There has been a lot of confusion with regards to ABEC and grade. The two measures are completely different and we will go into it in detail.
First, let us address grade. The grade of the bearing is simply its roundness or sphericity given in millionths of inch. So a Grade 25 ball (found in Shimano Dura-Ace and Campagnolo hubs) has a roundness of 25 millionths of an inch. For comparison, our Zero bearings use Grade 3 balls which have 3 millionths of an inch roundness. What does roundness actually measure? It is the deviation from perfectly round. That means a grade3 ball is only 3 millionths of an inch from perfect roundness at most. That is very round :-). The big question is how does it relate to speed? Well, a ball that is more round will exhibit less friction as a ball that is more round will roll faster and longer. A simple way to show this is to take a basketball or any other large ball and tape small pieces of card board to it. Try rolling it. Now increase the height of the cardboard you tape to the ball and roll it. Notice how much slower it is. The more imperfections exists on a sphere, the slower it will roll. How about an oblong object? An oblong object will roll as fast as a sphere only when the oblong object is rolled with its cross section as a circle; that is, an oblong object will roll slower end over end. Try it with an egg. Then try rolling a ping pong ball. The lower the grade, the better the ball.
Now we discuss ABEC. ABEC is really controversial as many companies try to relate ABEC with speed which is totally untrue. First, what is ABEC. According to Wikipedia,
“ABEC stands for Annular Bearing Engineering Committee of the AFBMA. ABEC tolerance classes define tolerances for major dimensions of steel ball bearings. The ABEC scale of tolerance classes includes 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9. Higher numbers indicate closer conformance to certain critical bearing dimensions. Bearings manufactured within tighter tolerance ranges provide greater accuracy of shaft rotation and contribute to higher speed capability. However, the ABEC rating does not specify many other critical factors, including smoothness of the rolling contact surfaces, ball precision, and material quality.”
Basically, ABEC is quality measure of the bearings. The higher the ABEC number, the more precise the bearing is. Why then wouldn’t you want the highest ABEC possible? Because why should you pay more for something that does not make you go faster? Enduro sells its 6805 ABEC 5 bearings to optics companies for its manufacturing machines that grind and polish lenses. That is really high precision. What about ABEC 7 bearings that some companies sell. ABEC 7 bearings are used on the machines (CNC, etc.) that make bike parts. There is a reason why precision like this necessary but there is no where on a bike where it makes sense to go beyond ABEC5. Actually, ABEC 1 is considered high precision and would be very suitable for bike applications. ABEC 5 is pretty much overkill. And ABEC 7…well, you get the picture. We are actually in the process of sending our bearings along with our competitors for ABEC testing. We do this to our own bearings to ensure that we are selling what we advertise. We are going to send our competitors bearings to be tested as we are skeptical that they are able to get ABEC 7 bearings as only a few factories in the world can produce ABEC 7. We will post the results when we get them. Lastly, the tolerances on every part of a bike do not even come close to ABEC 1. There is so much slop in the wheels and drivetrain that the precision of the bearings is lost. Additionally, improper installation of the bearings exacerbates this problem as the bearings could be out of alignment. So does a higher ABEC number mean it is faster? Yes…at 32000 rpm or more. The fastest spinning part of a bicycle never reaches 1000 rpm (pulleys) so ABEC plays little in the speed of the bearing.
So what makes a bearing fast? A bearing is more than the sum of its parts and in the blog installment, I will explain why Enduro bearings are the best (and fastest).
It’s been a while since I last posted so my apologies. This year, I’ve been riding the Mavic R-Sys wheels (clincher Shimano). It is a really nice looking wheelset and light as well. Of course, I could not keep it in the stock form so I replaced the alloy axle with the blue titanium one and also replaced the cassette body with the Mavic Titanium one. Yes, Mavic makes a titanium one that originally came on the now defunct Carbone Pro wheelset. It is a uber-blingy addition that really drops the weight. In fact my wheelset is 1293 grams on my Ultimate scale with no loss in durability. I also added the Enduro Zero Grade 3 bearings so they are pimped out. See below for pictures and weights of the Ti Cassette body and the regular steel one. The Ti one has a cool blue tint.
The first thing I will address is what I do not like about the wheels. I am admittedly a Mavic homer because I sell them and I really do like the way their wheels ride. However, Mavic took some shortcuts that irked me. First, the titanium axle is not standard on the wheelset like it is on the Carbone Premiums or the Ksyrium SL Premiums. What about these $1400 wheels are not premium? Similarly, these wheels do not come with the titanium skewers while the premium models do. I would rather pay the few dollars more and get the whole premium package rather than save a few pennies. These wheels come with Mavic wheelbags which I never really use. They are nice but I also have a stack of them in my shop that never sees the light of day. Could I trade the wheelbags for the Ti bits? I wish.
With these niggles aside, I really love the way the wheels ride. They are light and stiff and are great for the roads in Colorado. There have been various stories on the internet about how aero the carbon spokes are but until I see some hard statistical data, I am going to trust my riding impressions. I’ve ridden a lot of dirt on these wheels and they are holding up great. I am running Hutchinson Tubeless tires with sealant and it works great. Yeah, I know the they are not officially made to run tubeless but when I saw the demo at interbike, I was sold and I have been very impressed. I will write more later on these tires. Anyway, these wheels climb as good as any clincher wheelset I have ridden. The problem with low spoke count clincher wheels is that it requires lots of spoke tension. More spokes reduces the amount of tension required per spoke but it increases the weight. I think Mavic got it right here in terms of weight and stiffness.
One obvious application for these wheels is cyclocross. These would absolutely rule especially running Hutchinson Tublesss cyclocross tires. At cyclocross speeds, no one could complain about any aero disadvantage (if it even exists). Another application is riding in Colorado. With all the hills around here, having light, stiff wheels really helps.
We are offereing the R-Sys with free Enduro Zero bearings. We want you to feel you are getting something premium If you are interested in the hop-up kits, e-mail me at chuck(a)superflycycles.com. The @ sign ommitted to prevent spam from scraping me e-mail address.
We have most sizes of Zero Grade 3 bearings in stock. We also have wheelkits ready. We have listed all the different bearing sizes along with our most popular wheelkits. If you do not see a wheelkit, e-mail us and we will add it.
Mark Legg sent me this picture of a front derailleur pulley he made for Katie compton’s bike. It started off as a derailleur pulley and after massive amounts of Dremeling, he made what is arguably the trickest front derailleur pulley ever! It even has a ceramic bearing in it. Yes, this is totally overkill and even Katie remarked that Mark has way too much free time on his hands. Will we offer it? Probably so stay tuned…
At Superfly Cycles, we use only the finest ceramic bearings available. We now have Grade 3 loose balls in 5/32 and 3/16 for use in Campagnolo and Shimano hubs, respectively. I was recently asked how we can guarantee that our ceramic balls are Grade 3. Short of using an electron microscope, it is difficult to prove to a customer. However, I am posting a picture of our first shipment of Grade 3 balls. They come in 2000 packs and it only weighs 223 grams for 2000 balls including the packing. It is scary to think how something that weighs so little costs so much as 2000 loose 5/32 has a street value of almost $6000. I am very careful handling these because every time I drop or lose one, it costs me a cup of my yuppie coffee :-). We use Cerbec balls which are the finest ceramic balls you can get. They are made in one of the thirteen original colonies - yep, they are made in Connecticut. Why are these balls so good? Well, here is the technical scoop.
Pure silicon nitride is difficult to produce as a fully dense material.This covalently bonded material does not readily sinter and cannot be heated over 1850oC as it dissociates into silicon and nitrogen.Dense silicon nitride can only be made using methods that give bonding through indirect methods, such as small chemical additions to aid densification. These chemicals are known as sintering aids, which commonly induce a degree of liquid phase sintering. Cerbec bearings use Aluminum Oxide as the sintering agent.
The three main types of silicon nitride are reaction bonded silicon nitride (RBSN), hot pressed silicon nitride (HPSN) and sintered silicon nitrides (SSN). Reaction bonded silicon nitride is made by direct nitridation of a compacted silicon powder, and because of the difficulty of ensuring complete reaction, it is hard to achieve a high component density.Usual densities are in the range 2300 - 2700kg.m-3 compared with 3200kg.m-3 for hot pressed and sintered silicon nitride.The higher density gives the HPSN and SSN materials better physical properties and means they are used in more demanding applications. Sintered silicon nitrides produce the densest and most consistent ceramic ball but is also the most expensive of the methods.
Okay, that was way more than you needed to know but I want the technoweenies out there to know that we did not randomly choose Cerbec or sintered silicon nitride. These ceramic balls are so carefully made that they even have a lot number so you can trace the balls back to where and when they were made. On the label, it very discreetly says Grade 3. Instead of wondering where your ceramic balls are made when you buy elsewhere, you can be assured that ours are the finest Grade 3 balls made in the US.
We will add the Campy and Shimano kits very shortly.
Matt at Enduro Bearings told me that he found a bulletin board discussion where people were discussing whether or not our pulleys have bearings. The discussion came about when a memebr could not take apart the dust covers on the pulleys. Well, here is the proof. The picture shows a pulley before the teeth are cut. Unlike other pulleys made, our pulleys are machined instead of being stamped. We inserted the bearing into the pulley to show how it sits but during production, the bearings are pressed in after the teeth are cut.
We have been doing a ton of work redesigning our website. This should be up sometime in the next day or so. We will have many specials so take a look. If there is something you want (or need), let us know. We are constantly adding products and we probably do have what you are looking for but just haven’t listed it yet.
Here is a youtube video I posted showing my SRM crank spinning on new Enduro Zero bearings. The bearings are brand new out of the package and have not been altered. It really does spin like this. In case you were wondering, the chainrings are oval as I use Rotor Q-rings.
Enduro Bearings and Superfly Cycles are pleased to announce the renewal of our sponsorship of Katie Compton for the 2008 season. Our sponsorship with Katie this year went really well and she provided valuable feedback in our product development. In fact, the she used the Enduro Zero bearings in the second half of the season with great success. Plus, it doesn’t hurt that she is a fellow Delawarean
If you are interested in the hop-up kits, e-mail me at chuck(a)superflycycles.com. The @ sign ommitted to prevent spam from scraping me e-mail address.
