VCRC Ceramic Pulley Set Pro Review

• 11t VCRC Ceramic Pulley Set
• Compatible with: Shimano 10 Speed, Campy 10 Speed, SRAM Road 10 Speed
• VCRC Ceramic Balls - ABEC 7
• Plastic Pulley Bodies for Quietest Performance
• Sold as a set of 2 pulleys - Only 9g each, 18g/set
• MSRP - $129.95
• Company website - www.velocarbon.com

VCRC has been around since 2002 and might be remembered originally as Velo Carbon. But in 2004, they began to develop other lightweight products and changed their name to VCRC. They began offering lightweight alloy parts (stems, handlebars, and seatposts) along with their carbon offerings. At the same time, they started to develop a new product, ceramic bearings. What began as a joint venture between F1 Ceramic Bearings and VCRC has now developed into a product line that includes bottom brackets, pulleys, and ceramic upgrades for various different product manufacturers.

A year ago, we reviewed VCRC’s Shimano compatible ceramic bottom bracket and found it to be a great upgrade for the price. What we have on review now is something that is aimed to compliment that upgrade, the VCRC Ceramic Pulley Set. The package comes from VCRC with two pulleys, an upper and a lower (both labeled accordingly), a spacer tree with the various sets of spacers you’ll need depending on which drivetrain you’re running, and instructions on how to install the set.

VCRC Ceramic Bottom Bracket (Shimano Compatible)

• VCRC Grade 5 Full Ceramic Si3N4 Balls w/ ABEC 5 Races
• English 68mm
• Actual weighed weight: 98g
• MSRP - $179.95
• Company website - www.velocarbon.com

To go ceramic or not to go ceramic has been a hotly debated topic for some time now. Cost versus benefit being the biggest argument between those that choose to and those that do not. With the price of ceramics on average costing 3x more than their normal non ceramic counterparts, it’s hard to justify the cost for some. While others will pay it gladly for any gains, actual or perceived that they may benefit from. With hybrid ceramics becoming more widely available, the cost has come down somewhat. We recently received one of these hybrid ceramic bottom brackets from VCRC, an online company that sells ceramic upgrades as well as a handful of carbon bits.

Our tester was VCRC’s Shimano 10 compatible bottom bracket. First thing we noticed was how light it was, a quick check on the scale and to our surprise it actually weighed the same as what the manufacturer claims, coming in at 98 grams. At first glance the bottom bracket looks no different than your standard Shimano outboard bearing bottom bracket. What separates this particular bottom bracket though is the Grade 5 ceramic balls used inside paired with steel races. This is what makes this a hybrid solution, a full ceramic setup would costs up to twice as much.

Installation is a breeze as with all outboard bearing bottom brackets. Once installed we gave the crank a spin and were very impressed with how smooth and free flowing the crank spun. Impressive given that a brand new Dura Ace bottom bracket usually takes some time to break in. Now that we’ve put on several hundred miles, we’re happy to report that the bottom bracket is still preforming as well if not smoother than when first installed. A quick check of the bearings show no excessive contamination.

Video of crank spinning with the VCRC bottom bracket installed here.

Conclusion
Overall, we’re happy with the performance of this upgrade. We weren’t able to produce any objective data to show power savings, but there is definitely a noticeable difference over the standard Shimano bottom bracket. Given the relative price of the upgrade, we would feel confident in recommending this as one of those upgrades that one might look into to squeeze every last bit of performance out of their rig.

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