Ceramic ball bearing brand

[spliid]

Hi all,

I'm considering putting some ceramic bearings in my DT Swiss 240s hubs. The prices are pretty steep but I found a brand, Acer Racing, which has a nice price tag on them. Anyone with experience?

Thx in advance

[eric]

Usually the cheap hybrid ceramic bearings are no better than good steel ball bearings. Often to make them feel fast in the hand, they will be spec'd with looser fitting seals. So in use they get contaminated with water and dirt more readily and die early.

[sungod]

^^^this

unless you've got trustworthy data on the bearing tolerance, finish, hardness etc., and they're all good, then you may be simply buying rather poor bearings

fwiw i once tried some cheap full ceramics, after one ride they were removed, i keep them to remind me about cheap bearings

[spliid]

Good to know. Will check the specs. It seems like they have a good reputation but in another "sport".

[WheresWaldo]

From my recollection in the RC market Acer Bearings are used by a lot of the RC Car/Heli/Multicopter crowd as an upgrade to heavier steel bearings. I have not seen any complaints from those communities. But, as always, your mileage may vary. In the RC world we are talking just a few kilos at most and sub one kilo a lot of the time, not the 65-100 kilos (bike+rider) load most of the weightweenie crowd are.

[eliflap-scalpel]

i have istalled Durafosf bearings yesterday
http://eliflap.it/2014/11/30/flyxii-road-project-16/

[Svetty]

Bit of a thread hijack but I'm curious as to whether the 'Max' Enduro bearings are significantly better than their standard ones for use in hubs.

[spliid]

From my recollection in the RC market Acer Bearings are used by a lot of the RC Car/Heli/Multicopter crowd as an upgrade to heavier steel bearings. I have not seen any complaints from those communities. But, as always, your mileage may vary. In the RC world we are talking just a few kilos at most and sub one kilo a lot of the time, not the 65-100 kilos (bike+rider) load most of the weightweenie crowd are.

Yes, that's also what I have seen. Just saw their bicycle specific bearings now. I think I will give them a try.

[TheKaiser]

^^^this

unless you've got trustworthy data on the bearing tolerance, finish, hardness etc., and they're all good, then you may be simply buying rather poor bearings

fwiw i once tried some cheap full ceramics, after one ride they were removed, i keep them to remind me about cheap bearings

Sungod, out of curiosity, what problems reared their head after only one ride?

That is awfully quick for bad sealing to come back to bite you, so I am guessing you had some tolerance issues, but what specifically.

[Benno]

Just changed the bearings in my xtr pedals to Acer ceramic loose balls. They were cheap and I hate my xtr pedals so I stuck them on the beater bike and have nothing to lose lol.

[sungod]

Sungod, out of curiosity, what problems reared their head after only one ride?

That is awfully quick for bad sealing to come back to bite you, so I am guessing you had some tolerance issues, but what specifically.

yes it was bad tolerances, this was for bb30...

after 15-20 minutes (from memory) creaking started, i gave up eventually as it was so annoying and i wanted to see what was happening

on inspection i found one of the inner races had begun to fret the axle (which had been greased during installation), even after just a short time it was difficult to remove it due to this

once i'd removed them, cleaned things up, and re-installed the old bearings (which were fine, no noise), i measured the ceramic ones, both were out of tolerance, they didn't even match each other