You might not need ceramic balls, but one other big difference is they usually come with a differnet form of centre race set up; rather than the crude 3 grub screws they have a split collar and a stepped collar and a pressure ring, basically the axle is gripped in the split ring with no single point contact and the associated potential stress and damage points on the axle - from grub screws. They do say the method of gripping the axle with the split collar makes for an overall stiffer assembly, so the axle stiffness grade can be a more accurate way of tuning handling. Also the axle is so easy to replace. We had a bemt axle just before the final race of the year to secure a championship and changed the axle very quick with split collar ceramic bearings. I don't think we would have done it in time with std bearings. SKF do offer an all steel alternative to the 'ceramic' set up with the only difference is the balls are steel but you still get the split collar set up and it's much cheaper. That would probably be the best compromise.
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