Ceramic Bearings Cycling Worth The Money

Expensive boutique wheels represent a far worse cost benefit tradeoff than a ceramic bottom bracket.

Ceramic bearings cycling worth the money.

However the ceramic bearing costs just short of twice as much as the hawk racing bearing. Why buy ceramic bearings for a bike. The highest performing bearing made by ceramicspeed was outperformed by the hawk racing steel bearings by almost 15. Jacob csizmadia founder of ceramicspeed was the first person to introduce ceramic hybrid bearings to professional cycling back in 2000 ceramicspeed s test data claims somewhat boldly a six.

However it costs three times as much as the hawk racing bearing. You can find cheaper examples but cheaper types offer minimal. Ceramic bearings are not cheap. If you have maximized every other aspect of your bike kit and fitness and have money to burn then i guess you can try ceramic bearings but you won t see any advantage.

A full set of cyclingceramic bearings starts at 80 and ceramicspeed wheel bearings cost from 240. It is worth remembering that a good ceramic bearing is a very good and fast bearing. That makes upgrading to ceramic bearings a serious investment fine for a professional cycling team less so for a privateer racer. When looking at the bike itself consider that a full upgrade from kogel will set you back roughly 500 in product cost.

If steel bearings can perform at similar levels for a lower cost why would you buy a ceramic. 1000 on a zipp 404 saves about 7 watts over a cheap oem alloy wheel. The premium for ceramic bearings is high then and their advantages while looking promising in an ideal world appear to stack up much less in the demanding environment that a bicycle is expected to perform and survive in. Get an aero road helmet tighter fitting clothing get a bike fit clean up your cables in front get an aero road handlebar all of those things will get you actual advantages vs.

You hear a lot of good things about ceramic bearings but is the hype all true and how much of an effect will it have for the cost. At 300 watts a moderate time trial pace a 100 ceramic bottom bracket would save 10 5 watts. Once you have optimized all contact points of your bike and got yourself a nice set of wheels a ceramic bearing upgrade can bring some real world benefits.