In the latest Geek Warning episode, the new Ceramic Speed Alpha BB was discussed. Looking at prices for different versions of that BB and comparing those prices to the prices of Enduro XD-15 BBs, I have to wonder why the price on the Ceramic Speed BBs are so much higher. Even if you look at the prices of the bearings only, the price of the Alpha’s bearings are about twice that of the Enduro XD-15s. They both come with lifetime warranties. I only checked US prices, though.
Is the a result of tariffs? Do products from Danish companies tend to cost more than comparable products from American companies? Is it just a result of brand cachet?
Certainly market-dependent. Elsewhere in the world, you’ll likely see those prices flip the other way around.
Both are excellent options, although there are some subtle differences between them. One thing I prefer about the CeramicSpeed is the plastic shield that sits between the crank spindle and bearing.
Also keen to hear/understand the rationale behind the (backwards?) move to hardened, stainless steel races. Don’t think I caught this on the podcast, but I do wonder whether the objective was;
To simplify the catalogue ,
It just needed something more reasonably priced, since BBs are essentially consumable components on a bike, and/or
That maybe, ceramic coated races were overkill, and had too much of a lifetime’s durability that CS felt it was shooting itself in the foot.
And also, does this mean that well looked after coated BBs, OSPWs, etc would be the best option in terms of drivetrain efficiency and overall durability?
I’m not sure it’s a backwards move. I’m assuming they’re using a special stainless steel, something similar to the nitrogen infused stainless steel that Enduro uses for its XD-15 bearing races. Like the Ceramic Speed Alphas, the XD-15s come with a lifetime warranty. I don’t see how the new Alpha BB bearings would suffer any performance disadvantage compared to previous bearings.
Fair point, and I’m not disparaging the performance of the Alphas, without having had a go at them. Going by Ceramicspeed’s past claims on their fully coated bearings, it seemed (to me at least), that this would be a a step backwards. As you’ve mentioned, brands like Enduro, Kogel, etc all have bearings with ceramic balls running on hardened steel races.
CS on the other hand, was the only hold out on fully coated bearings, and I’m a little curious what brought about the mindset change, and what, if any, are the implications on bearings with ceramic coated races and ceramic balls.
The bit on lifetime warranties strike me as something that CS had decided would be a deal breaker, as far as its intended demographics and perceived product value go, which in my experience, may end up as unnecessary for the majority, especially those that maintain their bearings regularly.
I imagine there could be a few reasons behind CS’ design for the Alpha BB series and the use of hardened stainless steel races:
–Cost? Maybe CS found that going to a hardened steel would reduce their costs and maybe allowed them to lower the price. I don’t know what their previous generation BB prices were ( I haven’t used any CS products). That’s just a guess though.
–Maybe the demand on full ceramic bearings was going down?
–Maybe they finally felt that steel alloys were available with a hardness that could stand up to ceramic and also resist oxidation and etc?
–Maybe using metal races was something they always considered, but there some sort of company inertia that had do be overcome?
It’s a good question. It would be cool if CS would have a chat with the Geek Warning crew about bearing stuff, as we’ll as lube stuff.
It would be interesting to see if that particular design of bearings (coated races paired with ceramic balls within sufficiently tight tolerances) was over-engineered to the point of unprofitably low failure rates, such that CS did figure out that it was costing them too much in the long run.
It would be intriguing if those bearing were the cycling industry’s version of the Centennial Light…