We’ve been finding French-made low friction ceramic bearings from CyclingCeramic tucked away on bikes in the pro peloton since at least 2014. Pro riders are notorious for trying to eke out every fraction of a watt saved across their bike, as it really does add up when the difference between standing atop the podium or heading straight to the showers can be measured in fractions of a second. Now the French bearing specialists are making it even easier to go fast. They have paired up with Rotor to produce a new line up of press-in bottom brackets that will let you run their energy saving bearings in a much wider range of frames & crankset combinations. Plus they’ve developed a new grease that they are calling TT-specific, and promising a 30% reduction of friction…
CyclingCeramic claims that the silicon nitride balls that they make in Europe (where they spend 45-70 days being polished to ensure smoothness) result in ceramic bearings that greatly reduce the friction over the competition, by up to 60%. In the bottom bracket alone that friction reduction over a premium Shimano steel bearing BB claims 2.3W of energy savings. Up until now you could buy CyclingCeramic bearings on their own to replace what was already on your bike or their red threaded and BB86 bottom brackets.
But now they have greatly expanded their BB offerings by pairing up with Rotor for a range designed to expand bike and crankset compatibility. The new black shelled Rotor bottom brackets get machined in Spain before having the same low-friction, made-in-France grade 3 ceramic bearings pressed in. The new line includes BB Right ,PF30 & BB386EVO cups to fit Shimano, SRAM & 30mm spindle cranksets. They have also added a BB30 to 224 conversion bottom bracket for Shimano & SRAM cranks as well as a threaded in BSA30 option to run a 30mm crank in your traditional bottom bracket. They kept things simple on pricing, no matter which of the Rotor+CyclingCeramic bottom brackets you need, it will set you back 185€.
Now if you already have the bearings, or are just looking to speed up what you’re already running, CyclingCeramic have a new white Timetrial grease that the said will reduce friction by another 20% over their already fast blue road grease. It is being touted as a race-only grease specifically for track, time trials & other racing against the clock, but they do rate it for 3000km of use (weather depending) so it might be up for some specific road race event targets as well. While new bearings don’t come cheap, a 10ml tube of the new TT grease will only cost you 8€ and the time and effort to clean the slow grease out of your bearings in the first place. While you’re at it, maybe a tube of their optimized derailleur pulley oil for another 8€ will get them spinning more smoothly as well. Sounds like something worth trying to us!
