Ceramic bearings in the front for offroad use is risky.

There’s a lot of stress on the front of the engine. I once chipped a tooth on a brand new CB from flat-landing a few too many times. Ceramic is like glass and shouldn’t be used there when the advantage is so minimal and the risk is so high.

From what I understand, on-road racers do F&R ceramics on their engines because for on-road, it really makes that much of a difference with as fast as they go. For them, it’s probably maybe 1/10 of a second or something but a front ceramic bearing is just one more way for them to cut lap times and the road is smooth so there’s no risk.

When I first learned how to and started changing my engine bearings, I did ceramics for both front and main on 2 of my engines not knowing any better but both of those engines are still running strong. One of them, my Beat 5, now has 7 gallons through it. I put those bearings in around 4 gallons but when I change them again, I’m doing steel front, ceramic main but only cause I know better now. All my other engines I’ve done correctly since then.

Cost difference isn’t all that much of a big deal to me but the risk/benefit factor is.