Mavic Ksyrium ES bearings

[Paul]

Recently a friend and I succumbed to bicycle advertising and bought
Mavic Ksyrium ES wheels. In both cases, they seem to spin with less
ease than our previous wheels (his were Ultegra, mine Campy Daytona
hubs with conventional spokes and rims). I asked about this at the
LBS, and was told that the seals on the bearings cause some drag and
need to be "broken in". I've ridden mine about 800km, and indeed the
wheels spin more easily. Likewise, the bike does seem to go faster
than with my previous conventional wheels, especially downhill when my
speed is highest. I do realize that some of this perception may be
psychological, but I do hit higher top speeds going down my familiar
local hills than I did in the past (my bicycle is otherwise
unchanged). I did do some adjusting of the preload with the pin
wrench that came with the wheels, and this did seem to help.
Likewise, the cassette did not spin as easily on the Ksyriums as on my
old hub.

Have others noticed these "draggy" bearings?
Do they in fact "break in"?
Is there anything that can be done?
Is this a ploy to get us to upgrade to ceramic bearings, and would
they actually make this better?

Paul

[jim beam]

do you want seals that seal, or just look good? because if you want the
former, you have a sacrifice to make. but you'll be relieved to learn
that at higher speeds, the drag decreases, so it's only when you're
being a slug that it makes any difference.

as for the freehub body, remove it and lube once in a while. qspc
recommends synthetic motor oil, and i've used it too. seems to work.
but an unlubed delrin bearing can't slow you down unless you're coasting.

[Qui si parla Campagnolo]

'Sealed' bearings have a rubber 'seal' and these will always be more
draggy than cup and ball bearings(like the ultegra and Centaur if
2006) which are sealed better with labyrinth seals. The only way to
make them 'better' is to remove the seals, bad idea, BTW. Cheaper to
make hubs this way since no cup needs to be made for the nug for the
bearings to live in. Not sure why these, with such a draggy, 2 pawl
rear hub, is so expensive.

Ceramic bearings empty your wallet and little else in spite of the
shill you hear on adverts and certain web sites.

[Derk]

Qui si parla Campagnolo wrote:

> Ceramic bearings empty your wallet and little else in spite of the
> shill you hear on adverts and certain web sites.

In a letter to FIETS magazine, after these questioned the effectiveness of
ceramic bearings, a guy made the very enthousiastic comment that he "only"
paid 475 Euro's for ceramic bearings in his Ksyriums and RD. Speaking about
the effectiveness of marketing. O yeah: of course he noticed significant
less resistance, in spite of a lab test by TOUR that showed a result that
could hardly be measured.

Derk

[Qui si parla Campagnolo]

Lots of silly things in bikes these days but some, like compact
frames, oversized handlebars, internal headsets do have a few
advantages. Small rider fit, safer light handlebars, easier to weld/
afix big tubes=safer frames, etc. BUT ceramic does little/nuthin.