oujeep1

Anyone have any real world experience with ceramic bearings? Are they as good as advertised, or is it just hype. I ride on a pair of fsa rd 600 wheels, which i love, and the outlay to upgrade to ceramics is not huge, just wondering if anyone has actually used them? Thanks in advance.

oilman_15106

Have seen them on scambay for around $250 for a kit for the FSA wheels. Supposed to be the next thing that will make you faster. NO experince with them however.

brianallan

you're not going to notice a difference

nobrainer440

Yes, ceramic bearings can be way better than metal ones. Will it make a damn bit of difference to your riding? No. Bearings are about .000000001% of the resistance you're fighting on your bike.

slvoid

You won't notice a difference unless you're going 80000 rpm at 1200 degrees.

ElJamoquio

Presuming you ride with your wallet, you'll be much faster on the climbs.

El Diablo Rojo

Velonews did a very good test on ceramic bearings on BB and found that in most cases there was a noticeable difference. I have an FSA MegaExo BB and the cost to change over is around 200 bucks. This would give the BB about the same smoothness as a Campy square taper Record BB. What the test showed was that the new BB systems don't spin as freely as the old style systems, unless you add expensive ceramic BB. I figured for the price of the ceramic upgrade I could sell my FSA crank/BB system and buy a set of square taper Campy carbon cranks and BB. FWIW the new Campy BB was very close to the FSA/Shimano system with ceramic bearings.

The guru at my LBS says the best hubs he's seen have been Shimano DA and Campy Chorus and Record. In his experience these hubs spin as freely as the ceramic bearing hubs. You do give up some weight savings with these hubs, so if you are concerned about the weight you might consider going the ceramic bearing rout.

merlinextraligh

But wasn't it like 1 or 2 watts in the Velon News testing?

El Diablo Rojo

Yeah the wattage wasn't significant but the amount of time the cranks spun was.
They also felt that at higher loads they felt that the loss would have been greater. I can tell you that there is a huge difference in how freely my Campy square tape BB spun compared to my FSA MegaExo spins. I look at it this way, it's easy to say that X=2w and that is not significant. But if you apply that to everything on your bike then you could be losing 5-10w. I really keep on top of my bikes maintainence, I'm quite anal about how it's adjusted, how clean it is, what condition the chain, and cassette are in etc etc. As for the value of ceramic bearing that's a question that only the buyer can answer. If a 2w gain is worth 200 bucks to you then the question is answered. I'm not one to judge how others spend their money. I have teammates who train on Reynolds DV clinchers and Zipp 404 clinchers. Do they need them? Would Open Pro's laced to 105 hubs do the job? Of course they would, but these guys are well off and the financial impact for them is probably less than the Open Pros are for most others.

merlinextraligh

the irony to me in the article is the fact that you've got to put ceramic bearings in an external bearing BB to make the "better, improved bb" spin as freely as an ancient square taper design.

jemoryl

When I was a teenager I had a Montgomery Wards '10-speed' with a one-piece Ashtabula crank/BB. Give that thing a twirl and it would spin forever.

Indolent58

I was thinking the same thing. Isn't progess supposed to be, well .. progress?

El Diablo Rojo

Yeah the best spinning BB in the test was a 11 year old Veloce BB. Go figure.

Dubbayoo

The new FSA K-Force Light crankset comes with ceramic bearings. I was planning on getting that one anyway so now I'll just go with the 2007 model.

smoke

i just saw in a magazine that the K-Force Light rings are 38/52, not 39/53

-smoke

jccaclimber

Your bearing drag will increase as you put them farther from the axis (same force, longer moment arm). That's what you pay when you want stiffer crank. Larger bearings also wear better even if they aren't as good in the short term. Also, if you properly preload a bearing so that it lasts longer and has less drag under load it will NOT spin as long under no load. I'm not a defender of ceramic bearings but I want to point out that there are other issues to bear in mind.

brianallan

in my experience:
best sealed BB and hubs = phil wood
best non-sealed hubs = dura ace track hubs (smoothest thing I've ever felt)

Dubbayoo

There are 34/50 as well. I think/thought even the 38/52 is 110 BCD.

DocRay

The Velonews test was a WOMFT to read. Even they admitted the test was useless because they did not test under any load to the bearings. Small wonder a worn square taper was the best.
Just spinning a bearing and seeing how long it takes to slow down is just a function of the bearing seal drag or the viscosity of the bearing grease. If you removed the seals, and squirted in light oil, that bearing would win. Given that they acknowledged the flaw of the test, why didn't they just do it right?

I switched to a ceramic BB (ISIS), and did not really notice a difference, but what remains to be seen is if these bearings wear any better than steel bearings.

My advice: wait.

SSP

According to my calculations, if you crank it up to 400 watts, the ceramic bearings will improve your 40K TT time by approximately 24.375 seconds.

Hipcycler

Personal experience....that's ceramic in my hip.
Two thumbs up!

thedips

wow did you just say montgomery wards!!! hahahaha oh wow.... who remembers montgomery wards!!!



oh wait.. boo.. i remember montgomery wards... that means im old...
gosh i remember purchasing a home entertainment like tvstand / cabinet.. and i had to carry it up 3 flights of narrow stairs...


ok sorry back to the discussion...

DocRay

Take a look at tech articles at the TDF, many teams have gone through a lot of trouble to run ceramics, even though they are not sponsored by the manufacturers. The most common hack was FSA ceramics on Dura Ace cranks for Shimano sponsored teams, and all teams are well known to run ceramic hub bearings, even if the wheel manufacturer does not sell them.

These bearings cannot be seen, so many pro teams are going through a lot of trouble. I would guess it's for a good reason.

damocles1

I have them in my White Industries hubs and they spin forever. They are way smoother than any other wheels in the quiver.

bianchiboy71

Once again we have the usual criticism from people who've never used the item in question. Not as many as I expected though - I've usually got to wade through pages of insults and sweeping statements here on Bike Forums!

I put a Ceramicspeed upgrade kit on my Ksyrium ES after about a thousand miles and also ceramic bearings on my rear derailleur jockey wheels. I upgraded these from Record which feel sticky in comparison. I've done about another thousand miles since upgrading.
The ES's are now way smoother than my Camapagnolo Neutrons (Record class hubs) and they weren't before. The drivetrain feels like it's gone from dry to oiled.

I noticed the improvement before I'd even reached the end of my street.
Better than standard? Yes. Worth the money? Only you can decide.