Ceramic Bearings Vs Steel Bearings Bicycle Wheels

The material can be polished smoother than any metal reducing friction and wear.

Ceramic bearings vs steel bearings bicycle wheels.

This is due to the hardness of the bearings. Second well made high quality ceramic bearings can have a significantly longer lifespan than the commonly used stock steel bearings that come installed on most production bikes. Steel bearings are commodity items that are composed of hardened steel balls and a steel inner and outer race. The other apparent advantage of ceramic is that it is a harder material.

They are also lighter than equivalent steel bearings so swapping to ceramic bearings will reduce the weight of your bike. It takes weeks for a kogel ball to sit in a tumbler and be perfectly polished. While regular bearings are made from stainless steel ceramic bearings are made from ceramic silicon nitride si2n4. How to get the best performance from ceramic bearings ceramic speed.

Rolling resistance is the key trump card promoted by ceramic bearing fans. Ceramic bearings are in actual fact hybrid. The first thing that strikes the eye when looking at bicycle bearings is the difference in price between steel bearings and hybrid ceramic bearings. Because ceramic races are more brittle than steel.

So for safety reasons ceramic wheel bearings on bicycles are in fact almost always hybrid design meaning ceramic balls on steel races. Cracking a race could stop a wheel from turning instantly and no good comes of wheels permanently locking up on a bicycle. The folks at enduro bearings argue that for bicycles the materials are far more important than abec ratings and that for most applications abec 3 and 5 are appropriate for all things bicycle. The ceramic balls are often silicon nitride or equivalent.