Ceramic Bearings Vs Steel Bearings Bicycle Wheels

So for safety reasons ceramic wheel bearings on bicycles are in fact almost always hybrid design meaning ceramic balls on steel races.

Ceramic bearings vs steel bearings bicycle wheels.

While regular bearings are made from stainless steel ceramic bearings are made from ceramic silicon nitride si2n4. It takes weeks for a kogel ball to sit in a tumbler and be perfectly polished. The ceramic balls are often silicon nitride or equivalent. They use ceramic balls and usually a steel inner and outer race.

Rolling resistance is the key trump card promoted by ceramic bearing fans. Cracking a race could stop a wheel from turning instantly and no good comes of wheels permanently locking up on a bicycle. 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. This is mostly due to the additional time spent to perfect a quality ceramic ball.

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. The other apparent advantage of ceramic is that it is a harder material.

They are also lighter than equivalent steel bearings so swapping to ceramic bearings will reduce the weight of your bike. 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. 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 material can be polished smoother than any metal reducing friction and wear.