ceramic bearings
i dont think people know how much drag is in their bike, in the bb, hubs and der pulley bearings. with all the grease, the old grease, the sticky new grease and the hard old chain pulley funk that builds up on the drive train and in the hubs.
i didnt know, i thought about it over the years and thought no big deal. i'll just train more, weigh less and do the norm.
now the norm isnt good enough.
what if you are thin, powerful, and fast and you still dont get the job done.
sure you might feel good every other week, once a month and throw down a good result.
is it worth it?
all the time, money and effort put forth to get your goals?
i dont understand why someone would spend so much time, money and effort on something and miss something so blatently obvious, like bearing/grease drag.
if you are into racing and looking for an edge to make you go fast then get some ceramic hub bearings and der. pulleys. you will not believe how fast they are and also you wont believe how much energy you have been wasting pushing your bike up those long climbs.
6 comments:
how long will they last without grease
they take their own grease, but stupid bike says they only last 2 months. his scalpel bb bearings wore out in 2 months, but he runs ust tires and blows up rear shocks and weighs 130 pounds so i dont know how hes riding his equipment.
i think if they lasted a week it would be worth it for racing. especially for the amount of drag they cut. its comparable to riding a TT bike or a regular road bike in a TT. people dont get what they are losing. i didnt either until i tried them
You run the ceramics with no lube or with lightweight lube like T9?
Ceramic bearings are cool, but they don't save much energy. Sure, it may seem like a big difference when you spin a ceramic bearing (wheel) and it seems to go forever and the old steel ball bearing eventually slows and stops. But it only takes a tiny amount of energy difference to keep both wheels spinning at the same speed. Sorry to be a downer, but I'm an engineer and those are just the facts. Just go look around and others are saying the same thing - ceramic bearings are better, but the difference is tiny. It's mostly a marketing gimmick. But bike companies would never resort to gimmickry to sell bikes/components! ;-)
The energy lost in the drive train (the chain is the biggie) is much more significant than the bearings.
And dropping weight is even bigger - but you've already tackled that issue.
I respect your drive to optimize your bike. My guess is you're having fun tweaking so rock on.
get some ceramic der pulleys and other parts and try it for yourself. this post was directed at a racer who has tried everything else to get faster and is looking for an edge. if its smaller than you think its worth doing. riding or racing 2 to 3 hours, or more. stop and go over the long haul sometimes guys win by seconds. so im sure saving any amount of energy, would interest that type of person. it interests me and i dont race the scalpel.
i compared it to racing a tt bike or a road bike in a TT.
i would also say its apples and oranges, night and day.
if you rode a bike with it set up like mine compared to before you would feel the difference. its not on paper. some may call that the placebo effect, but i think its more.
it may be a drop in the bucket, but thats one drop the other guys lining up dont have.
im talking about pulley wheels, hubs, bb and even pedal spindles.
people always ask me where to save weight on a bike, i say its not one item of equipment. its 40 grams on 10 items. or 20 grams on 20 items. nobody wants to take the time or effort to get the 20 items of lower weight. they dont care that much about it. thats fine, if thats what they are into. but if one is spending a lot of time, effort and money on a specific goal then they should save weight on the items and get these energy saving bearings.
do you ever look at results and wonder why one guy wins and the other one loses?
i do, and the time gap is 1 second.
over hours of terrain.
it could be a ton of different factors but one edge like i mentioned could flip the 2nd place guy to the 1st.
thats what goes on in my head.
how do i blow rear shocks, trash bearings etc...????
Power, pure, unadulterated, scary, demonic power.
yep.
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