CeramicSpeed Ceramic Race Coated Bottom Bracket - BB30 to BB30

CeramicSpeed Ceramic Race Coated Bottom Bracket - BB30 to BB30 Info

This CeramicSpeed Ceramic Race Coated Bottom Bracket kit is designed to work with BB30 cranks on BB30 bottom brackets. This is what teams sponsored by Specialized and Cannondale are clamoring for. It’s also what triathletes need, as BB30 is a popular standard on time trial and triathlon bikes.

The BB30 standard is the bottom bracket shell design that helped the bike industry break clear of the threaded bottom brackets that had been standard pretty much since the beginning. BB30 was created by Cannondale and was made freely available. As it not only made cranks and bottom brackets lighter and stiffer, but opened up frame design possibilities, manufacturers took advantage of it. It’s based on having a 30mm crank spindle running inside a 42mm bottom bracket shell, unheard of at the time, and the 68mm (road) or 73mm (mtb) width of most bottom brackets of the era. The bottom bracket shell acts as the bearing cups, and there are snap rings sitting in grooves that the bearings get pressed against. The 30mm spindle that a BB30 crank possesses is larger than most contemporary thru-axle spindles, which are 22.5 to 25mm in diameter, is the big tell when checking out which BB you have. The change was far more dramatic when going from bottom brackets of the year 2000, the year BB30 appeared.

There’s a similar design to BB30 known as PressFit30, or PF30. And these BB30 bearings will fit into PF30 bearing cups if you have a bike with PF30, provided you’re also using a BB30 crank.

Tech geeks who are also speed fiends obsess over ceramic bearings because the right design can have dramatically less frictional resistance than standard steel bearings. CeramicSpeed is an innovator in bearing technology. They mastered the use of ceramic ball bearings pressed into hardened steel races for both reduced friction and improved durability. You can go faster with less maintenance. Great things both. These are the reasons why pro teams seek out ceramic bearings. CeramicSpeed has the pro teams coming to them, begging for bearings. Even the ones they don’t sponsor might well be using them in order not to be left behind.

If you replace all your bike’s bearings with CeramicSpeed, you could be looking at a savings of 25 seconds in 40km if you’re riding at 48kph. The savings goes up to two minutes if you’re riding at 32kph. Extend that to an Ironman-length ride, and the savings could vary from 1:50, if you’re going 48kph to nine minutes if you’re going 32kph. Friction Facts found these bearings offered .42 watts of frictional drag, where the mean drag was .77w.

CeramicSpeed utilizes Grade 3 Silicon Nitride balls that possess the best possible surface finish and roundness. In testing, the balls are 400% smoother, 128% harder, and 58% lighter than standard steel balls found in most bike components. They’re more than 100% smoother and 15% harder than standard ceramic balls. The balls are installed into hardened steel races in dust-free clean rooms and then checked again before assembly is complete. Not only is low friction the result, but so is increased bearing life. Like three to five times longer than standard bearings.

Another step they take in assuring the lowest-possible frictional drag is using grease they designed as lubricant. It comes in the bearings and a syringe comes with the bearings as well.

Part of CeramicSpeed’s commitment to having the lowest-friction bearings on the market is keeping up their research and development. That led them to a special metallic coating that can be applied three microns thick on the races. It makes the treated surface 80% harder than hardened steel. In terms of friction, the already low-friction CeramicSpeed bearings with the treatment see friction reduced by over 50%. In terms of service life, these coated bearings last even longer, like over 60% longer, than the standard CeramicSpeed bearings. Better yet, the coating means the races better resist contamination from water, dirt, degreaser, etc. Aka, the risk of bearing failure due to corrosion has been reduced to near zero. They can even run without grease or oil, though CeramicSpeed recommends their blue all-around grease for regular use, and their TT grease for achieving the lowest-possible friction.

This kit comes with two BB30 bearings, the requisite dust/dirt shields, and a sticker sheet. The kit weighs 40g

CeramicSpeed coated BB30 bearings make the stiff and light BB30 design even stiffer and lighter, while also making it virtually friction-free.