New Pulleys Now Available!

We've been offering our ceramic pulleys for close to 10 years now.  We've tweaked the design of the pulley bodies several times using alloy, Delrin (plastic), Titanium and virtually every year we make slight tweaks to the bearings to improve them.

Our newest offering uses a completely different method of production.  In the past we used injection molding to make our Delrin pulley bodies.  This is a reliable way to get a perfect body every time.  But issues can pop up if the temperature of humidity changes at all during the molding.  Not too big a problem but if this happens, the pulley body could wear out a little too quickly.

Our newest pulley switches to machined Delrin.  The process is much more complicated and expensive but by machining the Delrin, the material is much stronger and durable.  In order to get the shape and tolerances perfect, it takes a skilled person to machine them.  Hence the expensive part.

Here is the final pulley, available now at our website:

Reminder, cross seals are a good option for this time of year.

We posted about our cross seals a few years ago but I wanted to re-visit that posting.  Below is the original post:

We get this question quite a bit.  I thought a blog post would clear it up.  First, our cyclocross seals are not just for cyclocross.  They are for anyone who rides in bad weather, races a lot or just wants to protect their bearings a little better.

Our cyclocross seal is a unique seal that while initially more "draggy" will break in and perform the same as our regular seals, while maintaining better sealing performance.  When chosen, we install these on the outside of the bearing so that they protect against the elements.  For some extreme cases, we'll also install them on the inside seal as well, but most of the time our normal seal is fine there.

They are really a great seal and we find more and more customers choosing this option.  The key is to ignore how the BB performs at first, because there will be a lot of drag.  After riding it for a few hundred miles, things get really good and the performance starts to shine.

These are only available for our BBs.

These are still a great option for our BBs.  As more and more people start racing cyclocross or just want to ride year round, the extra sealing protection of our cross seals is a great benefit.  With these installed, except for some extreme cases, the only maintenance needed is to periodically pull your cranks, remove the plastic dustcaps and wipe away any grit that has worked it's way in between the dustcap and seal.  That's it!  You could always add more grease at this time to, just remove the seal, apply some of our grease and then re-install the seal.

And whether you greased the bearing or just removed the dustcap and wiped away any grit, be sure to add a bead of our grease to the outside of the seal BEFORE pressing the plastic dustcap back on.  This is to help with protection and keep things quiet down there.

What's the difference between F1 Turbo Grease and F1 Rocket Sauce?

The key to keeping your bearings spinning smoothly is grease.

First is our F1 Turbo Grease. It is our original grease and long stood as our premium lubricant. It is still very advanced and has been used for over 10 years to make our bearings. It has been recently surpassed by our F1 Rocket Sauce but that doesn't mean it is being phased out. On the contrary, this lube will still make a fast bearing and it is much more affordable. Unlike our Rocket Sauce which is a thin, long wearing lube, we designed this grease to start sticky and then with use, it turns very smooth and fast! F1 Turbo Grease is blue.

Our mad lubrication guru has done it again! Our newest grease is called F1 Rocket Sauce. F1 Ceramic Rocket Sauce is the pinnacle of grease and is designed to be thinner and faster than our Turbo Grease yet also more long lasting with better performance.. F1 Rocket Sauce is a premium lubrication that provides the BEST performance for all ceramic bearings. F1 Rocket Sauce works very well in both cold weather and hot weather. F1 Rocket Sauce is white.

Both of our greases have excellent water resistance & rust protective properties and provide superior oxidation stability, rust and corrosion protection & resistance to water contamination.  Comparing the two performance wise, our Rocket Sauce is faster, longer lasting and if speed is your aim, the best grease option for you.

What is a sealed bearing?

There is a lot of confusion about bearings. Not just the difference between ceramic and steel, but the design of the bearing in general. We will be posting several articles clearing up some common mistakes with regards to bearings.

First up is the misunderstanding of a "sealed" bearing. Many people think sealed means the bearing is permanently sealed, both from contamination and from needed maintenance. This is not true. While some low end bearings come with metal shields making removal a difficult process, most quality bearings come with rubber seals often referred to as "2RS". This stands for 2 rubber seals.

Our F1 Ceramic bearings use rubber seals which can easily be removed for servicing (greasing) and reinstalled.

This is also true for steel bearings that use rubber seals. Don't think that just because they are "sealed" it means they don't need maintenance. Bearings are like chains, you need to keep them lubed and clean for them to last. A F1 Ceramic bearing will last longer than steel when properly maintained as the parts don't wear as easily as steel, but the longevity has a lot to do with proper maintenance.

Building our bearings by hand

As many of you know, we don't sell pre-built, machine made bearings.  A lot of our competitors are sourcing bearings from the far east, buying them as completed bearings and marketing them as a high quality ceramic bearing.  On the other hand, our ceramic bearings are Made in the USA, in our own facility.  Please note, our cups and components are made in Taiwan and China, to our specs.

In this post we thought showing you how we build each bearing by hand might shed some light on why our bearings are highly regarded and have a good track record of longevity.

Below we are building our Ceramic BB for Shimano 10/11 speed cranks.  The process is the same for all of our bearings, but this will show more in depth what we do to a full BB, rather than just wheel bearings.

Step one is to select the parts.  For this build we need an inner and outer race, a retainer, two seals (shown a few steps down) and a bunch of our shiny perfect ceramic balls.

Next we take the ceramic balls and place them into the outer race, making sure they are all on the bottom half:

Now we install the inner race being careful not to drop any of the ceramic balls.  Right now there is nothing holding them in place.

Now we have to spread all the balls evenly so that the retainer will snap into place.  Once we have spread the balls around, they hold the two races together well enough that we no longer have to worry that the balls might fall out.

Now that the balls are spread out, we snap the retainer into place.  The retainer has little plastic "arms" that hold each ball.  Here you see the back of the retainer and a seal next to the bearing.

Now we snap the rubber seal onto the backside of the bearing (the backside is the retainer side) and also the side we laser our logo onto (look at the inner race).

Now we are ready to press the bearing into the cup.  Here is the bearing next to the cup.  We will flip the bearing and press the laser logo side in first, so that the ceramic balls will face outward (making it easier for you to grease them in the future):

Here are both cups with the bearings pressed in.  You can see the retainer and how each ceramic ball is evenly spread by the retainer.  The retainer will hold the balls in place so they rotate easily:

Next we add some grease.  We differ from every other maker of ceramic bearings in that we apply as much grease as we can into the bearing.  A lot of companies will go really light on the grease knowing that the first thing you will do when you get the bearing is spin it in your hand.  So they use a low grease fill to make you think the bearing is really fast since it turns so easily.  We think that is a marketing gimmick and also a sure fire way to have early bearing failure.  So we load up on the grease, knowing that it's the ceramic balls that are what makes a ceramic bearing so fast.  The grease will break in over the first few hundred miles of riding and our bearings will loosen up quite a bit.

Now we snap the outer seal in place.  If chosen, we would've installed our orange cyclocross seals in this step but this customer chose regular seals.

Now, we apply some grease to the outside of the seal.  This will help protect the bearing from contamination and also keep the dustcap quiet since it won't rub.

Now we are getting close to a finished BB.  We then install our dustcaps.  Note the dry ID of the dustcap.

Now we apply some grease to the ID of the dustcap.  This is to help eliminate spindle wear on your crank and also to keep things quiet.  Note the grease on the ID of the dustcap.

Now we flip the bearing over so we can access the inside.  You can see the backside seal here, the one we installed before we pressed the bearing into the cup.

And then we add more grease, this time over the backside seal so that no water enters the bearing from inside your frame.

That is pretty much how we build our bearings.  We left out a few secret things we do, but in a nutshell, this is the correct way to build a bearing and ensure it not only is fast, but also lasts.

Remember that grease is the best thing for a bearing, so it is very important you follow our maintenance guide and grease your bearings periodically.

Thanks for reading!

What are our cyclocross seals and what do they do?

We get this question quite a bit.  I thought a blog post would clear it up.  First, our cyclocross seals are not just for cyclocross.  They are for anyone who rides in bad weather, races a lot or just wants to protect their bearings a little better.

Our cyclocross seal is a unique seal that while initially more "draggy" will break in and perform the same as our regular seals, while maintaining better sealing performance.  When chosen, we install these on the outside of the bearing so that they protect against the elements.  For some extreme cases, we'll also install them on the inside seal as well, but most of the time our normal seal is fine there.

They are really a great seal and we find more and more customers choosing this option.  The key is to ignore how the BB performs at first, because there will be a lot of drag.  After riding it for a few hundred miles, things get really good and the performance starts to shine.

These are only available for our BBs.

The infamous "Spin Test"

In the over 8 years we've been making ceramic BBs, there has never been as much interest in how long our BBs spin as there has been recently.  Apparently some companies have drilled it into people's minds that the longer a crank spins, the better the BB is.  This is not true.

We've blogged about grease and seals and break-in time before, so read those posts for more info on that.  Apparently the thinking on the interwebs is that if a crank spins for 30 rotations versus a crank that spins for 20, for example, the BB that spun 30 times is better.

Typically with some good riding and adequate break-in, our BBs will spin for about 15-20 rotations (see more on this below).  This is fairly normal.  The reason you don't want it to spin much more than that is that is a sign of not enough grease and possibly too light of a seal.  As you ride a BB (any BB) the grease is constantly being spread and used up while being pushed away from the rotating balls.  The grease will eventually get used up and if checking how long the crank spins at this point, it might spin a good 25+ times.  Great?  No!  That is far past the time to relube your bearings.

I do a simple check with my ceramic BB.  Every week or two I take the chain off and give the bike a good cleaning.  A this time I will spin the crank and see how it is spinning.  If it spins too freely or for too long, that's when I know to pull the cranks and lube the bearings.

It is very important to keep enough grease inside the bearings so they are lubed properly, which enhances performance and longevity.

I understand it makes complete sense that "if it spins longer, it must be better" but that is not always true.  You want the crank to spin nice and smooth, with no binding, but you don't want it to spin too long.  Can I give you an exact number as to how many times the crank should spin?  No, there are too many variables here as heavier pedals will make it spin more while a lighter crank would spin less, as the mass rotating has a great affect on spin times.  Also, how hard you spin the cranks will affect the time, did you lightly turn them or spin them as hard as you could?  Although, a good rule of thumb is that it should spin freely and quite smoothly.

I cringe writing this as I am sure someone will say, "my crank only spun 14 times", but if I had to give you a number, the 15-20 range is pretty normal for one of our BBs once broken in.  It could be more (and it could spin less too, don't obsess), but too much more and you need to grease the bearings as mentioned above.  If it only spins something really low, let's say, 3-4 times, the crank is probably too tight and binding the BB.  I personally use a Shimano Dura Ace crank, so my spin times are based on our Shimano 10 Ceramic BB, other cranks and systems like BB30 would spin differently, since they tension in a whole different way.

The energy required by your legs to overcome the grease and seal friction is so small that you would never notice it while riding.  It is noticeable when spinning a crank because the crank doesn't weigh very much, so any seal/grease drag will affect it's spin time.  When I relube my bearings, the crank will go from spinning close to 20 times down to about 6-8 times, simply because I added grease.  Then with riding it will slowly increase it's spinning time again over time, back to around 20 at which time I add more grease.

The reason our ceramic BBs are so fast, is the near perfect balls mated to the near perfect races.  When riding, the balls spin with almost no friction on the race ways, making the BB very fast.  So whether the BB spins 6-8 times after I grease it or closer to 20 when greasing is needed, it rides the same because of the balls and races.

In closing, do not obsess about how long your BB spins.  You should obsess about riding more and making sure you are in as good of shape as possible, so that our super fast BB will be paired with a super fast you!

While this post focuses on our BB, you could also substitute wheel bearings or pulleys every place we mention a BB and the same would be true.  With the main difference with pulleys being that they weigh so little, so their spin times by default will be very, very low.

Full Ceramic, yes or no?

A question we get from customers is: Why don't you offer full ceramic bearings? 

First, let's explain what a full ceramic bearing is and what a hybrid ceramic bearing is.  Both use ceramic balls, so they are the same there.  The difference is that hybrid ceramic bearings use a special hardened metal race (hardened to withstand the hardness of the ceramic ball) while a full ceramic bearing uses a ceramic race.

Ceramic races make for a slightly lighter bearing and can be used with little to no grease.  Plus they can't rust, usually don't pit nor suffer from wear.  Sounds great, right?  Yes!  But there is a huge catch, keep reading.

It makes sense to think that a full ceramic bearing would be better, I mean, if ceramic balls are so good, why not use a ceramic race too?  A lighter, faster bearing that uses less grease is a dream bearing.  But, in practice it can be a nightmare.

There are several reasons, one is the high cost, but most cyclists will pay for better performance, so cost isn't the issue.  So what is the real reason that full ceramic is not good?  Simple, they aren't designed for use in cycling where loads and impacts vary greatly over the course of the bearing's lifespan.  Or to put it simpler, ceramic is a great, strong material for the ball, but for the race, which absorbs shocks and impacts, it is too brittle.  This means that when you hit that pothole (although you should try to avoid them!) or those train tracks, the races can crack.  Any type of impact or sudden load can crack a ceramic race.  Did you bunny hop that obstacle in the road?  Uh-Oh!  Better check those ceramic races.

The companies pushing full ceramic bearings are the companies that get their bearings from large industrial bearing makers.  Why is this important?  Industrial bearings are designed to work in machines and controlled environments.  Cycling bearings are not.  So a full ceramic bearing is great for a machine that never has to withstand any impact, but not good for cycling.  There are numerous reports on the interwebs about cracked full ceramic bearings in wheels and BBs.  The customer likes to blame to bearing brand, and they should, but not because the bearings cracked but rather because the company sold them in the first place.

About the only safe place to use full ceramic bearings on a bicycle is the pulleys.  These are not subject to impact loads like wheels and bottom brackets are.  We've been testing full ceramic pulleys for a year and may release them at some point... stay tuned!

Grease fill % and what it means for your riding

We thought we'd post some info on grease fill and how it effects a bearing.  Grease fill or commonly referred to grease fill % is how much grease is applied to the bearing.  100% would be a bearing completely stuffed full of grease, while 50% would be half as much.


The lower the grease fill % the easier the bearing will spin while not under any load.  The common thinking then is to use a very low %.  Some companies do this for one reason- to make you think their bearings are faster than they are.  They know the first thing you will do when you install your wheel bearings or BB is to spin the wheel or the crank and see how long it spins.  This is a great way to see how good the bearings are, right?  Not really.


A brand new bearing will spin mostly based on the amount of grease, the tightness of the seals and how heavy the spinning object is.  A heavy wheel/rim, tube and tire will spin longer than a lightweight wheel/rim, tube and tire.


Knowing this, most bearing companies apply a low fill % of grease and use light seals, since you will think the bearing is awesome because it spins so long.  But in reality, this is a bad practice.  You need enough grease to properly lube the bearing and help it's longevity.  You need proper seals to keep the bad stuff out (grit and water) and the good stuff in (the grease).


Plus, spinning a wheel or BB while unloaded (not being ridden) completely misses the point with how bearings work.  They work when loaded and the main reason our ceramic bearings are so well received is because of the quality ceramic balls that we use.  Our round balls spin easier than less round ceramic (lower grades) and even more less round steel balls.  A rounder ball will not produce as much heat like a lower quality ball, which means the rounder ball spins easier.  Matched with our races, the bearings spin like on a glass like surface.


We tend to use slightly heavier seals and a slightly higher grease fill %.  While it will take a little longer to break our bearings in, they do last longer and in the end, that is also why you upgrade to ceramic.  While we use a higher grease fill % than most other ceramic bearings, our grease is specially designed for our bearings.  It spreads easily while breaking in and isn't too tacky nor too watery.  It is ideal for ceramic bearings and can be applied more liberally without causing a complete slowdown in the turning of the bearing.


What happens when our bearings are going through the "break-in" process?

3 things:  First- as the bearings break in the grease gets spread around and pushed to the cage which reserves long-term continuous lubrication.  A thin oil film forms on the balls for lubrication.  The thin oil films will generate less drag on the balls.   Second, the seals will break in and loosen.  Third-  The ceramic balls continually polish the races making them slicker and faster with time.

Whoa! Where have we been?

We haven't updated this blog in.like.a.long.time...sorry!  Stay tuned for more updates!

New Website!

Our new website is up. The design is still in development, so what you see is temporary. But, the product database is functioning and orders are now being accepted!

www.f1ceramic.com

BB86 cups are in production!

For all you Scott and Giant riders out there, our new ceramic BB86 cups have passed testing and are now in production. They should be finished in 15 days and available for sale!

Why full ceramic should not be used on wheels

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!

Summer Sale

We have some excess spring inventory left which we have placed on sale. These items are marked down $30-75 each. We need to move these to make room for our summer stock.

Plus as a blog reader, here is a coupon for an additional 10% off: blogreader

Take 10% off all orders over $100: enter code blogreader in the voucher box when checking out.

Coupon code must be presented at time of purchase and cannot be applied to previous purchases. Coupon cannot be combined with any other offer; does not include gift cards. Discount does not apply to shipping, handling or taxes. Offer is good via website only. Minimum order of $100 required.

Fast Friday Tip

Here is this week's tech tip.

Did you know that the front wheel on Mavic Ksyrium's often comes with the label applied the wrong way? This causes the wheel to be installed backwards and can lead to the loosening of the bearing tension. Want to check your wheel? The adjustment side of the hub should be the non drive side. There will be several small holes on the hub endcap for the adjustment tool to press into when adjusting the tension. These should be on the non drive side.

Here's a hint..This is for Road!

Coming Soon!

BMX...COMING SOON!

That's right. We've heard the call and we are currently working on F1 Ceramic BMX bearings. We are working with some big names in BMX to create the F1 Ceramic BMX bearing!

Barbasol / RTRT Press Release

F1 Ceramic Bicycle Bearings: "I noticed a difference on the first pedal stroke."

A few members of the team have taken advantage of the great support offered by F1 Ceramic Bicycle Bearings. By simply replacing the factory bottom bracket bearings with F1 Ceramic Bearings we noticed a jump in performance. We can immediately see gains in acceleration by our sprinters and torque by our climbers. Each pedal stroke is much smoother and more efficient. Plus we have the security of know that our bottom brackets will not fail during a race because the F1 Ceramic Bearings are much stronger and durable, especially at high temperatures. Our team has been very impressed with this product and will soon be replacing on our bikes all factory steel bearings with ceramic bearings from F1.

New Products

We have someexciting new products in the pipeline. Check here for the latest!