The best cyclists have a very special mentality, which allows them to focus on the bike and the road without being distracted, ignoring the tailwind, overlooking the rain, and admiring the uphill. These escapes from reality are usually beneficial, but there are some misunderstandings when riding a bicycle that are not so useful. Here, Chris Johnson, managing director of bicycle bearing specialist SMB Bearings, revealed some family truths about hybrid bearings.

Truth 1: Hybrid bearing terminology is confusing. Usually, cyclists attribute their advantages to "ceramic bearings." This sentence means that the bearing is made entirely of ceramic material. However, cyclists will not benefit from all-ceramic bearings because the materials are too brittle to handle the inevitable shock loads of road riding, even though they can be used in indoor circuits. In contrast, hybrid bearings have chrome or stainless steel rings and ceramic balls. Confusion aside, high-quality Japanese hybrid bearings are engineering masterpieces. These bearings can rotate at very high speeds, the balls are very light, and the rotation is very easy. Their efficiency is second to none. It is these bearings that make hybrid bearings a "must have" accessory on the competitive arena. Truth 2: Hybrid bearings are a competitive advantage. Interestingly, some people believe that hybrid bearings have no effect on riding performance. They do not doubt that ceramic bearings have low friction during operation, which has significant advantages in high-speed industrial applications (such as machine tool spindles), but they believe that slower applications may not obtain the same benefits. However, Schaeffler's data shows that the friction of switching from steel bearings to hybrid ceramic bearings at low speeds is reduced by 3%. That is huge. 3% is the difference between the third place and the ninth place in the men's road time trial in the Olympic Games. Even an improvement of only half of the performance means the difference between first and second place. Of course, this comes at a price. Good quality hybrid bearings are not cheap. Although the top professionals are willing to pay for them, many people cannot prove that the price is reasonable; instead, they turn to cheaper Chinese hybrid bearings. Truth 3: Choosing cheap Chinese hybrid bearings will lose the advantage of using hybrid bearings instead of stainless steel bearings. The quality of cheap hybrid cars is not good, which will affect the rolling properties of the bearings. In these cases, high-quality steel bearings will provide the same or even better performance as Chinese hybrid bearings, and generally at lower cost. Japanese hybrid bearings have gained a reputation, but the cheaper Chinese bearing market has benefited from the hype. However, if cyclists want to maximize their budget, then cheap hybrid bearings are not the way to spend money. In the long run, this will cost more, both in terms of bank balances and personal performance.

Truth 4: To make ceramic ball bearings outperform steel ball bearings in the competition, the bearings must use suitable low-torque lubricants. High-viscosity grease will increase rolling resistance and eliminate advantages. Running a hybrid bearing without grease is not a good idea, and it is not an ideal choice for bicycles that are expected to deal with various conditions, rain and dirt. Ceramic balls are very hard, so they wear steel bearing raceways faster without sufficient lubrication. Therefore, in the case of limited budget, the argument for choosing high-quality steel bearings with high-speed lubrication is further proposed. A good quality bearing cage is also very important. Ceramic hybrid bearings may have steel cages or polyamide snap-in cages. The steel cage has a good low starting torque, while the polyamide cage reduces the fluctuation of the running torque due to its excellent sliding performance. Poor quality cages will increase torque and vibration, so even if friction is reduced by 3% due to the switch to ceramic balls, the net friction of cheap hybrid bearings may exceed the net friction of high-quality steel bearings. High-quality steel bearings can still allow cyclists to get the most benefit from their training and bicycles, showing the supremacy of professional cyclists without falling into the fantasy of cheap hybrid bearings. 

Read about SMB's interesting involvement in the music industry here. 

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