Ceramic Bearings Vs Steel Bearings Bicycle Wheels

Steel bearings are commodity items that are composed of hardened steel balls and a steel inner and outer race.

Ceramic bearings vs steel bearings bicycle wheels.

Steel bearings the silicon nitride used in kogel ceramic bearing balls has a set of material properties making them perfect for bicycle wheel bearings. The ceramic balls are often silicon nitride or equivalent. This is mostly due to the additional time spent to perfect a quality ceramic ball. Ceramic bearings are in actual fact hybrid.

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. They are also lighter than equivalent steel bearings so swapping to ceramic bearings will reduce the weight of your bike. This is due to the hardness of the bearings. The other apparent advantage of ceramic is that it is a harder material.

The material can be polished smoother than any metal reducing friction and wear. Because ceramic races are more brittle than steel. Rolling resistance is the key trump card promoted by ceramic bearing fans. How to get the best performance from ceramic bearings ceramic speed.

The first thing that strikes the eye when looking at bicycle bearings is the difference in price between steel bearings and hybrid ceramic bearings. They use ceramic balls and usually a steel inner and outer race. 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. It takes weeks for a kogel ball to sit in a tumbler and be perfectly polished.