Originally Posted by
02Giant
The OE crank in my Orbea was a SRAM Rival utilizing the adjusting collar. I used that the first year then I replaced it with a Force crank that utilizes a wave washer. About 4 years and 8k miles in from new, one of the bearings became gravel-ly feeling that was when I replaced the originals with the Enduros. I don't know the preload requirements of either bearing type other than I adjust the preload to the SRAM spec in the install manual. Also I can't give any insight on the (Enduro brand) longevity as I built another bike at the time I replaced bearings, and have ridden the new bike far more than the Orbea since.
I didn't give any thought to the drag caused by the bearing seals as my speed isn't affected by the crank bearing seals.
You’re probably right about the drag issue. Watching cranks spin round and round with low drag bearings may seem better but once hooked up to chain, the difference between full seals and lower drag ones in terms of watts is probably marginal. Plus there is the tradeoff in durability to consider since full seals will keep more crap out. That said, Enduro seems to use low contact seals so they should have a bit lower drag than fuller seals
So next issue I am curious about is bearing clearance (space between balls and races within the bearings) In the Hambini videos, he is not high on Enduro because they use C3 clearance while other quality bearing makers (NTN, NSK, etc) use CN, meaning in the later the space between balls and races are smaller than in Enduro. But on their website, Enduro promotes C3 as a selling point. Hambini says they will wear faster and make more noise, but I have seen elsewhere the theory that for pressfit BBs, C3 is preferable to account for the forces that the crank spindle and being pressed to the BB shell exert on the races, so will be smoother once installed.
None of this I am likely to notice while actually riding, although durability is a consideration. Anyway, I will probably end up getting enduro since they are widely available, although I will probably stick with deep grove rather than angular; but I am still a bit unsure as to what combination of seal type and clearance will give me the best combination of performance and durability.