CeramicSpeed’s new BB Alpha range of bottom brackets “sets an unprecedented industry standard in terms of performance,” according to the Danish brand. Each individual component has been examined and optimised to create what it claims is the best bottom bracket on the market. However, says CeramicSpeed, the BB Alpha didn’t arise from a need to fix any recurring issues, but rather from its desire to constantly improve in the pursuit of perfection. BB Alpha, which will replace CeramicSpeed's existing range and which will be available in all bottom bracket standards – BSA, T47, PF30, BB86 and more – is designed to deliver the same low-friction performance that CeramicSpeed is renowned for while boosting durability and introducing a simplified user experience across the range. The entire BB Alpha range is covered by a lifetime warranty. Additionally, thanks to the use of a new, stronger alloy and different architecture, BB Alpha bottom brackets are lighter than before – something that CeramicSpeed says will particularly interest its WorldTour team partners including IPT, Soudal Quick-Step and Uno-X.
At a joint media presentation with Factor to launch the new ONE aero bike – still under embargo – CeramicSpeed’s global sales and marketing director Jonathan Small and off-road specialist Mike Garrigan presented the BB Alpha, with Small explaining: “We consider ourselves the benchmark in performance and efficiency… now our focus is to raise durability and longevity to the same level.”
Garrigan begins: "There are two things that didn’t change. There’s our internally verified ceramic [technically grade 3 silicon nitride] balls which are verified in house. The handbuilt nature of our product hasn’t changed either. It’s still all made in Denmark.”
The first new element is the redesigned race enclosing the ceramic bearings, which is made from hardened stainless steel. “That’s unique in this space,” says Garrigan. Commonly cycling bottom bracket bearing races are made from a hardened chromium steel alloy, but the BB Alpha’s stainless steel construction is designed to avoid corrosion. Additionally, the new architecture of the races allows improves preload.
The new bearing seals also deploy stainless steel backs and are designed to keep contamination at bay inside the bearing. “The light-contact seal has been completely redesigned,” says Garrigan. “We’ve produced it to our own specifications, to provide greater protection to prevent the ingress of water, but at the same time we’re CeramicSpeed, we’re known for our performance and efficiency, so while we wanted to improve protection and therefore durability, we weren’t willing to compromise performance. With this custom design we’ve been able to achieve that. We got the protection we’re looking for through the interface with the seal and the bearing race but without increasing drag.”
CeramicSpeed says the new BB Alpha seal has undergone over 150 hours of lab testing, posting a 500% improvement in keeping out water and debris, benchmarked against the top 25 competitor bearings.
Even the dust cover has had a full makeover, with 28 iterations tested before settling on the final version. The new dust cover improves fitment and sealing, but a universalised design makes life simpler for bike shops and mechanics, says Garrigan. “In the past when we developed a new bottom bracket we would develop each component individually. Now that we’ve done a full revamp with BB Alpha, we’ve been able to simplify the dust covers that we have throughout the line and that means that the changes we’ve made to the dust cover are applied across all BBs – every single product is going to have this new tech.”
The BB Alpha line has also gone on a comprehensive weight reduction programme. “We put all of our BBs on a diet,” says Garrigan. The result is up to 10 per cent weight reduction across the range, with some models shedding even more. CeramicSpeed achieved this not only by reworking the cup architecture but also by switching to a stronger aluminium alloy, which allowed material to be strategically removed without sacrificing strength.
However, there’s a catch – or rather, a consequence: “Good luck anodising this with fancy colours because this is very, very hard," Small says. As a result, BB Alpha will be offered in any colour so long as it’s black. “The new material will allow it to be corrosion free and for us to put a lifetime warranty on it – but we’re moving away from multiple colours in order to have a stronger and lighter solution.” It seems like a fair swap.
Garrigan is keen to present test data, both from lab simulations and real-world pro riders. “We build most of our own machines, so depending on what we want to test we have to build our own machine because there are none in existence that we can use. We had a custom protocol that we tested. The BB itself had a standardised protocol of a 500kg load and a 3,000-watt input. In the real world, there are around 100 BB Alphas out in the field and they have already confirmed over a million kilometres."
The bulk of the real-world feedback has come from CeramicSpeed’s roster of pro athletes and WorldTour teams, including IPT, Soudal Quick-Step and Uno-X, as well as gravel and off-road teams including PAS Racing, Yeti-Fox Factory and Cannondale Factory Racing. Garrigan highlights one individual name: Richie Rude, the three-time enduro World Cup winner, known as “the product destroyer”. Rude raced a single BB Alpha all last season, after which it was handed to a development rider – and it’s still running. In addition, he says, a BB Alpha won Amstel Gold this year with a non-CeramicSpeed sponsored team.
Small concludes: “We consider ourselves the benchmark in performance and efficiency. We demand the highest standards of performance and efficiency in all of our products. However, we have the potential to improve our protection, durability, longevity of our products and so our focus is for the coming period is to maintain the highest levels of performance and efficiency but raise durability and longevity to a comparable level. We could invest in improving the performance of our products even more, but it’s a question of diminishing returns. When you’re into the last two per cent, maybe gaining 0.2 per cent is less interesting and becomes less valuable. We’re at a point where we see more value for the customer and therefore for us. You’ve seen that with our SLT [solid lubrication technology] bearings, you’re seen it with the technology which we have on our OSPWs [oversized pulley wheel], which means there’s no maintenance needed on those now. And you’re going to see more of this as we launch more product categories.”
Yes, the BB Alpha is expensive, priced at 389 euro compared 319 euro for the previous range, which it will replace entirely, but if it’s the last bottom bracket you’ll ever need then it could be worth the investment depending on how often you ride. See all the details at CeramicSpeed's website.
We have a sample BB Alpha on test, but by all accounts it will outlive me, so please don’t hold your breaths for my long-term review.
