racing Kona, 25% grease and no seals it is :wink:

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Interesting report.

I do tend to go geek out pretty far. I have self-velodrome tested position and helmet, View-speed skewers, ceramic bearings, etc.

But I think I draw the line at this stuff. Though nothing is that technically challenging, I think the risk of removing all those bearings, cleaning them out, removing seals, replacing lubricant, etc brings a small risk of screwing something up, dropping some tiny spacer out of a hub and not noticing it, etc. Vs. a very small payoff. It tends to violate the “nothing new on race day” maxim.

I’d consider it if I were going after an hour record or something.

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Interesting report.

I do tend to go geek out pretty far. I have self-velodrome tested position and helmet, View-speed skewers, ceramic bearings, etc.

But I think I draw the line at this stuff. Though nothing is that technically challenging, I think the risk of removing all those bearings, cleaning them out, removing seals, replacing lubricant, etc brings a small risk of screwing something up, dropping some tiny spacer out of a hub and not noticing it, etc. Vs. a very small payoff. It tends to violate the “nothing new on race day” maxim.

I’d consider it if I were going after an hour record or something.

I agree with everything you said. I would probably buy the Ceramic Speed TT grease for big races and have my shop deal with changing the lubricant out. It’s a lot of work for such small gains.

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I think the risk of removing all those bearings, cleaning them out, removing seals, replacing lubricant, etc brings a small risk of screwing something up.

Bearings will usually be ruined by pressing them out. So you either need to do this with them still in the hub, or do it to new bearings and then install them.

One thing I’ve noticed with “normal” (cheap) cartridge bearings is that they take awhile to “break in”, but once they do there is very little resistance.

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Interesting report.

I do tend to go geek out pretty far. I have self-velodrome tested position and helmet, View-speed skewers, ceramic bearings, etc.

But I think I draw the line at this stuff. Though nothing is that technically challenging, I think the risk of removing all those bearings, cleaning them out, removing seals, replacing lubricant, etc brings a small risk of screwing something up, dropping some tiny spacer out of a hub and not noticing it, etc. Vs. a very small payoff. It tends to violate the “nothing new on race day” maxim.

I’d consider it if I were going after an hour record or something.

I agree with everything you said. I would probably buy the Ceramic Speed TT grease for big races and have my shop deal with changing the lubricant out. It’s a lot of work for such small gains.

The sole purpose of these reports, in terms of us consumers, is to empower us to exert total and complete control over miniscule aspects of our equipment. Of course the gains are minimal, but at the end of the day, you know that the interior of you chain rollers are spotless except for a coating of wax, because, well, you bathed them in mineral spirits and denatured alcohol 3 times.

Dropping off your bike at the LBS with a tube of Ceramic Speed TT grease and expecting them to carefully flush 6-8 bearings with fresh chemicals, fill precisely to 25%, carefully replace seals, and torque to perfection just seems silly. I’m sure you’d get your bike back and the tube of grease will be empty. But if the gains are so minimal, then why shell out the extra money for the labor it will take to get your list of demands filled?

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it really is not as hard as everyone says:

I follow the you tube videos and have a ultrasonic cleaner, 10 mins each side and then fill with the ceramicspeed lube, spin it and check and put back together
.

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Interesting report.

I do tend to go geek out pretty far. I have self-velodrome tested position and helmet, View-speed skewers, ceramic bearings, etc.

But I think I draw the line at this stuff. Though nothing is that technically challenging, I think the risk of removing all those bearings, cleaning them out, removing seals, replacing lubricant, etc brings a small risk of screwing something up, dropping some tiny spacer out of a hub and not noticing it, etc. Vs. a very small payoff. It tends to violate the “nothing new on race day” maxim.

I’d consider it if I were going after an hour record or something.

I agree with everything you said. I would probably buy the Ceramic Speed TT grease for big races and have my shop deal with changing the lubricant out. It’s a lot of work for such small gains.

The sole purpose of these reports, in terms of us consumers, is to empower us to exert total and complete control over miniscule aspects of our equipment. Of course the gains are minimal, but at the end of the day, you know that the interior of you chain rollers are spotless except for a coating of wax, because, well, you bathed them in mineral spirits and denatured alcohol 3 times.

Dropping off your bike at the LBS with a tube of Ceramic Speed TT grease and expecting them to carefully flush 6-8 bearings with fresh chemicals, fill precisely to 25%, carefully replace seals, and torque to perfection just seems silly. I’m sure you’d get your bike back and the tube of grease will be empty. But if the gains are so minimal, then why shell out the extra money for the labor it will take to get your list of demands filled?

I don’t plan on doing any of that haha. I meant that if I wanted to do it, I’d just pay someone to do it because I wouldn’t want to spend the time to do all of that work.

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Ok, that’s fair! I can just imagine some STer dropping off their bike at their LBS with a $28 tube of grease and expecting the high school shop mechanic to go to town like they are a TdF mechanic.

But I agree with those saying that this would probably be easier that it seems at first glance. Once I managed to clean my year old chain, I was shocked by how easy waxing is.

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it really is not as hard as everyone says:

I follow the you tube videos and have a ultrasonic cleaner, 10 mins each side and then fill with the ceramicspeed lube, spin it and check and put back together

What are you using to clean bearings in the ultrasonic cleaner and is it safe on ceramics?

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yes it is safe i talked to ben at ceramic (mentioned the cleaner to ben first) and molten speed wax for my chain.

simple green HD i purchased off amazon prime

did the chain a few times and now just did the bearings last week. hit me up if you have questions

chris

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yes it is safe i talked to ben at ceramic (mentioned the cleaner to ben first) and molten speed wax for my chain.

simple green HD i purchased off amazon prime

did the chain a few times and now just did the bearings last week. hit me up if you have questions

chris

Just this stuff? Simple Green HD Pro

Been using Simple Green for years, is this just an even more heavy duty version of it? Did you ask Ben by chance about mineral spirits at all?

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I’m curious how well SG HD, or even standard SG, works paired with an ultrasonic cleaner. Does it work as well as mineral spirits without an ultrasonic cleaner? Is any scrubbing required?

I use standard SG in a spray bottle for my general cleanings, but have never found strong enough to really strip anything from my drivetrain. I simply use clorox wipes for a quick fix. Mineral spirits is my new go to for stripping parts, but I could be convinced to give up the harsh non-environmentally chemicals, if the ultrasonic cleaner is that good.

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yes that is the stuff…

now mineral spirits i use on my chain when they are new and a few other chemicals to strip them and no i did not ask ben