While CeramicSpeed’s advantages on road bikes is well known, the advantage to using ceramics might be greater in off-road environments. That’s because at most mtb speeds, wind resistance is lower, and thus reducing the frictional drag of your components can make a potentially greater difference. Here, you have CeramicSpeed’s external threaded BSA bottom bracket designed to mate with 24mm-spindled cranks (like Shimano and FSA and Rotor).
External threaded bottom brackets are the closest thing to a traditional standard. On mtb’s, it almost always means English-threading, which this has. It also means a 73mm shell width. Shimano’s thru-axled cranks always feature a 24mm-diameter spindle, while some of FSA’s and Rotor’s cranks do; even if this bb doesn’t work with your Rotor of FSA crank, there is almost certainly another that will.
CeramicSpeed utilizes Grade 3 Silicon Nitride balls that possess the best possible surface finish and roundness. In testing, the balls are 400% smoother, 128% harder, and 58% lighter than standard steel balls found in most bike components. They’re more than 100% smoother and 15% harder than standard ceramic balls. The balls are installed into hardened steel races in dust-free clean rooms and then checked again before assembly is complete. Not only is low friction the result, but so is increased bearing life. Like three to five times longer than standard bearings.
The CeramicSpeed bearings are pressed into threaded aluminum cups that call for a traditional external bottom bracket cup tool. Rotor of Spain machines the pieces. And the bearings are pressed into place at CeramicSpeed in Denmark.
Tech geeks who are also speed fiends obsess over ceramic bearings because the right design can have dramatically less frictional resistance than standard steel bearings. CeramicSpeed is an innovator in bearing technology. They mastered the use of ceramic ball bearings pressed into hardened steel races for both reduced friction and improved durability. You can go faster with less maintenance. Great things both. These are the reasons why pro racers seek out ceramic bearings. CeramicSpeed has the pro teams coming to them, begging for bearings. Even the ones they don’t sponsor might well be buying them in order not to be left behind.
Another step they take in assuring the lowest-possible frictional drag is using grease they designed as lubricant. It comes in the bearings and a syringe comes with the bearings as well. Ceramic bearings are so hard that they can crush grit that works its way into the races. And ceramic balls don’t rust. Still, clean grease is the best way to insure the lowest drag and the longest life. The grease utilized here has a higher viscosity than the grease they install in road bottom brackets.
The kit comes with the bearings pressed into cups, a sleeve to seal the cups on the inside, CeramicSpeed’s mtb grease, dust cover, spacers, and sticker sheet. The spacers allow you to correct for imperfect shell widths. Weight of the system is 91g.
When you’re looking to ride away from your previous best and the competition, the CeramicSpeed BSA mtb bottom bracket for Shimano cranks will help you shake them.