enduro bearings
Enduro are a major supplier of bearings to the bicycle industry.
Manufacturers that choose Enduro include: Aireal Australia, Trek, Santa Cruz, Intense, Cane Creek, Velomax, Easton, Kona, Titus, White Industries, E-13, Yeti, Hadley, Zipp, Rocky Mountain, Iron Horse, Topollino, Spinergy, Crank Brothers, White Brothers, Syncros, Ellsworth.
Bearing Information
Blue (or Standard) series
These bearings are made using Grade 10 Chromium Steel Balls, 52100 High Carbon Chromium Alloy Races and Riveted Steel Retainers. Enduro Blue series bearings are ABEC 3 standard with C3 clearance. Depending on the application these bearings use LLU or LLB type seals, although they may be marked 2RS.
MAX
Also known as full-complement bearings, these cartridge bearings do not use retainers and can therefore have more ball bearings than standard. These bearings have a higher load rating and are suited to applications such are suspension pivots. MAX bearings are made using Grade 10 Chromium Steel Balls, 52100 High Carbon Chromium Alloy Races and feature LLU type seals.
ABEC 5
Enduro ABEC 5 bearings are made to meet the higher ABEC 5 standard. Grade 5 Chromium Steel Balls, 52100 High Carbon Chromium Alloy Races and Nylon with Graphite Retainers. Seals are typically SRS and some LLB.
Ceramic Hybrid
Ceramic Hybrid bearings use ceramic balls (normally Silicon Nitride) in steel races. Enduro Ceramic Hybrids use Grade 5 Silicon Nitride Balls, 52100 High Carbon Chromium Alloy Races and Nylon with Graphite Retainers. Seals are typically LLB.
Grade 5 balls: These high precision balls are 5/1,000,000” from exactly round round in sphericity. How round is that? Five times as round as the balls Shimano or Campagnolo use in their top components.
Grade 10 balls: These high precision balls are 10/1,000,000” from exactly round round in sphericity. How round is that? Over twice as round as the balls Shimano or Campagnolo use in their top components.
Grade 25 balls: These high precision balls are 25/1,000,000” from exactly round round in sphericity. This the grade Shimano or Campagnolo use in their top components.
52100 High Carbon Chromium Alloy Races: Vacuum de-gassed process for the purest alloy steel, hardened to R-62 and still tough and durable.
Riveted Steel Retainers: These are best to keep the balls rolling straight down the ball path even under high stress loads.
Nylon with Graphite Retainers: the smoothest running: These retainers are virtually frictionless while providing constant lubrication.
ABEC (pronounced A-Beck) is an acronym for the Annual Bearing Engineers Committee of the Anti-Friction Bearing Manufacturers Association. The association sets standards for bearing manufacturers. The higher the ABEC number, the more precisely the bearing is manufactured. ... An ABEC 7 bearing will spin faster (and more quietly) than a ABEC 1 bearing.
ABEC 3: ABEC 3 is a standard to which each bearing must pass many tests in order to meet the scheduled requirements including noise testing at high RPM, extremely tight tolerances for the internal diameter, outer diameter, roundness of ball, trueness of races, and surface finish of all of the above.
ABEC 5: ABEC 5 is a standard to which each bearing must pass many tests as per ABEC 3 but to a much higher standard than ABEC 3, even though only 2 digits difference in name.
C-3: C-3 refers to the internal clearance of a bearing and is the standard clearance in the U.S. This is the play between the ball and the races before the bearing is installed. Our C-3 clearance is a tightersize, but for a 10-18 mm ID bearing, our standard is 11-21 um where most manufacturers use 11-25 um. (0.011-0.025 mm)
