Ceramic Wheel Bearings

[didnothingfatal]

Has anybody upgraded their wheel bearings to ceramic? This isn't for my mountain bike, I'm building a new road bike.

[thomthumb]

i'm yet to be convinced of ceramic bearings;

the efficiency difference between them is minimal & my bike shop friends have told me about a few BBs that have come in that have been smashed to bits - emptied dust out of the bearing shell!
the weight saving is more significant....

[Bearbonesnorm]

Slightly OT but still OT enough ... I sometimes used to run ceramic bearings when I dabbled in racing longboards (many moons ago). I could never tell much difference really but the thinking seemed to be that, it's the lubricant in a bearing that causes drag and a ceramic bearing requires much less lubricant and can get by with a much lower viscosity ... so less drag.

[didnothingfatal]

Decision time! The new ceramic bottom bracket has shown up, incredibly smooth and so tempted to upgrade the wheels, although the idea of aero carbon rims was suggested last night. Good god I'm becoming a roadie!

[Bearbonesnorm]

Trouble is, at the end of the day you've still got to pedal the thing

[didnothingfatal]

but training rides will be more fun, I hope

[Ian]

"Training never gets any easier, you just go faster"
- Greg Lemond

[bigrobracing]

Careful! It is important to distinguish between a full ceramic and a hybrid ceramic component.

A full ceramic bearing, with cages and balls, will not be tough enough for a MTB application. You'll want to limit yourself to hybrid ceramic bearings with ceramic balls and steel races. This comes from these guys http://www.endurozerobearings.com/. They do make a bearing with magnetite races that are harder (and therefore "better" as in more durable and less rolling resistance) than steel, but are much tougher than a full ceramic, so are a great intermediate material for MTB use.

Hope that helps.