The best road bottom bracket upgrades 2023: stainless steel and ceramic bearings for silky smooth miles

The bewildering world of road bottom brackets can drive anyone to despair (including mechanics), but once you’ve narrowed down exactly which type fits your bike, there are still plenty of options to choose from. Is the huge price hike of ceramic units worth the extra investment or is it just hype? Or should you look into something a little more heavy-duty? 

The best road bottom brackets are not always the most expensive. For some, a cheaper option that you replace more often may not be the worst choice, especially if you have the tools and knowledge to replace it yourself. However, the performance of these units often tails off quickly in bad conditions and therefore higher quality and more heavy-duty stainless bearings can be a great solution, especially if you run one bike all year round - such as an endurance bike or commuter bike.

If you're lucky enough to have a dedicated best road bike / race bike, you may then want to consider ceramic bearings. These have all the benefits of stainless but with even less friction, helping you save valuable watts. If properly cared for, ceramic bearings can also outlast steel and will suffer less from corrosion.

The best equipment used correctly will always improve the performance of your bike and therefore your enjoyment of your riding. This isn’t just relevant to the pros shaving off a tenth of a second in a TT. In fact, you could argue the opposite, that it's more important for a normal rider who is looking to maximize their ride. If good quality equipment makes your bike fun to ride, you’re likely to ride it more often and for longer! Here’s a selection of the best road bottom bracket upgrades we've tried and our experience with them.

The quick list

Ceramic Bearings

Stainless-steel Bearings

Best Ceramic Bottom Brackets

Free watts from the original ceramic kings

A name which is synonymous with high-quality bearings and most people’s first thought when discussing upgrades. CeramicSpeed makes a unit to fit almost any frame/crank combo. The standard Un-coated version of the BB features ceramic bearings which can be filled with your choice of grease, to suit the riding you’ll be doing. 

Long-life grease extends the service period of the BB and is best for mixed weather and gravel, whilst the Performance grease is great for TT bikes and summer road bikes – if you have your bike serviced regularly it’s possible to swap grease depending on the season. 

CeramicSpeed does make a point of saying that a ceramic BB doesn’t mean you can neglect the servicing like many people assume – the units still need the same care and attention that steel bearings require, but ceramic units will indeed wear less than steel units when cared for properly.

My test CeramicSpeed unit is actually a standard version that I bought several years ago now and is just about due to outlast the bike it’s been in, and it’s four year warranty (CeramicSpeed also offer a coated version with a lifetime warranty). Most of the time I’ve run performance grease in the unit and I’ve done a very simple service of it twice a year. It’s still noticeably easier to spin than my other bikes and I’ve experienced zero creaks/noise. It’s true that this has been my summer road bike for the last three years but I’ve ridden in all weathers and the BB has never skipped a beat. It's been a joy to ride, making me feel slightly better about the initial cost of fitting.

Belgian alternative to the big brands

Similarly to CeramicSpeed, C-Bear produces a BB for just about any combination of frame/groupset and the chart on the website is very easy to use to help you pick the right unit. You simply identify what BB shell your frame is and what spindle/crankset you have and C-Bear will tell you which BB fits in between the two. I fitted a threaded unit to one of my bikes six months ago and have fitted many customer units in the last three years. I’ve been really impressed by the aftercare both from Belgium and from the UK importer.

When I started writing this review I realised that after six months I haven’t actually needed or even thought about servicing the BB. I wouldn’t claim it’s a fit-and-forget unit as it will need servicing just like a steel BB at some point, but given that we’ve had a relatively mild spring in the UK I’ve not needed to worry. The BB still feels silky smooth and silent - as I mentioned in the introduction, this is a big factor in making me want to ride my bike.

One of the reasons that the C-Bear unit is so quiet is that they’ve completely done away with all loose parts such as wave washers, spacers and adapters. This is critical in the reduction of noise and can only be achieved when a brand like this makes a BB option specific to each frame/crank option. It’s a huge amount of work on their part and more than justifies the price tag in my opinion.

The price itself is one of the selling features of C-Bear – depending on the option you go for the C-Bear units can be half the price of CeramicSpeed. It's certainly a significant difference and quite probably a major consideration to many riders looking to upgrade. It puts C-Bear in the realms of some of the more expensive OE brands and packs an impressive punch.

High-quality at a reasonable price

A relative newcomer to the market, Kogel quickly received a reputation for high-quality kit at a fairly affordable price. Branding is clean, all the BBs are finished in satin anodizing and the product is highly functional rather than being offered in lots of garish colours – it’s very much there to do the job.

As with my Chris King unit, my Kogel BB has been on a few different bikes over the years and has been serviced accordingly. I have noticed that the Kogel unit requires a tiny bit more attention than the others I’ve tested but still well within the bounds of a regular service. Interestingly Kogel can supply optional “road” seals or standard “cross” seals to the same bearing in most instances. 

Cross seals have slightly more drag but will give you better waterproofing and in most cases are the way to go. Road seals would be great in a race bike or a summer bike and these are the ones that are featured in those videos of the high-speed spinning cranks that most people visualize when thinking about ceramic BBs. I like the fact that these are interchangeable because in theory, you could make a seasonal change when you service your bike.

The BB has a 2 year warranty which isn’t quite as good as the other options but it’s still double (in most cases) that of many of the standard/OE brands. Similarly priced to the Chris King units I think Kogel is a serious contender and the choice might just come down to what suits the bike best.

Best Stainless Steel Bottom Brackets

American made precision bearings

Chris King designs and makes their own bearings in-house and that’s been at the heart of everything the company has done to earn its stripes over the years. My own CK unit has been fitted to various bikes over the last few years including a spell on a ‘cross bike so it’s had proper testing! The bearings are completely serviceable and CK has some great videos about how they make bearings and how to service them.

On various bikes, I’ve used lots of different greases in the BB, from long-life in the cross bike to even just oil for a short period in a TT bike. In most cases, a mid-friction high-performance grease works best and is what I’ve used 90% of the time. Initially, Chris King intends there to be very little drag, but due to the way the Angular Contact Bearing works this actually lessens over time – they claim “they get better with age”. 

This may raise eyebrows but my unit certainly seems to have rolled with the punches over the years and it’s still behaving. I have experienced a little noise from time to time but I caught this early in each instance and following a full strip and rebuild (including removing and refitting the threaded unit) it always returned to life without an issue. Therefore I’d recommend regular maintenance when using these BBs.

Price wise the CK stainless units sit somewhere in between the CeramicSpeed and C-Bear options, offering a good alternative to both. They also come in a multitude of colours to suit your build.

Yorkshire's finest, offering high performance and durability

Hope is based in the UK and has been making some of the best products for our climate and riding since they started in their humble Yorkshire workshop. Whilst not primarily thought of as a road brand, Hope makes a full list of suitable products including its excellent BB options.

One of the massive advantages to the Hope unit is the incredibly low price – when you compare it to many of the other options out there, it stacks up very competitively, especially when you consider that you could replace it several times during the lifespan of the more expensive products.

But, will you therefore need to be constantly swapping BBs out? Simply, no! They last very well indeed, probably because these products were first and foremost tested on mountain bikes and were always designed to take abuse from both the weather and the terrain. 

The BBs won’t spin as friction-free as some of the others on this test but, as stated, that’s not the point – they’re just very well-made units that are designed to get the job done. A little grease as part of a normal service is enough to keep them running smoothly and when they finally give up they’re much cheaper to replace. Maybe not the choice for your TT or race bike but very much worth considering for your all-rounder or your gravel bike.

The cost effective solution

Similarly to the Hope units, these BBs are designed to get the job done in tough conditions. Along with Hope, these are my go-to units for general replacement and Wheels Manufacturing has a massive range of BBs to suit pretty much any combination. 

The ACB stands for Angular Contact Bearing and is similar to what many of the higher-priced units use. This simply means that the bearing is designed to work under load from multiple directions, unlike a standard sealed bearing which only supports load in one axis. This is quite important as many of the cheaper options just use standard bearings.

The units come in a choice of anodized red or black in most cases and look really neat on most bikes. They don’t offer the reduced friction benefits of some of the ceramic options but again that’s not the point – the big benefit is the weatherproofing and the quality, which is similar to Hope. In most cases, they use Enduro bearings which are recognized as the industry's upgrade standard. They are superior in my view to the majority of the standard/OE options.

One of the big positives is the screw-together units that Wheels Manufacturing produce – if you’re getting the dreaded BB creak from a Pressfit BB that’s been fitted badly at some point, the Screw-together style unit can normally solve this – again it does need to be fitted correctly but it can easily resurrect life into an old steed. Like the Hope units, I’d recommend these to anyone wanting a good, solid-performing BB that doesn’t break the bank.

Bottom Bracket FAQs

How we test

When it comes to bottom brackets, testing simply involved many miles out on the road in all weathers. As mentioned above, some of the bottom brackets in this buyer's guide have actually been in use on the tester's bikes for years, so have certainly been put through the wringer.