If you're reading this, you're interested in buying some speed. It's not free speed, but if you ride lots, it could be close. Our retro-fitted Shimano XTR FC-M970 Crankset with Ceramic Bottom Bracket will rob you of less friction than your standard set up. It's arguably the stiffest, one of the lightest, and with this ceramic upgrade, the smoothest, most friction-free cranksets available.

The Shimano FC-M970 XTR crankset can accept non-XTR replacement rings. For the sheer coolness of it, the middle ring has a titanium skeleton and teeth and carbon support. And, the fixing system joining the axle to the left arm is no longer the two pinch bolts at the end of the crankarm. The 970 design is easier to work with than the 960, and leaves the left arm that much stronger and lighter. We think it's the best high-performance crankset on the market. Period.

What sets this crankset apart, though, is the ceramic bottom bracket.

Much of maximizing performance is about minimizing friction losses, be it from interacting with gravity, the ground, or metal. You pump your tires to the proper pressure, tweak your suspension so it's flexing just enough, keep your chain lubed so it's moving and relatively gunk-free, and you keep grease on the bearings. That's good, but what if you could go further? At a bicycle industry trade show we were dozing through our tour of the FSA offerings until one of their guys spun a ceramic-bearing derailleur pulley for us. It spun and spun and spun. We immediately thought of Shimano bottom brackets, which have never spun with the ease of a traditional Campagnolo square-taper bottom bracket. You've probably been at this before -- set up a bottom bracket, put on the crank, torque everything to spec, and spin. The spin is underwhelming to the point of wondering if you set it up wrong and there's unnecessary friction somewhere in the system.

We're there with every Shimano bottom bracket we assemble. So, we've sourced Shimano bottom-bracket cartridges, designed our own press, and are installing Enduro Ceramic Bearings, which we're selling as a complete bottom bracket designed to work with Shimano Hollowtech II, external bearing cranksets. The bearings are made from Silicon Nitride, which is waaay harder than steel ball bearings, seven times to be specific. They're no more than 5/1,000,000 of an inch from being perfectly round. And they're 60% lighter to boot. The balls run on steel races and the cartridges are pressed by us into the bottom bracket cups.

We've also made a change that we believe constitutes a performance improvement. The Shimano bottom bracket comes standard with 1/8" balls. We have increased the size of the balls to 5/32". The bearing has a little bigger contact area, which rolls a bit smoother, distributing weight over a larger area -- good when landing or any time you're suddenly loading lots of force on the bottom bracket. It also means eliminating a plastic shield that had a spacer that used to ride between the inner race and the bottom bracket spindle, which is another potentially flexing part we've removed. Now the cartridge rides directly on the spindle. We have also worked with Enduro on the fabrication of a 70-durometer silicone dust seal that fits between the bearings and the crankarm. We think it's a better cover than the standard one Shimano provided -- it's thinner and has less drag than the stock cover, fitting closer than the stock cover. The result is less grit and gunk will getting past the cover. The color is a distinctive orange, which we like because it signifies increased performance.

The FC-M970 XTR Hollowtech II crankset with Ceramic Bottom Bracket comes in 165-180mm lengths in 5mm increments. The right crank is permanently affixed to the oversized bb spindle. It works with the retrofitted Shimano Hollowtech II external ceramic bottom bracket, which is included (as are the bearings that we pull out.) The chainrings supplied are 44-32-22 in the 104/64mm bolt circle diameter, and the pinned rings are designed to work with a nine-speed chain. The four chainring and two crank arms are hollow and forged from duraluminum. The outer ring, inner ring, and bolts are all made of 7075 aluminum. The middle ring is made from Ti/Carbon Fiber. 770g.