Originally Posted by
carpediemracing
I was soft pedaling while coasting the other day, meaning the freehub body was clicking, aka not engaged. I could get the SRM to read 2-5 watts. I know my bearings are pretty crunchy, not as bad as 2010 (when I could get the SRM to read 15 watts on no load - the bearings were literally indexed every so many degrees). My comment on Contador's bearing thing has got me thinking that saving 2-5 watts would be significant for me, at least in terms of background wasted energy. One of these days.
cdd, man....with as measured as you are in so many areas....maintain that bike!
bearings aren't hard to replace.
incidentally, one reason why some pro teams use full ceramic bearings is not that they save energy (bikes are really the wrong application), but rather they can power wash the stuff without risk of corrosion. yeah, they have to use proper grease, but rust isn't a factor. a good steel bearing is pretty awesome.
losses like what you describe don't scale with power, so with your self-described lower average power, you would stand to see more gain.
if i were closer i'd personally replace them for you.