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CyclingCeramic’s massive oversized pulleys w/ carbon cage now available – Updated

Written by Tyler Benedict
oversized ceramic bearing pulley cage for Shimano rear derailleurs from CyclingCeramic
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Introduced at Eurobike, the made-in-France CyclingCeramic Oversized Pulleys are now available on their website for pre-2017 Shimano and SRAM road bike derailleurs. Their upcoming SRAM eTap will follow “very soon” and parts for the latest Shimano R9100 (Dura-Ace) and R8000 (Ultegra) will be here “before Spring” according to the company’s announcement. SRAM eTap, Shimano R9100/R8000 (Dura-Ace & Ultegra) versions are also now available.

oversized ceramic bearing pulley cage for Shimano rear derailleurs from CyclingCeramic
CyclingCeramic oversized pulley system for Shimano road bike derailleurs.

The 16-tooth pulley wheels are machined from aluminum and roll on ceramic bearings (naturally), which are sandwiched in a UD carbon cage. Titanium screws hold it all together. It’s sold as a complete system that replaces the stock cage/pulley on your rear derailleur. It’s available in black or red, plus the limited edition orange/gold shown here.

oversized ceramic bearing pulley cage for SRAM rear derailleurs from CyclingCeramic
CyclingCeramic oversized pulley system for SRAM road bike derailleurs.

CyclingCeramic claims they’ve lab tested their system to save 2.7 watts, or the equivalent of one minute shaved off a 20km time trial (speed not disclosed). Retail is €329 and comes with a two year warranty against manufacturer’s defects.

CyclingCeramic.com

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Tyler Benedict
11,281 articles

Tyler Benedict is the Founder of Bikerumor.com, where he’s been writing about the latest bikes, components, and cycling technology for almost two decades. Prior to that, Tyler launched and built multiple sports nutrition brands and consumer goods companies, mostly as an excuse to travel and ride in new places.

Based in North Carolina, Tyler also loves the Vanlife & family adventure travel and is always on the lookout for the next shiny new part and off-grid adventure.

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22 Comments
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Nicolas Christin
Nicolas Christin
6 years ago

2.7 watts would be no more than 6 seconds over 20k. Certainly not one minute.

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Tomi
Tomi
6 years ago

2.7 free watts would translate to 1 minute gained in 20km ? I doubt it.

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Bill
Bill
6 years ago

These oversized pulleys have been around for what, 10 years now? Why is it no mainstream component manufacturer has decided to use all this “free wattage”?

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jim
jim
6 years ago
Reply to  Bill

theres a comparison of this stuff floating on the internet where it shows sram red (ceramic pulley, normal size, plastic..) is nearly as good as oversized ceramic pulleys

the other differences being: sram red pulleys are much cheaper and replacing the pulley itself (but keeping the bearings which are close to indestructible) cost 1usd, not 200.. slightly shorter chain (weight, slap, etc)

sram red’s derailleur body is otherwise also carbon and screws are also titanium.

basically, the benefits vs drawbacks of the oversized pulley aren’t very good, especially for the price difference.

in fact, i always wonder how they’re still in business. who buys this stuff?

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john
john
6 years ago
Reply to  jim

dentists

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Robin
Robin
6 years ago
Reply to  jim

I think large cogs are popular with triathletes; time trialists; tech geeks; other rides looking for any competitive edge; and riders who mistakenly think that these will provide a big performance advantage.

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blah blah blah
blah blah blah
6 years ago
Reply to  Bill

exactly!

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Crash Bandicoot
Crash Bandicoot
6 years ago

Has anyone compared this stuff to a stock ultegra mid/long cage road rear derailleur? I truly wonder, my understanding is the longer cage makes things more mechanically efficient because the wrap in the chain is less severe thus reducing friction (not an engineer here but this is what I’ve heard from a few technically inclined people). Seems like you should just buy a long cage from online swap meet/fleBay for cheap and then also get the benefits of a 32+ tooth cassette for the steeps.

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Ryan Madison
Ryan Madison
6 years ago
Reply to  Crash Bandicoot

You could also do whatever ridiculous thing you want, but buy the parts from a bike shop…just a thought….

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Bob
Bob
6 years ago
Reply to  Ryan Madison

what value would this bike shop add for the increase in cost of the parts, or are we just supposed to shop there so they can continue their flawed business model?

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Crash Bandicoot
Crash Bandicoot
6 years ago
Reply to  Ryan Madison

Ryan why would I buy a new derailleur when used 6800 long cage RD’s are cheap as chips (since people tend to buy them along with an 11-32 cassette for one vacation to the mountains then have them gather dust). And heck new they’re double the online price at the bike shop; what value does the shop provide that necessitates me paying 100% more for the same product.

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Alex
Alex
6 years ago
Reply to  Crash Bandicoot

As far as I understand, the losses in a chain occur when there is movement between two links (angular movement around a pin/roller), as you need motion to have a frictional loss. This motion occurs when the links have to change angle, which is when the chain first comes into contact with a sprocket (chain has to bend) and when it leaves (chain has to straighten again).

A larger diameter pulley has less curvature around it’s circumference. From the point of the chain, this means the amount the angle between links doesn’t need to change as much when the chain contacts and leaves the sprocket, so the frictional losses in the chain are smaller.

For a given chain speed (dictated by cadence and chainring size), a larger diameter pulley will also have a lot angular speed, so the losses in the bearings will be smaller for a larger diameter pulley. Although if Ceramicspeed’s claims are true, these shouldn’t be too significant….

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Alex
Alex
6 years ago
Reply to  Alex

What this also means is that the amount of chain wrap doesn’t make a difference, as there is no movement between links while the chain is in contact with a sprocket. The only thing that affects this is the diameter of the sprocket

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Robin
Robin
6 years ago
Reply to  Alex

There will be motion at the entry and exit of any cog, be it a derailleur cog, cassette cog, or chain ring. There will also be movement, and thus friction in the top run and bottom of the chain where the links move in response to bumps, vibrations, and changes in momentum from other sources.

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markatanovich
markatanovich
6 years ago
Reply to  Crash Bandicoot

These types of set-ups work in two main ways: 1) Larger jockey wheels have lower angular velocity for a given cadence, and the longer cage lowers change tension between the jockey wheels and the front ring. These reduce bearing speed and load, respectively. If you substitute the entire derailleur, my guess is you won’t save much if anything because longer cage derailleurs have stiffer springs to compensate for the longer cage. Based on the data I’ve seen, changing out just the cage will give you about two thirds of claimed savings; the bearing upgrade and larger wheels contributing to the rest.

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JNH
JNH
6 years ago

If I ever win the lottery I’ll buy a set of these and put them on my Mum’s town bike that she hardly ever rides, just because.

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Tom
Tom
6 years ago

has anyone ever found the shifting with these things comparable with stock?

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JRF
JRF
6 years ago
Reply to  Tom

Had a couple customers who switched back to their stock Shimano cages because of poor shifting performance with the CeramicSpeed OSPW. Maybe I “didn’t have it set up right” but I went by their instructions and tried several spring tension settings. It wasn’t *way* worse than stock, but not up to the level of what you’d expect for a 9150 RD.

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Thor
Thor
6 years ago

Grant Petersen at Rivendell likes cheap Shimano Altus derailleurs because of their large pulleys. Which makes this pretty funny – retro grouch touts large pulleys on $28 derailleur while uber freds buy $300 pulleys to get the same thing on their super expensive plastic road rockets.

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VeloKitty
VeloKitty
6 years ago

These things are a €329 stupidity tax.

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Fred Gravelly
Fred Gravelly
6 years ago

Just here to mention the word “gravel,” man the industry needs a new buzz word

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Scott savin
Scott savin
6 years ago

I luv all the comments how oversized pulleys don’t work have any of these knuckleheads ever tried them I have and there is a hugh difference and more thenn2.5 Watts I set 5 prs in 3 years of data on the same course

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