A customer brought in a Xelius ES for me to work on.
They mentioned it has ceramic bearings from CeramicSpeed installed,
but the front hub rotation was rough and grinding, so they wanted me to check it out.
When I inspected it, both front and rear hubs were perfectly centered with almost no runout.
I disassembled and cleaned it, but
these are NOT CeramicSpeed bearings.
They are ceramic bearings, but not from CeramicSpeed.
I'm absolutely certain they're different.
Front side
Back side
There was no laser-engraved marking anywhere.
If these were genuine CeramicSpeed,
they would definitely have markings.
The retainer ring is metal.
That's another giveaway that these aren't genuine.
The lip seal says 6901RS,
but with CeramicSpeed bearings, there's a naming convention where
they insert a "1" as the second digit of the size number.
So 6901 becomes 61901, and 6903 becomes 61903.
Also, the lip seal color is basically always blue.
(If a separate black seal is included, they can switch it to black.)
Now let me look at the Tni ceramic bearings
that are on my own Xelius ES front hub.
The lip seal says 6901RS,
and there's "CERAMIC" engraved on the inner race side.
I removed it.
There's a Tni marking on the outer diameter of the outer race.
Flipped it over.
The CERAMIC marking appears to be on one side only.
Setting aside the presence or absence of markings,
the customer's bearings and my Tni look very similar.
But they're definitely not CeramicSpeed.
Here's the problem: the price per bearing (one side) is
Tni 6901: list price ¥2,500 before tax (so the customer's are probably around the same),
CeramicSpeed 61901: list price ¥9,600 before tax.
Yet the customer paid about ¥20,000 for this front wheel bearing replacement.
It's almost impossible that the shop that did this
accidentally confused CeramicSpeed (brand name) with ceramic bearing (generic term),
because they ordered CeramicSpeed hollowtech II BB at the same time,
and the BB they installed is definitely CeramicSpeed.
Also, the customer's motivation was that they heard a friend got ceramic bearings
and said "I want ceramic bearings too, and I'm going to get the absolute best ones!"
And they emphasized "CeramicSpeed" when ordering,
so it's hard to believe the shop made a mistake.
Or could it be that the labor alone for the front wheel was ¥15,000?
The front hub bearings were shot, so
I replaced them with NTN non-contact steel ball bearings that I had in stock.
Next, the rear wheel.
The non-freewheel side had a lip seal marked only "6903RS",
and it looked the same as the front hub bearings.
The inside was slightly different though—the retainer ring was plastic.
The freewheel side and freehub bearings are size 608.
These also have plastic retainer rings, but
the lip seal had "TOREN 608RS" marked on it.
After investigating, I found there's a bearing manufacturer
called Ningbo Toren Bearing in Ningbo, China.
So these aren't CeramicSpeed either,
but the customer was charged CeramicSpeed-level prices
for parts and labor—basically robbed.
Going back in time a bit,
the seal rubber inside the freehub body was missing.
They may have removed it during bearing replacement (which wasn't necessarily required),
but they forgot to put it back.
This rubber ring is actually an important functional part.
Without it, the freehub body has zero dust and water protection.
I've confirmed the customer didn't intentionally remove this part themselves.
It was definitely missing for a long time.
There's buildup on the seat where the rubber ring should be.
This is a different job—a Cosmic Carbon Ultimate—but
when I removed the rubber ring, the area underneath was clean.
I cleaned it up
and replaced the missing parts.
I should mention that I'm writing this article at this customer's request.
(Though I'd write it anyway)
Because they may need it to have a conversation with the scumbag shop
that deceived them about CeramicSpeed and basically stole over ¥40,000.
I haven't asked for that shop's name, by the way.
But I can pretty much figure out who it was.
Below is info on the real CeramicSpeed bearings.
This is a CeramicSpeed 6901, so it's marked 61901.
The lip seal is blue.
This is a 608, but with 3-digit sizes they don't use the 61XX format.
Because 61XX series actually includes a 6108 (68mm OD / 40mm ID / 15mm width)
that's a size you'd never use in a road bike,
they avoid the confusion.
Instead of a size marking, the outer race has
CeramicSpeed.com engraved on it.
Anyway, even if the lip seal were black,
genuine CeramicSpeed bearings are identifiable from the outside.
One more thing I noticed when I first peeled back the seal on the customer's bearings:
CeramicSpeed bearing balls are slightly whitish.
The retainer ring is plastic.
In summary: for swapping in ceramic bearings that are NOT CeramicSpeed,
where you stole over ¥40,000 from the customer on both wheels,
I'd like to hear your proper explanation. If you can manage one.
They mentioned it has ceramic bearings from CeramicSpeed installed,
but the front hub rotation was rough and grinding, so they wanted me to check it out.
When I inspected it, both front and rear hubs were perfectly centered with almost no runout.
I disassembled and cleaned it, but
these are NOT CeramicSpeed bearings.
They are ceramic bearings, but not from CeramicSpeed.
I'm absolutely certain they're different.
Front side
Back side
There was no laser-engraved marking anywhere.
If these were genuine CeramicSpeed,
they would definitely have markings.
The retainer ring is metal.
That's another giveaway that these aren't genuine.
The lip seal says 6901RS,
but with CeramicSpeed bearings, there's a naming convention where
they insert a "1" as the second digit of the size number.
So 6901 becomes 61901, and 6903 becomes 61903.
Also, the lip seal color is basically always blue.
(If a separate black seal is included, they can switch it to black.)
Now let me look at the Tni ceramic bearings
that are on my own Xelius ES front hub.
The lip seal says 6901RS,
and there's "CERAMIC" engraved on the inner race side.
I removed it.
There's a Tni marking on the outer diameter of the outer race.
Flipped it over.
The CERAMIC marking appears to be on one side only.
Setting aside the presence or absence of markings,
the customer's bearings and my Tni look very similar.
But they're definitely not CeramicSpeed.
Here's the problem: the price per bearing (one side) is
Tni 6901: list price ¥2,500 before tax (so the customer's are probably around the same),
CeramicSpeed 61901: list price ¥9,600 before tax.
Yet the customer paid about ¥20,000 for this front wheel bearing replacement.
It's almost impossible that the shop that did this
accidentally confused CeramicSpeed (brand name) with ceramic bearing (generic term),
because they ordered CeramicSpeed hollowtech II BB at the same time,
and the BB they installed is definitely CeramicSpeed.
Also, the customer's motivation was that they heard a friend got ceramic bearings
and said "I want ceramic bearings too, and I'm going to get the absolute best ones!"
And they emphasized "CeramicSpeed" when ordering,
so it's hard to believe the shop made a mistake.
Or could it be that the labor alone for the front wheel was ¥15,000?
The front hub bearings were shot, so
I replaced them with NTN non-contact steel ball bearings that I had in stock.
Next, the rear wheel.
The non-freewheel side had a lip seal marked only "6903RS",
and it looked the same as the front hub bearings.
The inside was slightly different though—the retainer ring was plastic.
The freewheel side and freehub bearings are size 608.
These also have plastic retainer rings, but
the lip seal had "TOREN 608RS" marked on it.
After investigating, I found there's a bearing manufacturer
called Ningbo Toren Bearing in Ningbo, China.
So these aren't CeramicSpeed either,
but the customer was charged CeramicSpeed-level prices
for parts and labor—basically robbed.
Going back in time a bit,
the seal rubber inside the freehub body was missing.
They may have removed it during bearing replacement (which wasn't necessarily required),
but they forgot to put it back.
This rubber ring is actually an important functional part.
Without it, the freehub body has zero dust and water protection.
I've confirmed the customer didn't intentionally remove this part themselves.
It was definitely missing for a long time.
There's buildup on the seat where the rubber ring should be.
This is a different job—a Cosmic Carbon Ultimate—but
when I removed the rubber ring, the area underneath was clean.
I cleaned it up
and replaced the missing parts.
I should mention that I'm writing this article at this customer's request.
(Though I'd write it anyway)
Because they may need it to have a conversation with the scumbag shop
that deceived them about CeramicSpeed and basically stole over ¥40,000.
I haven't asked for that shop's name, by the way.
But I can pretty much figure out who it was.
Below is info on the real CeramicSpeed bearings.
This is a CeramicSpeed 6901, so it's marked 61901.
The lip seal is blue.
This is a 608, but with 3-digit sizes they don't use the 61XX format.
Because 61XX series actually includes a 6108 (68mm OD / 40mm ID / 15mm width)
that's a size you'd never use in a road bike,
they avoid the confusion.
Instead of a size marking, the outer race has
CeramicSpeed.com engraved on it.
Anyway, even if the lip seal were black,
genuine CeramicSpeed bearings are identifiable from the outside.
One more thing I noticed when I first peeled back the seal on the customer's bearings:
CeramicSpeed bearing balls are slightly whitish.
The retainer ring is plastic.
In summary: for swapping in ceramic bearings that are NOT CeramicSpeed,
where you stole over ¥40,000 from the customer on both wheels,
I'd like to hear your proper explanation. If you can manage one.