Ceramic Bearing Vs Hybrid Ceramic

As the bearing race rotates it causes the balls to rotate.

Ceramic bearing vs hybrid ceramic.

Below we go into a brief description explaining the role of ceramic bearings and then compare hybrid vs. Bearings are an important component of bikes their overall quality and design can mean a lot if you are customising your bike and looking for a superior performance. Hybrid ceramic bearings are the equivalent of trying to run a locomotive on an asphalt road the hardness differential causes the road raceway to become damaged. While they use ceramic balls these bearings are paired with metal inner and outer rings.

The purpose of a radial bearing is to reduce rotational friction and support loads. Hybrid bearings are a mixture of ceramic and steel materials. This is mostly due to the additional time spent to perfect a quality ceramic ball. This is achieved by using two races to hold the balls and to spread the load through the balls.

Ceramic hybrid bearings are available in variety of sizes and styles. Using this combination allows for higher speeds than full ceramic options as the less brittle metal rings are not as prone to sudden catastrophic failure under high speed or load. Hybrid bearings are often considered the perfect choice for spinners and with good reason. In addition to being excellent electric insulators hybrid bearings have a higher speed capability 1 2 1 5 time limit of rotations compared to steel bearing and will provide longer service life lower friction and a lower level of energy consumption than all steel bearings.

Hybrid ceramic bearings have traditional 52100 steel or stainless steel rings with ceramic silicon nitride si3n4 balls. When most people think of ceramic bearings they are usually actually referring to hybrid. Full ceramic bearings can run without lubrication. Hybrid bearings sit between full ceramic and steel options.

The first thing that strikes the eye when looking at bicycle bearings is the difference in price between steel bearings and hybrid ceramic bearings. The bearing balls are almost always either silicon nitride si3n4 which are black ceramic balls or. Because of the ceramic balls hybrid. The steel rings in a hybrid bearing will withstand shock loads much better than ceramic rings but in the event of a sudden impact load the much harder ceramic balls will make indentations in the steel raceways leading to rapid wear and early failure.

Cost of purchase for ceramic and steel bearings. Total power saving the graph below shows how much power could be saved over 1000km between different bearing brands and their seal types.