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.

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. Because ceramic races are more brittle than steel. This is due to the hardness of the bearings. How to get the best performance from ceramic bearings ceramic speed.

The ceramic balls are often silicon nitride or equivalent. They use ceramic balls and usually a steel inner and outer race. So for safety reasons ceramic wheel bearings on bicycles are in fact almost always hybrid design meaning ceramic balls on steel races. Rolling resistance is the key trump card promoted by ceramic bearing fans.

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. It takes weeks for a kogel ball to sit in a tumbler and be perfectly polished. 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.

While regular bearings are made from stainless steel ceramic bearings are made from ceramic silicon nitride si2n4. Ceramic bearings are in actual fact hybrid. The material can be polished smoother than any metal reducing friction and wear. They are also lighter than equivalent steel bearings so swapping to ceramic bearings will reduce the weight of your bike.