When you first receive your ceramic bearings they are unloaded and feel very smooth. It is possible to feel a slight "notchy" feel if you roll the bearings back and forth between your fingers as the grease has not been fully spread yet. This is normal and not a cause for alarm. We do not recommend rolling the bearings in your fingers as a performance indicator.
The bearings work under load, which is put on the bearings when they are ridden. In the simplest terms, load is when the inner and outer race each push on the ceramic balls. This creates a hard spinning surface for the ceramic balls to spin.
Our specially designed treated steel or ceramic (depending on model) races are extremely hard. When they are pushed towards the ceramic balls, this creates the load and the bearings then work as designed. Our bearings spin with less friction than steel when loaded as the round/smooth ceramic balls can spin much easier and with less heat than steel balls.
As the bearings are ridden they begin to break in. The most important part of this is the polishing of the races. The ceramic balls will continually polish the races every time you ride. This will, over time, make your bearings even faster.
Once the bearings have been ridden for a while they may feel different than when new. Spinning the bearings or rolling them back and forth with your fingers will feel differently than it did when the bearings were new. This is normal and not a cause for alarm. Our bearings are designed to work under load and when loaded they will have a glass like spinning surface creating more speed for you.
