Cartridge vs. cup-and-cone bearings: Everything you need to know

Which wheel bearing system do you really need and why?

Lance Branquinho

Jun 12 2024

Bearings make the world move. Nearly ubiquitous is any mechanical component that rotates, bearings on a bicycle come in many configurations and for off-road cycling, they are crucial. Without bearings your handlebar’s headset doesn’t rotate, your wheels don’t turn and your crank doesn’t spin on its bottom bracket.

Bearings are even present in tiny components where a full rotation isn’t required to provide perfect tension and rider feedback. Example? The best dropper post and brake levers feature bearings to deliver excellent thumb and finger feel while increasing component longevity.

When most people think of bearings and off-road riding, they imagine wheel bearings – which mean ‘hub bearings’. Experienced riders know that the cost sunk into enhanced wheelset components (lowering weight, increasing aero, or reducing friction) has a significant outcome on the trail.

Hub bearings have a tough life

Wheels dramatically influence riding, whether it’s sheer rolling speed or traction confidence when descending a technical part of singletrack.

At the core of a great mountain or gravel bike wheelset, are its hub bearings. These need to have a low coefficient of friction and remain spherically true in shape to prevent hubs from running out of alignment with their axles.

Hub bearings live a tough life in the off-road cycling application. Terrain loads are much more severe than on a road bike, with rocks, roots, and dynamic trail features like drops and jumps, spikes impact loads on a wheelset’s hub bearings. Add to this the issue of environmental contamination, like fine dust in summer and corrosive mud in winter, and you realise why hub-bearing design and engineering integrity are so crucial.

Cup-and-cone and cartridge

Mountain and gravel biking components have a dizzying array of standards and technical solutions, but hub bearings are quite binary: either cup-and-cone or cartridge. The technical differences are notable, but the main design difference is that cup-and-cone bearings are known as ‘unsealed’ and cartridge bearings are ‘sealed’.

Cup-and-cone is the legacy hub-bearing design, proven over decades of refinement and often considered a more affordable solution. However, some premium hubs also run cup-and-cone bearings. The idea with a cup-and-cone bearing system is to have the bearings residing in a metal cup, which is secured by a cone threading into the wheel axle.

The cup part of a cup-and-cone bearing is removable, hence its threading, and to prevent friction and premature wear, it’s packed with grease. The fact that they are removable, with the individual bearings being exposed, makes the cup-and-cone theoretically DIY serviceable.

Cartridge bearings have a more advanced design, where the individual ball bearings are housed in a sealed unit instead of directly in contact with the wheelset’s hub internals. The function of a cup in the cup-and-cone hub is fulfilled by an outer race in the cartridge bearing, which is a rubber seal.

The benefits and debits of cup-and-cone bearings

The best mountain bike wheels and gravel wheelsets can easily be knocked slightly out of alignment on a trail ride or when travelling along a harshly corrugated gravel bike adventure ride.

For DIY mechanics who are obsessed with wheels that run as perfectly true as possible, at all times, the adjustability of a cup-and-cone hub bearing configuration will appeal. Because the cup-and-cone hub can be pre-load adjusted or aligned,

Shimano is one of the most renowned and influential component makers in cycling, while Campagnolo is regarded as a premium drivetrain and wheelset option. These esteemed brands prefer to use cup-and-cone wheel bearings in their products. Why?

For off-road riders, terrain texture and features transfer much load and strain through the wheel into the hub bearing. Think of a mid-corner braking bump, rock or root, when you are leaning the bike over to turn. Rolling over that bump, rock or root at an angle creates a lot of leveraged force on the hub bearings in the centre of the wheel. In theory, the increased contact surface area of a cup-and-cone bearing set-up inside the hub, allows it to work best with angled loads from the wheel, preventing assymetic wear.

Cup-and-cone bearings are designed for longevity and ease of maintenance by repacking them with grease. For riders who commit to keeping up their training mileages throughout winter, moisture ingress is a real concern – creating the possibility of premature wear due to rusting wheel hub bearings. Meticulous maintenance is needed with a cup-and-cone design, by cleaning and repacking with grease to ensure longevity. If maintained correctly, cup-and-cone bearings can last decades, and all the service items are readily available.

Are cartridge bearings better?

Cartridge bearings are disposal components, meaning you can’t service them. When they’re worn or develop internal corrosion due to moisture seepage, cartridge bearings are discarded and replaced. You'll need a specific bearing pulling tool to extract and fit new cartridge wheel bearings – or risk hours of frustration and possible hub damage.
But is the more modern cartridge bearing design superior for off-road riders? The primary benefit of cartridge hub bearings, is the ‘sealed’ design.

Demanding off-road riding conditions will defeat even the best seals, with fine summer dust and winter moisture eventually getting to the bearings and triggering corrosion. But a cartridge bearing set-up has much better primary sealing than a cup-and-cone system by design – and there’s no servicing annoyance if you aren’t a confident DIY mechanic.

For riders unskilled at working on their bikes, spilling cup-and-cone bearings all over the garage floor when trying to service and regrease isn’t fun – and something completely avoided with cartridge bearings.

Regarding terrain loads transferred through the wheel and into the hub bearings, cartridge bearing advocates believe that sealed contact bearings are better at mediating vertical, horizontal and diagonal loads.

The ceramic-bearing question

Steel is a trusted material in off-road cycling, from frames to forks, spokes, cranks, and axles. Many crucial load-bearing components on mountain and gravel bikes are steel, with hub ball bearings no different.

But what if you seek exceptional component longevity and the lowest possible rolling friction? Ceramic bearings can deliver on both of those needs, being theoretically more resistant to wear and corrosion while keeping a more spherically perfect shape, creating the least possible friction when rolling along.

For mountain and gravel bikers who frequently ride vast distances in muddy conditions, the wear resistance of ceramic bearings is appealing. But priced at a significant premium to steel bearings, a ceramic upgrade isn’t cheap – and you should be mindful of possible material hardness issues. Ceramic bearings are harder than steel, meaning they might wear harder into surrounding steel components within the hub.

Ceramic bearings are available for both cartridge and cup-and-cone hubs. With their sealed configuration, ceramic cartridge bearings often also feature ceramic races. However, adding loose ceramic bearings into a cup-and-cone hub could create issues. The ceramic bearings in a cup-and-cone hub are more likely to come into direct contact with the hub’s metal internals, and because of the hardness difference, you could generate premature wear of the cone and cup.

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Lance Branquinho

Lance Branquinho is a Namibian-born media professional who graduated to mountain biking after injuries curtailed his fascination with trail running. He has a weakness for British steel hardtails, especially those which only run a single gear. Lance is an award-winning writer who has contributed to myriad piblications all over the world including Cyclingnews, Bike Perfect, MBR, Topgear, TopCar and Car magazine.