Bearings steel or exotic ceramic?

stefano
stefano Posts: 254
edited July 2018 in Road buying advice
I wanted to upgrade my cartridge bearings on my hubs. With £10 I can buy very good quality staleness steel sealed pre-lubed SKF bearings. then with £30 or £50 I can buy ceramic.
Does it worth to go for ceramic?

Comments

  • imposter2.0
    imposter2.0 Posts: 12,028
    Not worth it. The difference between the most absurdly-expensive ceramic bearings and 'regular' steel bearings is not going to be noticeable anywhere other than your bank balance.
  • joenobody
    joenobody Posts: 563
    Agreed. This is a good watch, if you're interested know more about why - https://youtu.be/o7iZVfSDbiA
  • neeb
    neeb Posts: 4,467
    Certainly not worth it for any percieved speed benefit, but good ceramic bearings can be very low maintenance as they can run without grease, just a light oil. But that's not going to be the £30-£50 quid ones. For it to work the races need to be very good quality too (very hard steel) such as in the capagnolo CULT bearings.

    Any tiny watt savings (which really are tiny) come from the ability to run without grease.
  • wotnoshoeseh
    wotnoshoeseh Posts: 531
    Steel