Let us know what your favourite part of the Ceramic Speed factory tour was 👇

I'm disappointed you missed a visit to the very heart of CeramicSpeed - the marketing department

SRAM, Shimano, Campagnolo and FSA are all very competitive companies with very smart engineers. If over-sided pulleys/jocky wheels and really expensive ceramic bearings actually offered real improvements, one of those companies would have started putting them on their derailleurs years ago. Food for thought, shimano doesn't give their engineers any budget limitations when working on new Dura Ace components, and they haven't switched. My guess is they know something ceramic speed doesn't.

That bottom crankset was lubricated with peanut butter.

If I lose a sprint or a climb because my opponent had ceramic speed, and I didn't, I didn't train hard enough.

Hambini coughing in the distance.

I've never seen a more disciplined business with that model they could make 1st place in any industry . Bravo

Thanks for making the trip over guys. A pleasure to host you for a few days. Stay cool and keep saving watts 😎

Intersting that its talked so much about the roundness and tolerances, when in fact for any reasonable modern bearing in speeds that you find in bikes, the type of sealing and type of grease have greater impact of power loss than the roundness of the balls.

I love the whole tour in factory and Dan as always made a hell of good work!

Some drivetrain component manufacturers switched to ceramic bearings years ago. For example, SRAM has been using ceramic bearings in its top-of-the-line Red bottom brackets (such as the Red GXP that I prefer) for quite a few years. They say the bearings come from a "BlackBox" Danish source. Is this CeramicSpeed? I don't know. SRAM has also used ceramic bearings in the jockey wheels of their Red rear derailleur for years (this goes back to their 10-speed derailleurs). Perhaps that's why CeramicSpeed reports a smaller increase in performance of the SRAM version of their oversize OPSW cage and jockey wheels compared to Shimano. I don't believe that Shimano has made the transition to ceramic bearings yet for Dura-Ace and I'm not familiar with other drivetrain manufacturers like Campagnolo, FSA, Rotor, etc. Another source for GXP bottom brackets that I like is HSC out of Melbourne, Australia. They use grade 3 ceramic balls the same as CeramicSpeed yet their bottom brackets cost $127 in the U.S. versus $359 for the uncoated CeramicSpeed version (the coated CS version is $499). One of the biggest surprises for cyclists inexperienced with ceramic bearings is their frequent service requirement. If the bearings are harder and wear longer than steel, why is this so? Answer: Because the races are still steel -- only the balls are ceramic. This presents a problem when the grease is contaminated because the much-harder ceramic balls will quickly score the softer steel races. Plus, ceramic bearings tend to have less weather-resistant seals. Why? Because the better the seal, the more friction it adds to the bearing and, since the primary purpose for ceramic bearings is reduced friction, the seals must be fairly light. These lighter seals mean that the grease in ceramic bearings will usually be more easily contaminated than all-steel bearings with better seals. So manufacturers like SRAM recommend that ceramic bearings be cleaned and regreased immediately after every exposure to rain or foul weather. Failure to do this will cause the expensive bearings to degrade faster than all-steel bearings. However, if the ceramic bearings are never exposed to rain or bad weather, their service interval is just as good, if not better, than all-steel bearings. One of CeramicSpeed's optional features is a secret metallic coating to both the inner and outer steel races which is supposed to increase their hardness by about 75% (they claim). This may mitigate some of the contamination problem above and extend the bad-weather service intervals. But the coating adds about US$140 to the cost of a CeramicSpeed bottom bracket or US$100 to the cost of a jockey wheel set. I can buy about four HSC ceramic bottom brackets for the price of one coated CeramicSpeed BB so I think HSC offers a much better value. And, like CeramicSpeed, HSC can claim that world champions use their products, too. I like what CeramicSpeed and their competitors are doing and I think it definitely makes sense for athletes chasing a win or world record. I'm willing to pay a little extra for ceramic bearings as long as it isn't too much extra. Regretfully, CeramicSpeed is too much for my budget. However, I doubt that ceramic bearings make sense for most non-professional cyclists because of the expense. You can easily spend more on CeramicSpeed upgrades than you would buying a new mid-grade road bike!!! If you service your all-steel bearings regularly as recommended, they should last plenty long. And the few extra calories you'll burn pumping out a few extra watts will probably be good for your health. :-)

These are the GCN vidoeos I most love, having worked in the car racing manufacture industry I just love seeing the advances in technology like those 3D printed titanium jockey wheels.

In cycling, a good metal bearing (NTN) is as efficient and as ceramic bearings for 20% of the cost. To get the advantage of Ceramic bearings, you need very high rotational speed (20000rpm).

I just got recommended this video after I have been watching GCN for a couple of months now and recently also bought a road bike. And I was excited to see you come to my home town of Holstebro. 😁

Amazing stuff, I've learned a lot about how a drivetrain(chain) handles things now from this video, I've always wondered my previous KMC chain lasted so long for three years(even though it was worn out) it did a great job at lasting for 1000s of mile, I got a new KMC chain to replace my previous one and it still does a great job (no doubt).

That Aero recumbant bike is actually a Dutch bike you can buy. (Velomobile) Maybe the Paint job was custom, but that bike was not specially designed for one person ;) still a very cool and fast bike.

We have a Series of races in Australia called Pedal Prix where you race in a recumbent bike for hours with hundreds of other bikes. There is even a 24 hour race, you guys should have a look at it.

2.5 microns or micrometers are not 0.00025 mm but rather 0.0025 mm. It's a world of difference for manufacturing and measuring of these parts.

I've completed my Chris King jewelry kit for my Yeti and I look forward to changing my XX1 AXS for the 5dev XX and adding some Ceramic Speed to my steed. Stoked

A lot of useful and interesting information. Great to see where and how my C.S. products are made. Thanks Dan.

2 friends of mine have had these jockey wheels disintegrate causing the rear derailleur to go into their wheel. They both were very lucky as this could have taken out a large groups of riders at high speed. They've heard of this happening to others as well. Needless to say they no longer use these

It's very informative thanks 👍 . Pat from Belgium 🚲👊

Here I was thinking they were so expensive because of the materials they use. Turns out, it's because the guy who puts the screws in is a pro cyclist! I bet they've got Eddy Mercx in the back running the CNC machine!

great tour, thanks GCN!

Thanks for good video!! I love factory tour

what a warm and supportive people there at the factory!

great factory tour in a very innovative company! I appreciate their products 👍

Aha! Finally, pedal prix gets a run on GCN! Seriously though, a 24-hour race (as a team) in those recumbent fully-faired trikes is about as much fun as you can have with your clothes on.

Awesome work Dan!

Great show and thank you.

Smoothly mind-blown. 🤤 🤤

I've been using ceramic bearing for a number of years in various implementations. For bicycle applications they are not substantively different from precision steel bearings and the spin of unloaded bearings is a useless demo of their function versus a steel bearing (although I love doing it). Ceramic Speeds jockey wheels and lube arguably have a far greater reduction in driveline friction compared to using ceramic versus NTN non-contact steel bearings in a similar arrangement. This largely comes down to the seal and lubes used in the bearings and has little to nothing to do with bearing durometer or precision (the measurable difference between NTN and CeramicSpeed is for practical purposes naught). For someone who is obsessed with freeing watts, your best bet is to research grease and to use low friction seals on your bearings as that compromises 80%+ of bearing friction. I'm not a naysayer of CeramicSpeed, but there is a lot more marketing fluff than actual engineering science in a lot of their bike shop presentations. I personally use their products, but I also know that the gains versus precision steel is within most margins of error.

Love the tech. Great video!

Love the way Dan says "Holstebro" !!!

Interesting video, but some snake-oil alarm bells are ringing. For professional use the races also have to be made of ceramic. Only then i can turn my headset at 12000rpm nearly frictionless. To make your cranks spin like in the video, remove your sealing and ungrease your cheap bearings. By the way, i recommend gold platet network cables to have more clear colors while surfing the web. ;-)

Ceramic is a nice touch on a bike, not a needed upgrade. Bling and yes I have them on all my bikes.

Great video! Great content. Although I am very happy with my SKF bearings.

Thanks guys!

Ceramic bb's might be good in high RPM engines, because of the heat they can withstand, but in bikes, they are not worth your buck. Good steel bearings [like german, or japanese, but not chinese!] are just as fast, and not like the wall presentation in the factory - much slower - that was bs. Ceramic are bit lighter - thats all. Not worth your money, but nice ad.

This is a cool technology but the demo of the smoothly swinging crank looks fake. Take a clean well-adjusted steel ball bearing without seals and it'll swing freely just the same. I've seen this even with cheap bearings. So yeah, ceramic bearings might have some advantage but this company should be using honest demos of comparing like for like. Otherwise it busts their credibility and leads to doubt of everything they claim.

Wow! That is so cool and epic! Looking at the bearings make me drool...

Awesome vid!

Great presenter, keep up the good work!! great video

I had that 3D printed pulley wheels in hands a it's incredibly light and smooth (in comparison with normal ceramicspeed oversized)

I don't own a super or hyperbike just some normal commuters bike to get from a to b - and my knowledge is, well, not existant. But I can tell you that my ex-boss who rode bikes for many years recently changed pretty much all bearings on his bike to ceramic ones - and he immediately was 4-5 Minutes faster on his 30min ride to work. Pretty impressive what difference it seems to make!

Very interesting, thank you.

Waow amazing product all from ceramic speed

Just had my rear mech destroy my frame, so found this to be very good interesting and good for the moment, will check them out, cheers.

30+ year old Campagnolo Record component cup and cone bearings are still smoother

Very good quality.

That car wheel was awesome!!

love these factory tour videos

Hi and greetings from 'Oz cycle' Australia. Enjoyed this video. Nice of 'Ceramicspeed' to allow you into their inner tech areas. Interesting facts and figures on the ceramic balls themselves too. Looks like 'Ceramicspeed' are genuinely pursuing the goals of a more efficient drivetrain and acquiring Jason from 'Friction facts'. At the same time the company needs to survive,hence their products high prices. Thanx again. Cheers...Steven

I have to say that this appears to be one _smooth_ video

My 35 years of mechanical engineering experience tells me you have a fine product with a short life expectancy because the thin lightweight aluminum rollers will disintegrate. As far as energy-savings, I wouldn't hold my breath on it. The coefficient of friction doesn't go away just because you have rounder bearings. The chain is going to be at an angle and that is where your energy will always go.

Man I wish my hustles were this lucrative

A day that it didn't Rain in...February, March ? in Holstebro...Rare! Glad to see you finally had a tour of the place :)

Wow amazing what goes into this stuff these days, great video! I would love to have some of this stuff on my XC bike, but they need to bring the price down and they would definitely sell more by volume. Just my two cents, Cheers!

5:02 he talks about putting cage over bearings. This is standard, however I seen and read recently about Greaseless bearings that eliminate sliding friction by using indentations on raceway to create separation without a cage. I wonder if that technology would be of benefit to Ceramic bearings

Correction: at approximately 4:20 in the video you stated that the tolerance on the bearings was "2.5 microns, or 0.00025". That is incorrect. 2.5 microns = 0.0025: you were off by a factor of ten. If the tolerance really is 0.00025 then that would be 0.25 microns.

If it wasn’t for unattainable drool factor of ceramic bearings Dan’s awesome hair would have totally distracted me from video!!!😂😂🤷🏼‍♂️🤓

This era in bike tech will be known as the "era of the wattage wars".

Cleaning and oiling the drivetrain on an average bike will give an instant boost.

This is an eye opener. Well done. I really enjoyed this video. Thanx.

Not enough oooooo's in the word smooth to describe that presentation.

Your hairs on point Dan

I love these companies who go after the best innovations. Mainly because I'm tired of messing with cut corners and barely good enough junk. Still it's hard, however, to rationalize the expense. My favorite part of the video was the total lack of an on-screen escort. The workers who were on screen hardly acknowledged Mr Lloyd or outright ignored him. It seemed a little spooky. They've won me as a fan.

I have gold jockey wheels... The bling factor created an extra 5W.

Finally, GCN jumping into a velomobil! More recumbents guys! Go to Spezi show in germany and I promise you tons of footage worth of cool videos

I saw this interesting video an engineer made showing that ceramic bearings aren’t all they’re cracked up to be and often much more expensive and sometimes producing more friction. Most of the friction comes from the seal and cage with only about 2 percent coming from the actual ball it self, they will also wear the cups out more quickly because they are harder than steel which leads to a shorter life span. m.kzfaq.info/get/bejne/pZ2ZjbmXuKrGmXU.html

Top video

Nice chain keeper at 10:05 :)

So how did you like the velomobile?

"So what are we doing today?" "Proving that sand, grime, and dirt makes the bike go slower" "We already know that" "But have you PROVEN it?"

So glad they sent Dan. Had this been hosted by Si I would have stopped vid after 30 seconds of his gushing . Well done GCN

Great video. Tgey are realy pushing the envelope

Freud would have some sort of theory about people who buy ceramic speed components...

Thoroughly enjoyed Matt's laugh, the Wig will be missed. Who else can teach us how to pour a beer properly??? Matt, please submit some indoor training videos in the future, your commentary makes an extra challenge not to chuckle while in an effort!

With all the comments on here both positive and negative a blind test would be pretty cool. Use two identical bikes, one equipped with as many CeramicSpeed components as possible and one with standard. Then have you guys ride them and see if you can tell which is which. You would have to omit parts that would be a visual giveaway unless you could find a visually similar non ceramic version. Would be a challenge to set up but I think it would be fun and interesting.

Nice tour! Great product. True fine artisan work. No way 5 watts will make a difference for me (5 kgs would ;-) ) but the products themselves are a work of art.

DA pedals must have CS bearings, they're soo smooth...

Hello, I'm wondering if it's better to push your limit in the big ride of the week or to do a ride a little bit easier in order to do more training during the week? If may be interesting to do a video about this subject

Did they mention what type of machine specifically they used to create the 3D printed jockey wheels? Powder bed, Direct energy deposition, etc.?

Here's a caveat about Ceramic Speed BB bearings, if your BB shell isn't created to the same precision as the bearings you don't gain any benefit.

Drive that bike!

Debunked by Hambini.

Ok, here's the script for today's show, Lloydy. Dan [complete deadpan]: "pretty excited about today..."

Very nice. Would be nice to speak to some of the people though!

I would have liked a couple minutes of the "wall of products". Please do a B roll

Can we say that the best part of the tour is Dan's strong hair game?! No but seriously it was Dan's hair... Actually I think just seeing what the bearings are made of and looking at the hall with the very real world comparison of what a difference a good low friction bearing can do does bring it into contrast. Wish that the jockey wheels didn't look so hidious otherwise they would be a very appealing prospect!

'Lager' is a storeroom in German...I guess what Dan wants is the 'lager lager' - a room for storing lager.

All very impressive however hambini burst the ceramic bearing bubble in his show with Jonny tech in just a brief calculation

Was planning to get ceramic speed... but only bought tripeak due to budget constraint

Have them in my bottom bracket but maybe i will install industrial bearings like SKF next time again, not sure of it. You need to apply grease to them every 6 months so you need to take everything apart and that's 80-90% of the effort of replacing the bearings by new ones so the question for me personally is if the price is worth the 20-10% effort saving. And not only the effort but also having frequent components failures on a bike is just annoying. So I bought them because i hoped they lasted longer than the default bearings fitted, not so much for the power savings (and yes i still don't have any problems with them so no this is not a comment on the product itself).

Hello! Can anyone help met about oversized pulley? I use 50t chainring and 23t cassette,what sized of oversized pulley i will use?

❤️ Awesome! I think I speak for almost all those who ride CeramicSpeed, until you ride the products, it’s hard to appreciate just how good they are.

14:00 how does Teflon stick to metal if you first put wax on it?

do another one on sram shimano and other brands like specialized

If I worked there I’d start doing stupid upgrades just cause. My office chair would roll like crazy on those ceramic speed bearings

First time I've even seen a reference to a recumbent in a GCN video, which I've always thought strange...