VCRC Ceramic Bottom Bracket
 The newest rage in the cycling world today is ceramic bearings for sure. Any time you can gain a few extra seconds on the competition by buying new components, people are definitely going to be intrigued. Let’s face it, work, mowing the yard, keeping up with the house, taking the kids to swim meets and walking the dog, most of us are all ready stressed for time and are looking for that extra little edge.
Velo Carbon brings us a solution with their ceramic bottom brackets for Shimano and SRAM 10 speed grouppos. The “hybrid” bottom bracket incorporates ceramic balls, with steel races. The bearings themselves are made from Grade 5 Full Ceramic Si3N4 Balls and the races from ABEC 5 steel. Using two different materials gives us the “hybrid”. Just to clarify the balls are 100% ceramic, not coated or anything like that.
I have always wondered about the technology that goes into Ceramics and the use of steel versus ceramic races in the bearings. Why make the bearings ceramic, and not the races? Talking with Matt at VCRC Bike led us to some of the answers we were looking for. Performance wise the use of Ceramic races versus steel races is only going to give a minimal performance increase and the cost increase would be major.
Our first impression of the VCRC Ceramic Bottom Bracket is that it is pretty much a normal looking bottom bracket, and weigh about the same when throwing them on the scales (we actually used manufactures spec weights). Looks can be deceiving though, once starting to spin the bearings, and “play” with the bottom bracket you will begin to notice the difference in the VCRC Ceramic bottom Bracket versus a Shimano. The ceramic bottom bracket from Velo Carbon is just a little different inside, well a lot different. These are outlined below, makes for a little easier reading:
- 100% Grade 5 Full Ceramic Si3N4 Balls which are rounder and smoother than steel bearings, pretty much they start round and stay round.
- Ceramic bearings require thinner grease, which results in a lower friction and less power to spin the crank arms.
- More durable and longer lasting than traditional stock bearings.
Installation is bretty much the same as any outward bearing bottom bracket and two piece crank assembly. Everything went togther very smooth. Once set up on a bike, we put the VCRC Ceramic Bottom Bracket to the simple spin test. On a Shimano bottom bracket with a little push of the finger on the crank arm, the cranks spun around about 2 to 2 ½ times on average. With the VCRC Ceramic Bottom Bracket the average ended up being 10 to15 revolutions. Sound like a simple little test, well it is, but it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see the results either (which is good for me at least). The folks at biketesting.com have done some test on competitor’s ceramic bottom brackets, which have been documented to give you an increase in speed up to 4% (this was an independent test). This is a major difference in steel bearing versus ceramic … flat out speed. We can’t wait to get out and put some miles on the Velo Carbon Ceramic bottom bracket.
Where can you get them? Right now they are only being offered on their website at velocarbon.com. VCRC Bike also offers ISIS and Campy compatible bottom brackets. Give Matt a call or drop him an email and I am sure he can give you even more details if interested. With that being said, I am heading out for a ride. We will revisit this review in a few months and let you know how things are going and how the bottom bracket holding up to the “wear” test.
Manufacturer: VCRC Bike (Velocarbon.com)
Price: $165.00 to $180.00 (they have been running some speciasl lately so be sure to check out their website)
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