I have to watch a video from 6yrs ago to get tips on how to clean bearings without having to buy expensive equipment like bearing presses or jewellery cleaners... I used to skate year's ago and never needed any of that stuff. Maybe they help if your a competitive or performance skater but most of us don't need to be so pedantic. You probably could have gone over rotating wheels in this video since people will probably do both at the same time... I just needed a refresher and to see if there were any tips to improve on my old rough and ready techniques.
I need to ride my kick-scooter tomorrow and, watching this (very nice video, thank you!), I realised that it really needs a cleaning of the bearings. It's too short before I can buy the speed cream, is there something else I can do in the meantime? Or just the benzine will be an improvement?
Any light machine oil would do, you can find sewing machine oil in any big supermarket. You can use grease (e.g. wheel bearing grease for cars) as well, but they will be slightly slower.
It's probably late now but anyway... You can pop open one side of your bearing. As explained here, you only need the exterior side of your bearing shielded :)
In the video only one seal is removed, the other is left on the bearing. You can pop one, you can pop both, if you are bored and want a nice meditative activity to fill the hours, you can even go all the way and remove the plastic ball retainer (cage) and the balls, completely disassembling the bearings. I would say even with the first method, it should give more or less decent cleaning. But popping the second seal off doesn't take much time, and if you're worried about damaging the seal while removing it, you can pop it out from the other (open) side using e.g. a blunt side of a sewing needle.
Yes, probably you already know that now, there is around the shields a thin metal "ring". This "ring" is actually cutted at some place, you are gonna see it when you look along the ring. There you go with your knife and clip it out. After that, you can remove the shield. ;-)
The shields dor my bearings are made out of some metal, and if i try to pop one out i easily bend the shields, do i still try to pop then out or do i clean the bearing as whole. Or does someone know how to easily pop metal shields
Has anyone had any experience with greasing the bearings? To me, it would make sense because it should keep dust out of the bearings and does not leak as much as oil, meaning longer lasting bearings and less maintanance.
thin lube for speed thicker lube for longer life. and its a very very minor difference in performance once the bearing is under load. not as big of a deal as it seems when you spin them unloaded.
I don't really recommend gasoline for cleaning, as its vapours are highly flammable. Unlike e.g. kerosene. A lot of people use pure (99%) isopropyl alcohol (IPA) which is rather cheap (buy it in bulk), evaporates quickly, and doesn't leave a residue.
A question to some expert :) If my cleaned as in this video ABEC7 bearings stop spinning after just 3-5 seconds and are a bit noisy, does it mean they're already damaged?
A tricky question without closer inspection. :D If you cannot see any damage or dirt residues, then it is most probably not damaged. But a cleaning is more a "refurbishing", it will never be as new. A slight smooth rattling might also be totally normal and spinning a single bearing is not really indicating the real performance characteristics. If you want to test bearings properly, then it is best when installed with weight applied. Already when adding the mass of a wheel will totally change the rotation time of the bearings. I hope that was helpful as a little introduction. Please reach out to us if you want to get deeper into the "grid". You can write to email@skatepro.com
@@SkatePro Thank you very much. Yes, actually your description is very correct in my case, as I haven't noticed the difference in the riding experience, other than their noisiness. I will use them untill the comfort deteriorates :)
Hi there, On our website we are using standard sizes for all our bearings. If there should be a different model, it is mentioned in the specifications / product description :)
hurts my eyes when you shake the bearings in that glass jar...and also when you hit them onto the table..before cleaning them you should remove that violet plastic ring that covers the bearings...and its better to use grease cause its better against heat/friction
Not a good tutorial. The information is ok I guess. But there is no intelligence behind it. My questions are still unanswered. I get it she just learned the text and stammered it in the video. And yet I'm still clueless.
