Ceramic Bearings Vs Steel Bearings Bicycle Wheels

The first thing that strikes the eye when looking at bicycle bearings is the difference in price between steel bearings and hybrid ceramic bearings.

Ceramic bearings vs steel bearings bicycle wheels.

How to get the best performance from ceramic bearings ceramic speed. Steel bearings are commodity items that are composed of hardened steel balls and a steel inner and outer race. The material can be polished smoother than any metal reducing friction and wear. Steel bearings the silicon nitride used in kogel ceramic bearing balls has a set of material properties making them perfect for bicycle wheel bearings.

While regular bearings are made from stainless steel ceramic bearings are made from ceramic silicon nitride si2n4. So for safety reasons ceramic wheel bearings on bicycles are in fact almost always hybrid design meaning ceramic balls on steel races. Ceramic bearings are in actual fact hybrid. This is due to the hardness of the bearings.

It takes weeks for a kogel ball to sit in a tumbler and be perfectly polished. Because ceramic races are more brittle than steel. They are also lighter than equivalent steel bearings so swapping to ceramic bearings will reduce the weight of your bike. They use ceramic balls and usually a steel inner and outer race.

This is mostly due to the additional time spent to perfect a quality ceramic ball. The other apparent advantage of ceramic is that it is a harder material. Cracking a race could stop a wheel from turning instantly and no good comes of wheels permanently locking up on a bicycle. The ceramic balls are often silicon nitride or equivalent.