Introduction
The technology of road bikes continues to advance, aiming to achieve as fast, comfortable, and long-distance riding as possible with limited manpower. The technological upgrades of road bikes in the past have focused on lightweighting and reducing air resistance. BLH Bearing Company focuses on the rolling resistance of ball bearings used in road bicycles and has developed anti rust bearings (as shown in the figure below).
Since its launch in March 2021, this product has received high praise for its extremely low rolling resistance and is highly favored by road bike users around the world.
In December 2023, our company signed an official cooperation agreement to supply BLH waterproof bearings to one of the world's top bicycle fleets, the Visha/Rental Bicycle Fleet (hereinafter referred to as the "TVL Fleet").
In December 2023, this product won the Japanese Brand Award at the "Super Manufacturing Parts Award", which aims to recognize parts that have contributed to the competitiveness of Japan's manufacturing industry.
Market evaluation of BLH waterproof bearings
BLH waterproof bearings are developed with the core characteristics of extremely low torque, maintenance free, and good corrosion resistance, and are sold as aftermarket upgraded components. Sales of BLH bearings (Figure 2) for wheel sets will be launched in August 2022, and sales of central axle bearings for crankshaft support will be launched in March 2024. BLH bearings can reduce energy loss caused by rolling resistance, achieve uniform speed maintenance and smooth acceleration of bicycles, and help shorten the time required for road races; At the same time, it reduces long-distance cycling fatigue and has gained high recognition from many cycling enthusiasts for its excellent riding experience.
Performance of BLH waterproof bearings
The development of BLH waterproof bearings began at an international event held in Tokyo in 2021, where athletes using Chinese made ball bearings won the cycling track race championship. In order to enable all road bicycle users to experience the excellent performance of this ball bearing, our company has launched the research and development of road bicycle specific bearings. However, in field competitions, lubricating oil needs to be added to the bearings for each race, and maintenance free operation is required for road cycling applications. To address this issue, the R&D team optimized loss control for road bicycle usage conditions and successfully developed the BLH waterproof series bearings. Its core features are as follows:
Reduce Oil Churning Resistance
Ordinary ball bearings suffer from losses caused by various resistances as shown in Figure 3. Friction and wear occur between the rolling parts of the ball and the inner and outer rings. Typically, a semi-solid lubricating grease made by mixing thickening agent and lubricating oil is sealed inside the bearing. However, lubricating grease can generate high oil stirring resistance, so this product seals the grease in areas without oil stirring effect, and only the oil contained in the grease migrates to the rolling parts of the inner and outer rings for lubrication.
The ball bearings are made of low-density, highly corrosion-resistant, and wear-resistant ceramic materials, which will not sinter or wear even under weak lubrication conditions. Thus, lubrication can be achieved solely through the migration of trace amounts of oil from non stirring parts, effectively reducing the resistance of lubricating grease stirring.
Reduce rolling resistance
To achieve lightweighting of road bicycle wheel hubs, the shaft and shell are made as thin as possible, and aluminum alloy is selected as the material. This design will reduce rigidity. When the wheel is subjected to load, the deformation of the axle body causes the bearing to tilt, and the contact angle between the inner and outer rings changes during one rotation of the ball, which in turn causes problems such as spin wear and differential sliding at the contact points, resulting in significant energy loss; At the same time, the fluctuation of ball rotation speed intensifies the sliding wear between the cage and the ball. This product optimizes the shape of the inner and outer raceway, suppresses changes in contact angle, reduces the contact area between the ball and the inner and outer rings, and lowers energy loss in the rolling area.
Change in Inner and Outer Ring Material
Outdoor use scenarios of road bicycles are susceptible to corrosion caused by moisture such as rainwater and sweat. Therefore, the inner and outer rings of this product are made of stainless steel (SUS 440C) material to avoid an increase in rolling resistance (rotational torque) caused by corrosion.
Performance Evaluation of BLH Waterproof Bearings
Assemble BLH bearings onto actual road bikes for cycling testing. Traditional bearing riding tests rely solely on subjective evaluations from professional riders, while this product uses a quantitative approach to evaluate performance differences.
To visually demonstrate the performance of BLH bearings to customers, our company produces a wheel set demonstration machine, allowing customers to truly experience its ultimate low torque performance.
Wheelset Demonstration Unit
Our company produces a demonstration machine (Figure 4) that manually rotates the wheel set, allowing users to intuitively experience the continuous inertial rotation effect of the BLH bearing wheel set. At the same initial speed, the wheel set equipped with BLH bearings takes five times longer to stop after manual rotation than the traditional product wheel set (Figure 5). Therefore, the wheel set equipped with BLH bearings can maintain the vehicle speed even when the rider stops pedaling, significantly reducing leg load.
Real-Vehicle Testing
To quantitatively evaluate the difference in riding performance between traditional products and BLH bearings for wheel set bearings, ride the same route with constant pedal force and compare the time used. The test rider is a professional cyclist who can maintain a constant pedaling force. The bicycle material and other components are completely identical, with only the bearings replaced. Conduct two tests on the uphill route shown in Figure 6 (uphill section with an altitude difference of 291 meters). As shown in Figure 7, BLH bearings take 2.5% less time than traditional products. Converted to a two-hour event, the time can be shortened by about three minutes, and equipped with BLH bearings, it has significant competitive advantages.
Conclusion
Through official cooperation with the TVL team, the quality and performance of BLH bearings have been recognized by the global bicycle industry. Our company hopes that this product will help the TVL team achieve further success in the UCI World Tour. We integrate market feedback into our research and development process, creating products that satisfy our customers, with the goal of promoting products that enhance riding pleasure, strengthening the BLH bearing brand, and supporting the development of the bicycle industry.
