Originally Posted by
ArgoMan
Hey y'all. I was thinking about upgrading the BBs in my race bikes. I'm using basic Shimano RS501's presently, I believe. But I'm wondering if there's any real difference in performance compared with the more expensive BBs. As a comparison, the old caged bearing headset in one of my bikes works just as well as the fancy Cane Creek headset on my TT bike. Just wondering if it's worth the BB upgrade.
Probably not. If you are looking at ceramic bearings then note that most of the friction is in the seals and not the balls. Power saving is also minimal at the crank speeds and loads on a bicycle. Industrial applications can be spinning at 20,000 rpm under high load. You are spinning at less than 100 rpm and human power is relatively low.