Ceramicspeed (Ceramic) bearings versus Steel Bearings... An engineering explanation 

Surprised you didn't get objections from ceramicspeed. They were fighting back hard on fastfitnesstips channel after being called "Not worth it".

There is little more satisfying than watching really smart people do really awesome (and tedious) science for the benefit of all. Huge thanks for this. Very enlightening.

That is the most comprehensive analysis I have seen. It's interesting to see that a spin test is not a good measure of friction as that is what everyone seems to use to advertise the benefits. Ceramicspeed must be crying.

The reason the steel cages have lower friction is that they hold the bearings at their point/axis of rotation whereas the polymer cages snap onto and contact the balls at their rolling periphery

Conclusion: Invest in good steel bearings. If you want to reduce losses, look for appropriate seals and suitable bearing cages! Well done. Appreciated!

This is a great review of bearing technology. It covered the basics for the guys who know nothing then it went into detail giving a balanced assessment of the pros and cons for each type of bearing. If I hadnt seem this I'd almost certainly waste my time and money follwing marketing hype for ceramic bearings.

I am not even slightly in the market for bearing upgrades, and I always assumed that Ceramic Speed were effectively snake oil, or, at least a way to make merely expensive drive trains, hideously expensive, but I never thought that they could make things worse.... Good grief. Great video. Glad I finally watched it.

Still love these videos. Everyday I'm wading through a sea of cycling industry BS over here. We need you back, Hambini!

What a crazy idea - to collect and USE data to inform a presentation on RU-vid! I don't ride significantly, but subscribed. Thank you for raising the bar!

So how important is it to cup the balls? I’m asking for a friend...

Well, I got taken by CS advertising hype. ...but not anymore! Thanks for all the time you take to educate us.

Great video and brilliant information.

I am a bearing engineer working for one of the manufacturers highlighted in the video. Your conclusions are correct although there are some additional factors not considered or understood. For example cage clearance is one reason why you measure torque differences at low speed between pressed steel and plastic cages. Bicycle bearings ALL rotate at low speed ;-)

I stumbled onto to your channel this morning, and as a consequence I've spent most of my time watching your detailed, objective, well-arranged and coherent presentations. Scientific!! Well done!! I've subscribed. Thank you!!

Super high quality tech talk. The thought of Darkinstall giving same talk about all these balls frightens me.

Best video on ball bearings for the cycling industry that I have seen! Thank you for explaining things so that a five year old can understand them.

Amazing content, finally some scientific, no none sense explaination, i subscribed after à few minutes

Brilliant presentation. Thanks for the info. My road guy has impressed this upon me for years. Not in the specific way you did but he knows his stuff and doesn’t rip me off. I like that

Great video! We need more honest people like you in the bicycle industry. You're very bright too of course. I found your website recently while researching some bike stuff and you explanations helped me a lot. Thank you!

Absolutely terrific video! Reminded me of systems analysis lecture: just changing one piece - in this case the ball bearings to ceramic - does you no good, because addressing the whole system - in this case the bearing assembly, was ignored!

I always wanted to know how bearings are working, with all these tiny balls between the rolls. Today I stumbled across your video and have learned a whole lot. Thank you!

top quality video Hambini, taught me a lot... Funny going back to these old vids and not hear you swear lol. Full watch from me :)

Mr. Hambini, thank you sincerely for keeping this video understandable, using visuals, and considering your American viewers! Great work!

After reading and seeing many articles and videos in preparation to building a lightweight road bike I have come to the conclusion that many riders place their priorities as: fashion, tradition, and then data - and, to a larger than expected extent, this also applies to the professional riders. I think many riders will be shocked by the real world data relating to the over-priced 'ceramic' bearings. I will now start looking at some of the manufactures you highlight towards the end of this video with regard to bottom bracket bearing options.

Thanks for all the hard work. You've certainly cut through the ceramic bearing hype.

31 people use ceramic speed.

So glad I found this channel. The truth is in the data!

I've always said bearings need to be tested under load, Gcn have brainwashed numpties. Ave done a video on ceramic vs steel bearings a year or so ago. Well worth a watch also

Well explained, I think I have a massively better understanding (in comparison) than before. Now all I need to do is find the right ntn bearing for my 2012 Mavic wheels!

this needs to be shared around. Pure GOLD

You are the lock picking lawyer of the cycling world.

Thank you so much for taking the time to do this video. It was truly informational, and I appreciate you passing on the indepth analysis, and findings of your testing! Great job! I was considering ceramic bearing for a different application, and I believe the findings would be the same. Again thank you.

Great video, thank you. Question: your point about testing the bearings without load being misleading makes a lot of sense. Did you load the various bearings you tested for your analyses of power absorption at 90rpm?

The graph at 12:00 explained it perfectly for me. The extremely small ball deformation percentage makes steel and ceramic bearings very close in performance indeed at lower speeds. Nice video

What did your setup look like to measure the wattage absorbed? How did you measure these? Thanks.

After many insufficient videos i ended up here looking for an answer for (inline skate) ceramic bearings. Well that's out of the way now. Many thanks!!!

57 thumbs down... presumably employees and owners of Ceramicspeed lol I guess their bearings are only good if you are competing.... and only if you can afford to replace every 500 miles or so!

Excellent technical explanation. Very useful for those of us who change their own bearings.

you are smart that's what I was thinking I like steel .Ceramic it hard and will eat up the steel so what will last longer hot steel or Ceramic eating steel I think after the Ceramic eats the steel it will spin faster by hard so is its tricking people now a full Ceramic might last long but in some uses but Ceramic is so hard that it can brake easy maybe in a wheel bearing hitting rock idk I like to see testing. next we will have diamond bearings

Excellent video, ceramic is really only needed for high temperature high speed environment like a turbocharger that spins 110k rpm at 950C. A whole different animal.

So there you have it! … I knew there would be absolutely no reason for me to suffer my guitar lessons by studying more physics back in high school … I had a funny feeling that a type of “RU-vid” phenomenon would eventually make it into the main stream and I would simply just be able to “hang out” with the geniuses, living vicariously through their brain functions … but I do play a mean guitar now, so it’s all good! Thank You Hambini!

Thanks again, great video! I personally have ceramic speed because that’s what came with the bike. They seem very durable. 13K miles and still feel new.

6:35 - It's also a crap test because of the difference in grease used.

Dear Mr Hambini - your presentation skills and your attention to detail are really impressive. I have a question from the last century on which I hope you or your following will satisfy my curiosity. In the 1950s I would watch my grandad strip the wheel and bottom bracket bearings of his trusty Raleigh once a week. This is the bike that enabled him to earn his living as a bricklayer cycling to jobs all over Cambridgeshire. Sit-up-and-beg, rod brakes but a 4 speed Sturmey Archer at the back and a hub dynamo at the front. Also a tube of zinc chloride batteries on the front of the down tube which he said were to keep the lights bright when peddling slowly into the wind. My question is ‘how efficient were his bearings in relation to modern ones?’ given that there was no seal friction or cage friction. Or , come to that, no grease friction. I think I remember 3-in-1 oil. In addition to the weekly strip he also inspected the balls carefully and replaced any in doubt. He obviously felt this weekly task was of benefit. So was he wasting his time or was he maintaining his bearings at a higher level of efficiency than our modern ones? Or just using it as an excuse to hide from granny!

You are indeed correct about how bearings under load, behave differently than free spinning them with no load. That's that big difference, for sure.

Awesome video!! Thanks for all the info!! Ceramic speed bottom brackets come with a 4-5year warranty which is why I put one on my winter/gravel bike 😂 figured they aren’t 4 times the price of the alternative BB I would have bought which probably would last a year with all the crap I ride it through in winter.

I remember I worked for a bike shop who sold bling. A barrister walked in with his cervelo and started telling me how impressive his new ceramic bearings were in his zipp wheels. He told me they were about $2000. I asked him where he got them from and he pointed at my boss. After he left I asked my boss 'what the f? $2000 bearings??'. My boss who never laughed did his best to not piss himself laughing. This was back in 2004.

I did have an enduro ceramic bearing bottoms bracket on my last road bike. It was noticeably smoother than the one that I took off. Maybe the previous BB bottom bracket bearings were wearing. Anyway, I had previously upgraded the the wheels, to DuraAce C35s, and they felt like I had an emotor, because the wheels compared with the stock aluminum wheels, which felt like they were dragging in comparison while coasting. Acceleration was noticeably better, but they were lighter. I attributed most of the performance gains to the better bearing races. I was a heavier rider at 92 kg. I figured a smoother rolling surface and less deflection of inner race. Better to have good steel balls and races than crappy races with nice balls. The findings on this channel are consistent with a few others and what I have learned through trial and error.

If you were to post a video that claimed training harder would win more races no-one would care. But, if you post a video that claimed using secret extra special grease would give a 0.005 watt advantage per kilometer you would be the most popular youtuber ever !

Love to finally get confirmation by a professional nice work!

'Balls--which everyone should be familiar with' lolllll

I use a full ceramic Chinese bearing on my Neato robot vacuum cleaner's roller brush. The entire bearing is ceramic with an ABS cage. The reason this works out well is b/c the normal greased bearings with rubber seals cannot handel the dirt and hair the brush picks up. Plus, the grease attracts the dirt! The ceramic bearing needs no lubricant at these rpms and it only has a shield on one side, but even so, the dirt and hair do not seem to slow it down. When it gets real dirty, I just run it under hot water and it's good to go.

fantastic video .you saved me a lot of money confirming what Darkinstall said about ceramic speed...overpriced snake oil.

that website is a proper reaming of hambini🤣 my god i was not expecting to see an oil refinery job.

I don't understand how this channel and DarkInstall have so little views.

I deeply enjoy your videos where you trash bike brands nonsense but these videos are properly useful. When I used to manage a bike shop my general advice was "just use SKF" and I'm glad that it concurs with what you are saying.

This is GOLD. I am saving that website as I am sure it will disappear fast. Oil refinery job - who would have thought!

Some extra notes ; Proper use of ceramic (hybrid or full ceramic) ; high to superhigh speeds. Think of of sp9ndles in machine tools. The forces of heavier steel balls severely limits both load capacity and speed ( huge centripetal forces!). Combine that to the use of precision machines brass cages and oil mist lubrication and extremely tight tolerances and there is the real world answer to demanding aplpications and proper use of ceramic material in bearings. Mind you; things are now complicated and very expensive. Clearance classes ( C2/C3 or higher). Several applications benefit form a higher clearance ; think of thermal expansion ( shaft of electric motors) but one of the main reasons is the better cope with combination of axial and radial forces. With extra clearance and a preloading, a radial or conrad type of ball bearing will act more like an angular contact bearing. This is of interest in cycling applications of course. Final word; even the rubbiest of el cheapo bearing will outlast and outperform a top quality one IF mounted correctly, so use proper tools and procedures!!!!

Thanks for this brilliant video. Even for French native like me, it’s easy to understand. Well done.

hi. and what about cup and cone bearings? after watching this video i start to think that there are the fastest because no cage in it. thanks for video

Wow, a very excellent presentation and your expertise and the manner in which you share your knowledge is impressive. Very articulated and easy to grasp your explanation on the fundamental differences of these two bearing designs. I wish you were my college instructor back in my younger years. I would be facinated and intrigued with every one of your in depth lectures. You have me as one of your new subscribers. Thanks a million for this brilliant video.

i agree with you, you made big effort to cut this topic on tiny slices

Thank you for an excellent demonstration and explanation.

Just make sure you don’t get old, we need you.

I find your analysis very nice and easy to understand. Thanks for all your work on this.

Chris King probably makes some of the best bearings in bicycle business!! I’m using onyx hubs right now with hybrid ceramic bearings so far so good.

Well that makes that decision much easier. Thank you for the simple study comparison and explanations.

This really helps Ham!! I was considering Enduro... Now, I'd have to say that I'm re considering! Thanks again!

You are TRULY a guru!!! Thank you for your dedicated knowledge of the bits that help you ACTUALLY go faster and farther~✌️🖖⚡️

Thats why i prefer Journal Bearings over Ball Bearings for Turbos (yes more drag slower spool in turbo with journals but only 300-500rpm diff)) But journal bearings are 100% contactless bearings as the shaft floats on OIL and never touches the sides. Unless not enough or Old oil used or incorrect weight oil. Just like trains have Oil Journal bearing in axles as no roller bearing could hope to withstand those loads of 15-20,000 PSI Per wheel given about 4-6" in contact at time 80-120,000 Pounds force.

A Terrific engineering explanation on the question of bearings ! Thank you!!

That's what I call, a proper technical explanation most interesting. Thank you

Hi Hambini. Thanks for all your videos. It is really nice to get some proper testing and comparison of products. A breath of fresh air compared to the usual marketing guff you have to wade through in the cycling industry. I notice you tested the Enduro Zero bearings here. No doubt Enduro would claim you will get better results from their XD-15 bearings. The difference being that they use high nitrogen content steel for the races. I was just wondering if you had an opinion on what difference this would make? Obviously the main problem with ceramic bearings (other than the price!) is the harness mismatch between the balls and the races, so an attempt to increase the hardness of the races does seem like a good idea. However, if we're being generous, this will probably increase hardness from 350 to max 700 in the HV0.1 test. Probably quite a bit less than 700 as those steels are incredibly difficult to form. Whereas the balls will still be in 2000-2800 range, so there is still a considerable mismatch in hardness. Do you think there is any way this could come close to justifying the wild claims they make about this bearing's longevity? e.g. "Would you rather have a bottom bracket outlast your frameset?" and "Even running in salt water or any caustic nutrition drink you can spill, it will not be degraded or affected. Even dirt or sand inside will not wear it out; this will simply polish the races smoother."

Insane amount on information. Absolute master class on Bearings!

What a plot twist! 🤣🤣🤣 Can’t wait for the explanation to the refinery thing.

Fascinating stuff, takes me back to being a kid and breaking open ball bearings from WWII surplus bombsights.

I was criticising you harshly on another occasion previously and I still stand behind that criticism. As much as I criticised you then, I praise you for this analysis. Great data concisely explained. Congrats and thanks.

Seems ceramic bearings were at some point all over the place, not only for bicycles but on some less speedier devices: telescope mounts. In such applications, where we don’t really care about speeds - unless you consider a faster slowing of under 1RPM “fast”, they do need an absurd amount of precision and quality not to “bump” while anchoring some pretty delicate (and pricey) gear. Is it worth to go ceramic for this application, or just using the metal based name brands will do the trick? Not asking for any friend, I do want to get some better bearings on my EQ Mount ;)

Thank you for you service to the industry

The best result was no seals with oil, which is what I recall Wiggins used in the London TT - one time use, avoiding rain

Pretty stoked I just replaced my wheel bearings with Enduro steel bearings

Great video! Thanks for providing objective information and solid data on bearing cost versus performance. Very informative. A true ceramic bearing (ceramic balls and races) I was told requires no lubrication because there is virtually no "scuffing zone" around the contact point. No rubbing or scuffing? Then no lube! And no lube means less viscosity friction losses. And until the industry starts using 100% ceramic bearings, I really feel it's a misnomer to call what's on the market today "ceramic bearings" when only one of three weight bearing components are actually ceramic. Then again, the cost would go through the roof, furthering the point that on a cost/watt basis, ceramic is a stupid expenditure. PS This video perhaps explains why when I asked a very reputable component manufacturer (who will remain nameless) if they used Enduro, he simply scoffed. Ok then!

Thank you. With the controversy, it was nice to get some good data to sort out the truth.

Balls deep mixed races bearing analysis 😂. Thanks to the mind scanning algorithm for finding you. Your style really helped improve my "duh" on this stuff. Brilliant Northerner - Fred-ness. Would love to quiz on some sticky low speed applications. Best qualities, Waz

A great video, nice explanations of the physical phenomena that happen with bearings. Good job!!!

Fantastic video, I'm about to replace my bottom bracket and this video was extremely useful.

Awesome comparison bearing test and brand shoot out.You still can't beat good old 52100 chrome bearing steel.Ceramic is a wast of time and the cost does outway the performance. Cheers

Here a viewer from Holland. You just saved me some money. I always thought full ceramic non contact seal are the best bearings for cycling but never bought them though. I recently put new bearings, Shimano SM BB6700, BC1.37. Don't know whatbkind of bearings they have but next time will buy some NTN ones.

Ceramic loose balls work but you have to be careful how tight the cones are on Shimano hubs. One key element of the caged metal holding the balls is the balls will also be smoothed down as they rub not only against the metal cage but also the races, leading to smoother movement, you can see this on older BB with steel balls with a metal cage, those square BB with the caged balls even in 2020 still spin under load very well.

Nice video, one reason I stayed away from Ceramics is impact vs. gradual loading. Reminds me of the ceramic tools for CNC that wear many times better in the right application. Certainly understand the deflection differences. Wondering if the newer ceramic offerings can deal with impact better than the earlier offerings. One more issue cage material relative to heat. 300-350 degree's ( F) the steel caged seem to last better. Empirical data. So in this application durability is priority over anything else...:)

Back in the 70/80s we used cup and cone with loose balls, Campag Shimano Dura Ace etc. Strip em down at the end of the season, check they are OK and re grease. You knew where you stood. I have had sealed bearings seize on me on the road, one During an Audax round Hebden Bridge area. I wondered why I wasn't performing well on the climbs that day. When I got back to the car the BB bearing was stiff as hell....completely burned out as the grease had gone and they weren't very old.

Your videos are the best in your tube. They are easy to understand, informative, and as entertaining as it can be. Best part is, you don’t get something like “This video brought to you by ceramic speed”.

Hambini, basically a cyclist's version of Martin's Money Saving. Cleared up a lot of questions I've been asking myself for years. Thanks

Well, the famous Chris King and Enduro also manufactures ceramic bearings for various brands and with prices similar to those of Ceramic Speed. Are they all scamming us?

Very excellent test, thanks ! It saves watts and money !

We are on 2021 September, any changes on your opinion about ceramic bearing? Any new video about it?

I learned a bunch from your info. Thank you for explaining how bearings work. Much appreciated!

Thank you for the explanation I now have the answer to explain it to my bike friend who spends lots of money on parts that are not properly research.

FYI, apparently Felt is using Micro Blue Thin Body lubricant on their Olympic TT bikes.

Great info, some people putting out bearing reviews are trash, especially skateboard bearing tests on how for the board rolls or how long the wheel spins freely. Its a joke.