Recently there have been a few companies releasing full ceramic bearings for wheels. While this seems like a logical next step in ceramic bearings, they are a poor choice to put in your wheels. The reason is that the ceramic material used in the race is not resistant enough to fracture. In other words, impact. The most common ceramic material Silicon Nitride (Si3N4) (what we make our balls out of) is far too susceptible to fracture when used as a race.
To get around this many companies will use Zirconia (Zr02) for the races because it has a higher resistance to fracture. But for bicycling use, the fracture level is still too low. Many of the companies releasing these items are not cycling based, meaning they think full ceramic sounds like a good idea, but in reality their expensive bearings will break rather quickly when used as bicycle wheel bearings.
The best bet for wheels is still our F1 Ceramic Premium wheel bearings using a hybrid approach. You get all of the performance gains from other brands full ceramic but none of the worry!
