In our first ride article with the Hawk Racing BB30 Bottom Bracket we described the sensation of pedaling as using a hot knife to cut butter. It was that smooth. Devon came up with his own explanation: “There is a lightness to their motion.” Either way, the notion is the same—Hawk Racing’s bottom bracket is an incredible upgrade to any bike. The bearings are so incredibly smooth that you might actually wonder if there was sandpaper in the bottom bracket you had been using pre-upgrade.

After taking a ride with these, you may even start to wonder why people get so worked up about ceramic. Hawk’s stainless steel bearings (ABEC-3 certified) are simply that good. Hawk claims that they are 10% lighter than ceramic and take 80% less energy to spin. And while we do not have the capabilities to verify these claims, we can tell you that our legs agree that this is one fantastic component.

At $89 this is a fairly inexpensive upgrade that will both improve the quality of your ride (due to the lack of friction) as well as increase the power you put to the ground by removing drive train loss. Here at AG headquarters all of our current test bikes are already outfitted with the BB30 upgrade. In addition, a Hawk Racing BB will definitely be included from day one when we start building our next bike in late August.