Ceramic Bearing Vs Steel Cycling

On the one hand much of the cycling public associates bearing upgrades with going ceramic and on the other hand there is a healthy chunk of cyclists from all demographics who believe ceramic bearings are just marketing hype and a waste of money.

Ceramic bearing vs steel cycling.

Cost of purchase for ceramic and steel bearings. The first thing that strikes the eye when looking at bicycle bearings is the difference in price between steel bearings and hybrid ceramic bearings. Ceramic vs steel bearing bb for durability. They use ceramic balls and usually a steel inner and outer race.

This is mostly due to the additional time spent to perfect a quality ceramic ball. The influx of ceramic bearing development into the bike industry sparked needed focus on reducing rolling friction in bearings. However the reality of why some bearing designs are faster than others doesn t always align with what is presented. Lubricants vary greatly in viscosity thickness finding varying points in a trade off between bearing protection and lower friction.

I albeit lighter at 160 lbs use standard bearing in both my rain and training bike and haven t had any problems. Most cycling bearings feature a steel race though some do use a ceramic race which we will briefly touch on later. This article to try to assist with this fun little area. Ceramic bearings are in actual fact hybrid.

The ceramic balls are often silicon nitride or equivalent. Internal bearing construction ceramic bearings are not 100 ceramic. Next there is the lubricant. Steel bearings are commodity items that are composed of hardened steel balls and a steel inner and outer.

Ceramic bearings are often represented as the ultimate way to minimize rolling friction on your bike.