This may or may not be relevant to LSR (You be the judge) A while back a friend who owns an Aerospace bearing supply company gave me a few sets of ceramic bearings for my racing and pool boards - 608's (yes I still skateboard pools,parks and Downhill race every chance I get, @ 50yrs. old)
Point being, though not scientific by any means when I put a set of Ceramics on my pool deck and dropped in. The Ceramic bearings were absolutely faster than my favorite well broken in, perfectly oiled German (Brand) 608's so much so that I had to relax (NOT pump) to keep from flying out of the pool. Impressed? yes, seat of the pants observation ? yes.
Then I installed sets on my Slalom race deck and my downhill speed deck. running my fastest, most expensive set of conventional bearings against new sets of ceramics, same day and same equipment. On a 55 Cone GS course (little over 1/8 mi) I picked up 1.6 seconds over my fastest time w/ steel bearings. On my Downhill deck again, all things equal same day,same conditions on the downhill course. Fastest MPH on conventional bearings 58.31mph. Fastest MPH on Ceramics 66.72 MPH. Keep in mind that these were brand new out of the box bearings w/ factory shipping lube. After cleaning,re lube and break in these ceramics continue to get faster and faster.
Fred V. and I had this conversation at WF and came to the same conclusion. I could go on, but my mind is made up.