• The place where people comment on the ceramic making a noticeable difference (on the work stand, the actual power saving is all but undetectable on the road, and way smaller than the measurement resolution of your legs) is in the Campag Super Record BB, but that is all down to the fact that they do without rubber contact seals due to the above mentioned contamination-squishing properties of the bearings. You can get the same benefit on a bike with steel bearings by using shielded, rather than sealed, cartridges. The penalty is shorter bearing life, especially in wet or dirty conditions.

    If I were going to use ceramic anywhere, it would be in the derailleur pulleys, because most stock pulleys use bushings rather than roller bearings, so you're upgrading an already high friction bearing to one which has very low friction and should stay that way in the horrible conditions to which they are subjected. Since the loads on these bearings are quite small, and they are not subjected to the shock loads which trouble every other bearing on a bike, you can use full-ceramic cartridges too.

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