Hey, i have been looking at nice sets of wheels and have found that they either have regular steel bearings, ceramic and then full ceramic bearings. ive seen countless videos on youtube where they compare them. the full ceramic equipped wheels stay spinning the longest by far compared to the regular steel bearings and ceramic ones. Now I am wondering What your thoughts are. are full ceramic bearings worth it? in the videos there is no weight on the bike, they are just standing and the wheel is spun, so im wondering if you were actaully riding it with your weight on the bike what kind of differences would there be? I have heard that full ceramic bearings are expensive and most people with zipp wheels, and other high end wheels dont have full ceramic bearings. Here is 1 video showing the difference https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4Tc1U1Tg34

If you ride with your wheels up in the air then by all means buy ceramic bearings. With a load on the bearings there is no difference between a high quality steel bearing and a ceramic bearing. Ceramic bearings main advantage is that they dissipate against heat better. So in mechanical applications where you have machinery spinning 10,000+ rpm then ceramic bearings have a place. When you are riding 30mph your wheels are spinning 340rpm, you could touch the bearings and they will be cool to the touch.
Ceramic bearings have no place in the cycling industry (unless you're a manufacturer trying to make more money).

Got the money? Wanna be like the cool kids?

If not then why aren't we all riding schwinns and china carbons?

The cheap hybrid ceramics used in the bicycle industry get their apparently lower rolling resistance by using looser seals. That makes the bearings feel free and look good in tests like the one above that are easy to do but not relevant to the real world. It also allows dirt and water to enter the bearing more easily so the bearing dies earlier. I learned my lesson with ceramic bearings and now use high quality steel bearings instead.

There you go again ... Spouting off facts as if they were factual and making sense ... Disgraceful ! ( )

japanese ezo

The wear on them is horrible. You may need to replace them each year.

They are nice otherwise.

What? Don't know about full ceramic bearings because they seem to be all about creating low drag with minimal seal, but angular hybrid ceramic bearing balls with steel races last considerably longer than steel balls with steel races. They are much harder, wear slower, and don't pit as easily.

https://www.slowtwitch.com/Tech/Beari...down_2822.html

I've never actually ridden hybrid or full ceramic bearings on a bicycle, but the hybrid ceramic bearings I've ridden on a skateboard made a very noticeable difference. They got up to speed faster, rolled smoother/with less drag, and held speed for much longer than regular steel bearings.

Heavier rims/tyres will spin longer.

Skateboard wheels spin a whole lot faster than bike wheels. Look down at your front hub at speed and notice how slowly it is actually turning. As previous posters said the seals comprise the most drag when spinning unloaded.

I have 2 cnc mills. the mill with the 15,000rpm spindle has ceramic bearings. The other mill has a 10,000 rpm spindle with steel bearings. As long as you keep your wheel speed under 10,000 rpm you should be fine.

Won't there be an issue with the ceramic balls being harder than the steel races they run on? I've always felt the races have to be at least as hard as the balls that run on them. Or am I overthinking this here?