My BB30 bearings are toast and I'm going to replace them with the standard version from Sram. I noticed on the bike spec sheet from the manufacture that ceramic BB30 bearings are listed. I always assumed this bike did not come with ceramic bearings.

How can one tell if you have ceramic BB30 bearings or not?

Thanks,

you know they are ceramic if they went bad extremely quickly, at least that was my experience with the OEM cannondale ceramic bb30 bearings. i went thru 3 sets of them under warranty until i asked for the steel bearings instead.

i know the cannondale ones were particularly shabby, but have heard similar reports on most others (VCRC sound a bit better, but still not worth it).

in this case i agree that steel is real.

- edit - sorry, but the only real way to test them i can think of is to take one bearing out, pull its seals off, take the ball cages out and do a magnet test.

I got 12,000km on them which seems quite low to me but still would like to know if there is a way to tell if them are ceramic or not?

Remove the seal and see what color the balls are. Silver (steel) or dark grey (ceramic)?

In those 12,000 km, how often did you grease the bearings?

Thanks,

When I receive the new bearings I will pull the seals on the existing and check the actual bearings.

You seriously want to know how many times I serviced the bearings The unfortunate answer is 0! I didn't know that they were serviceable. So you can just pull the seals on and off and re grease the bearings? I guess I just assumed that the seals were not removable.

I've pulled the cranks a few times and cleaned all the other parts and applied grease to the outboard facing bearing seals as described on Srams website but never read anywhere that the actual bearings were serviceable.

Has anyone seen any technical documents from Sram on how to service the bearings?

The rubber seals come off easily and you can apply grease. SRAM may not have a document showing how to do it but here is where I learned:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylorxXzt ... r_embedded

I do this with my ceramic BBs several times a year and they never give me issues.

fwiw i've got sram's ceramic bb30 bearings

they've done c. 10,000 km so far, no issues, i regrease roughly in line with sram's advice, i ride all weathers, plenty of wet days, so far the seals seem to have kept any water from getting in

the grease sram recommends is skf lghp2 (blue stuff), you can get a 420ml cartridge for c. £15 in the uk, this is about twice what sram charges for two tiny syringes of it (it's the same grease for red rear mech jockey wheels, i've also just used it for a rear hub, 420ml lasts a long time!)

that video posted above shows the process well

luckily i can remove the complete bearings from my frame with only slight pressure, this allows a full degrease etc., but i usually just pop the outer seal and do it like the video

afaik ceramic bearings should last much longer than steel, if you had rapid wear and the seals are ok and there's still grease in them, maybe the preload was too high, or the bb shell/facing poor

Great video for the DIY, yearly tune up. No voice just here is the tool and do it.

_________________
Let's finish the ride with a 20% grade.
2011 Scott Addict R1 Matt black
2012 Cannondale EVO "Storm Trooper" white and black

If you weigh the cups, the ones with ceramic bearings will be lighter than steel.

Thanks everyone.

I will be pretty disappointed if I find that my existing bearings were ceramic and I never new I should be servicing them.

What grease is recommend for steel bearings? I currently have Finish Line Teflon grease. Would that be fine to use?


Where do you find Sram's advice for re-greasing and the grease they recommend? I cant find it. Is there also info on servicing the Red rear mechanical jockey wheels? Never done that before either.

I'm sure thankful for everyone's help on this forum! I've learned soooo much from reading different post's.

My rule of thumb for grease intervals for a ceramic BB is quarterly. Pulleys and wheel bearings I do once a year. I use shimano hubs which are easy to service and seal out contamination well.

For steel bearings, I use marine grease from the auto parts store. Works great and a $3.50 tube will last you forever.

I use the vcrc recommend grease for ceramic bearings. Expensive but seems to work well.

sram's service interval for bb, and rear mech, are in the product manuals

in both cases they say do it every 100 hrs dry riding, or after any significant exposure to water, and use the skf lghp2 grease

for instance, bb info is in here (they spread it around the page, you have to look carefully to find it all!)...

http://www.sram.com/sites/default/files ... sets_3.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

for jockey wheels, see page 8 of this...

http://www.sram.com/sites/default/files ... -rev-a.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Thanks again for all the info. Will definitely be taking apart my BB30 more often and servicing the bearings now that I know they are serviceable and thanks again for the documents.

Just changed my BB30 bearings out to the new steel bearings. Pretty sure my existing bearings were ceramic. So disappointed that I didn't service these bearings

Next will be the jockey wheels.