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I need a new Bottom bracket and am a fan of hope fit and forgetness. Is it worth coughing up the extra for a Ceramic over a Stainless steel one?
Unlikely you'll notice any difference.
Didn't stop me buying ceramic though!
Ive a hope stainless on one of my bikes, much less seal drag than a shimano one, if you remove the chain and spin the cranks they keep going for a lot longer.
Not sure if ceramic is any better, but a mate has had one for about 6 years and many thousands of miles.
I'm wondering if they are more hard wearing than stainless. I'm not overly concerned about the reduction in friction, I need the training anyway!
I thought the main reason for going ceramic was they won't seize. At least that's why I bought mine, onto its second bike now and has never been maintained in any way. Lots of riding in slop and hosing down, still great.
Have a ceramic on my road bike and stainless steel on the MTB. Both just keep going.
ceramic should be maintenance free - I have ceramic on the hardtail and it moves way easier than my old shimano ones.
Hope external bottom brackets are not maintenance free. You will need to remove the crank periodically to clean the shaft and re-apply a coating of grease to protect against corrosion.
I've seen a number of cranks running in Hope bottom brackets that have worn a groove where the bearings sit resulting in the fit becoming sloppy.
I have used hope bottom brackets for years and never had to maintain any of them I cover them in far too much grease when installing and that seems to stop any problems. I have a couple of stainless and a ceramic and all of them are fit and forget. I have had plenty of other brands and will probably never use anything other than hope in the future. Just like their headsets they are components that once fitted I don't think anymore about.
really? The answer is obviously 'buy the ceramic one'. Whether you spot any difference or not you'll know you couldn't have gotten a better one. And if you go stainless you'll always wonder.
Me? I'd go for stainless but then my riding doesn't deserve anything better. Though I've given up on the toffee-based bearings in ISIS bottom brackets.
I finally had to replace the bearings in my oldest Hope BB. It's been in three different hardtails since 2010, which between them have clocked up over 5000 miles, often in filthy conditions. The bearings were cleaned out and regreased once, about 6 months ago. No other maintenance other than incidental when changing cranks or moving the BB onto new frames.
I can't imagine the ceramic bearings would have lasted any better than the stainless steel ones - and I'm not so confident about ceramics on a MTB, especially a hardtail, when you consider the shock/impact loads going through the BB.
Stainless. Not cos I've got one for sale in the classifieds or anything...
But seriously from an engineering point of view ceramic bearings yield advantages in high speed applications, so unless you have a 10,000rpm cadence (or lots of money to spend) I wouldn't bother. There was an article in a roadie mag where they used ceramic bearings in different components and measured the difference in watts lost. It was negligible.