We already brought you news of Ceramic Speed’s 14t upgrade for SRAM Eagle, but they’re not the only ones. Is your XX1 drivetrain not blingy or gold enough? Then take a look at these:
There are only going to be thirty sets of them, so if you get in fast enough you can have your own pair for $149. Kogel don’t just make bling, but fancy bearings too, and they have quite a lot to say about that and design of parts that use them. For instance, they see sealing as more important than reducing friction at all costs:
“While saving friction from your drive train could be the most obvious reason for buying premium ball bearings, there is a law of diminishing returns. Low friction: good! Lower friction: better! Unless lower friction is achieved by removing the lubrication from your bearings and the internals are ground to dust after a hundred miles. […]
“[We] experimented with a race-day-only bearing set: No seals, a bit of oil instead of grease. After all, the set only had to last sixty kilometers. (In the end we decided the minimal gain would not be worth the additional risk of changing from the race proven bearings to experimental ones).
“Most people do not have a mechanic at hand that will travel to the races to install their race day bearing sets. For this reason, our road bearings are built with full length seals that keep the elements out and the grease in. It is not intended to be -THE- lowest possible friction, but rather the lowest possible friction that will hold up to everyday use.”
Being Belgian, cyclocross seems to have informed a lot of their thinking, but they now make all sorts of bits for CX, road and mountain bikes, including wheel bearings, bottom brackets and bearing drifts.
You can see how Kogel’s jockey wheels spin in this video from Alison Linnell:
[fbvideo link=”https://www.facebook.com/allison.linnell/videos/vb.515581598/10153537126631599/” width=”650″ height=”400″ onlyvideo=”1″]