Bearings are not designed and manufactured especially important for skateboarding. They are used inside drills, and fans and stuff and bearings lasts longer then the machine itself. I would be very surprised if they constitute +/- 0.1 % of rolling capability when lubed, not lubed or clean not clean. You have 8 of these under your feet. I am not a street skater but I go parks to watch folks doing tricks. I am also a sound engineer and guitar player. I understand how audio works in terms of human hearing. It is happening in mostly in subconscious level. Putting everything aside for now, just focus on the hearing. Your hearing determines the feel of speed and it is more precise then most realized. It contributes to a judgement where you decide if it is going to be a bail, a land and a crash in milliseconds. This is the magic of audio cue. You folks can test this put by wearing a noise canceling headphones with mysic blasting out which drowns out all extrenal sound from the environment and feel the difference. Most street skater have their wheel loose and have no spacers. Some prefer it without washers. If you have your wheel loose, the spacers and washers have no particular "rolling" function but it changers the soundscape of the board. It is like a guitarist dealing in the gain knob of the amp by less then one degree to get the sound he/she feels on stage and/or recording. I also notice mountain bikers choose the back wheel hub woth sound as the criteria. For road bike folks, less so, most road bikers have a speedometer. I don't 'play' with skateboard much. I don't leave home without it. It is my main transport that shorten my walk from 20 minute to 5 minutes in a fun way. I have soft cruiser wheel with old school japan bearings and clamp tight on the wheels to minimize noise. I alway have noise cancelation on max for a nice gliding cruise to and from work. But for sure, if I am late for a session, i take them off and can ride much faster snd carve for much more assurance if I can hear more clearly of what the wheels are doing.
holy crap what a comment! that's some insight. so you're sayin that the sound is actually an important aspect? direct feedback from the board to the brain. like braille for the ear
Bearings are not supposed to run without lubricant. As it will generate heat. You also have to deal with material wear that causes imbalance and loss of performance. But because skating is not like machines that needs nigh precision, speed and efficiency. Skaters only run in low revolutions that hardly heat up the bearing way past the material strength. You will still get material wear though. But you will never feel that because you do not run center balancing spacers between the bearings. The slack is all taken up by the wheel being torqued up by the nut. Try using these un shielded used bearings a spacer on brand new wheels, and the whole wheel rattles. If you use un shielded bearings on downhill boards... you are seriously asking for a whole worlds of hurt & trouble.
@@chrhadden He's the infamous Skatepark Sound Engineer, The sounds, he sees and the light, he hears. Through surfing the noise, He became a pro, No bearings on his wheels, Only audio.
I mean, working on machines, I can tell you you want shields on your bearing if what you're looking for is durability. Grease is hydrophobic, keeps moisture out, prevents rust buildup. Shields keep dirt and grime out. Grease will deteriorate after years, but like any synthetic product, it will be fine for about the next millennium. Also just like a drunken Saturday night with the ole ball and chain, lubrication is key. Now I do agree, dry bearings do sound better, but what we hear is friction, and friction is not our friend when what we look for is smoothness and durability. Dry bearings do spin longer, but not smoother.
i totally understand both sides. a lot of skateboarding comes down to feeling, and i think this is another example of that. i think the ceramics definitely have an advantage in this case. i believe the Bronson Raw's are Tungston coated. if people like the shieldless route i steer em towards the Raw's
That changes things a bit, tungstene will not rust unless its basically on the sun temperature wise, and its also super hard which prevents wear some. But metal on metal would still work better with lubrication. Just not sound as cool @@stickersteve007
Been skating for over 25 years. Never popped my shields. It’s one thing if you’re a pro and get free bearings but if you’re spending good money on them, keep the shields on. I have a set of bones Swiss that are 7 years old and still going strong due to once a year maintenance.
Also been skateboarding 25 years, I kept them on and even had crimped shields in some cases, but after trying shieldless, I'll never go back. Too many cases of the shields popping off and causing friction against the truck or axle nut and slowing the board down randomly. Also much easier to rejuvenate them without shields as it's hard to get gunk out with crimped shields and once again removable shields generally will come off on their own. Bearings are cheap, dude, I think you can afford $20 every year even if it did shorten the life, but so far I find my bearings are lasting longer and staying faster without the shields.
i have been skating 38 years and it wont hurt anything to take them off. it will never hurt to clean them as long as you do it right. it gives the dirt an escape and sounds killer just like all the pros said. you know PROFESSIONALS? the best of us
i have bearings i ride on the streets of Philadelphia almost every day. i dont know many grimier places to skate. no shields and i get a good year and a half. i dont know about ceramic bearings yet i just got them summer 23. they are quick bearings ,i do know that. all of my current bearings i would recommend but i have my own money. im grown and retired and i can buy shit like that. if you have the money get them but the return for your money is going to get smaller and more expensive as you go up in price
From Ontario Canada, keeping shields on our roads get pretty cust and definitely don't want salt in bearings. I clean, lube and put the shield on and off in the process every 3 months and my bones swiss have lasted 2 1/2 years.
that's a valid reason! Bronson Raw's are tungsten coated to prevent rust and corrosion. just thought id throw that in there. keep doin what your're doin
I generally skate my Bones Swiss six balls for 4-5 years , I clean them regularly, lube them with singer sewing machine oil or speed cream and always use the bearing spacers ( I buy steel ones because the factory aluminum ones mushroom out fast) and always use 3 speed rings on every wheel. I don’t ever use spitfire wheels because they never seems to accommodate the spacers properly. It’s the bearing spacers that keep your bearings from blowing out. Also the sound that all these pros like is literally the of your bearings not being able to go fast under load. Spinning your wheel with no load doesn’t mean shit. Their marketing seems to work well though…….
spacers screw up the way your board sounds and they give people aids. i have never thought they were a good idea for skaters. wheels have a partition in them already since they started making them from polyurethane. spacers are evil and you are in the minority of people. they actually slow you down
Shields Up All Day. In my experience of 37 years of skateboarding every part of your skateboard has a function. Iron on iron contact needs lube, or else you grind your bearingrings ,cone the balls. Blowing out your bearings faster. Bearings for me is not a gimmick , "shieldless" is for me not a selling point. If your bearings blow out you can seriously hurt yourself. Who cares about how bearings sound. Imagine you get your car repaired and you can hear your bearings from your wheels 😉 repair guy: ' it sounds better, i took the shields off. Plus they go faster now😂 i unlubed a perfectly good working part. No worries mate.
Just like people that doesnt use bearing spacers. Who wants a car with a shitty alignment!? After a while the geometry changes in your wheels from the bearings sitting tilted and mash the inside of your wheel.
The thing about shieldless bearings just shows to me those pros are idiots. The shields have a function. The lube has a function. And most people are better off not cleaning their bearings at all, as they don't understand how bearings work anyway. Dry bearings will never perform great. And yes, all those dudes are wrong. Shieldless bearings don't magically throw out dirt that gets in.
Dry bearings do keep dirt from staying in. Wind on a dry surface will cause dirt to move. Wind on a wet surface will do nothing but keep that dirt in place. As for shields themselves put dirt in a jar with no lid and shake it around and see how the dirt comes out. Then have a lid on a jar and do the same thing. Wow no dirt comes out now.
When I was younger I didn't know about popping the shields off. I lost many bearings to the shield coming off while I was riding getting bent poking back into the bearings and just ripping them to shreds and the bearing falling apart. And I didn't realize until I got the Bronson raws how much I liked that sound.
I will never forget a friend of mine had a shoe box of bearing parts. He never bought new bearings he would literally make new ones. And he never had covers on them
@@AskYaMommyBoutMeBoi what lol i just think its weird. i take my bearings apart and all but once they have become parts like that i throw them out. they are dead and you have to let them go! lol
I am glad I clicked on the video. Really good edit. I appreciate the time and work that went into it. I usually ride them as they are until the first cleaning. Then the shields never go back on. Stay Rad
I use to pop the shields on all my bearings when I was younger. Now I don’t really bother unless they get dented or pop off by themselves. Don’t really care about the aesthetic or whatever small detail/ feel it gives. Just let the skating speak for itself
When pro level bicycles still had cup and cone bearings (in fact they still do at the velodrome) they were unsealed. There was a really basic metal shield but there was a fairly big gap so dirt and water could get inside the hub pretty easily. The benefit of unsealed hubs Vs sealed ones is that there is way less friction. The hubs would still have grease in though but not too much. If you are running skateboard bearings without shields I can see the benefit of zero grease because it's true that grease would attract dirt, but at the same time some kind of lube would be better. Maybe a very small amount of molybdenum based lube.
After 50 plus years of skateboarding I've finally succumbed to removing all my bearing covers. The main reason is because they bend inwardly over time and rub causing the bearings to spin slower.
I was wondering why some pics of wheels, the bearings don't have covers? I just thought they had come off & the skaters didn't know any better. My covers have never come off. I cleaned some bearings yesterday with Super Clean, (they had Alot of grease I removed) & then put some sewing machine oil in them & they are hauling assss. I saw the vid of the skater on Club 9 talking about just using Windex. I may have to try it. Bronson 3 has vids of Dry vs oil & dry with NO LOAD spins super long, but add a load & then the oiled bearings Go Alot Furthur with the person on it...
i think a lot of it comes down to feel and sound for each individual skater. ive been doin it so long that i can't stand the feeling of bearings with the shields on
Hey man, I know you've said something abour rainy weather in your location. I wanted to try Raws for my cruiser setup, but I am afraid about ride them after the rain (which happend to me like 2 times last year), so I guess you have experience with that and I want a final answer about this, because I didn't find it anywhere, just some folks wrote that rain killed the Raws next day. So, if you ride them in the wet weather and the water from the pavement or road gets on them, did you felt any changes?
this was literally the first time I've cleaned em. didn't feel like they needed to be cleaned just wanted to do it for the sake of the video. I basically don't avoid anything as far as conditions go. if its outright raining i wont skate, but it always seems to be damp around here. So my personal experience is i have not had one problem with them. the raceways are tungsten coated so they technically can't rust or corrode. only bearing designed to be shieldless as far as i know. That being said...for me personally on a cruiser setup i wouldn't feel the need for shieldless . mainly because the softer wheels are going to suppress the sound and feeling I'm so used to on my street setup (hope that makes sense) But for the record i have Bronson Raw's in my cruiser haha. Only because I really like them, already had a set to throw in there, and don't use it much. Hope that covers it, but anymore question's feel free to ask!
The secret is always making sure you end the session with dry bearings, I literally skate through puddles on Vancouver island but the last 20-30 minutes of my skating I’m making sure they got spun enough for everything to go away
Old enough for my first board to have cupped loose ball bearings, the giddy excitement of dad following the guide in Skateboard! magazine and fitting SKF’s. That was the last time I exposed my balls, I’ve never seen it as a good idea but hey if it works for you.
dang the work you put in to edit the testimonials in the beginning, and with the HARD HITTING TRUTH SEEKING EYE OPENING SPECIAL REPORT INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM music 😄
Love the Bronson g3 raws I skated the same set for 3 years I finally got a new pair recently I’ve been using 3 in 1 dry lock lubricant for my bearings since 2012 and my bearings last for years
coming from downhill i never heard of that, but the idea of dry stuff dont attract dirt, since we are going quite slow... It makes sense, il'll take the off my park setup toight
@@stickersteve007 and maybe if you want to try something new, take a look at zealous bearings, maybe try them, with or without the shields : that's what most downhill longboarders are using, 25€, unkillable, superfast ;)
I have mixed results with bronsons raws , they have ran fast for me in warmer months almost like ice skates and other times I seems like I just cant seem to keep them like that for a long time though , so I have like a few wheels get squeeky or run really slow while the other half run fast , when I put the bronson lube in them they just get really dirty and feel soft and slower and not loud. So I got tired of trying to figure out the maintaince on these and skating andale right now . I have tried straight alcohol and windex those both work good with no lube after but within a month they start fast but then the wheels get squeeky and slow again
Different all fucking bearings do this shit I have been fighting with bearings for a long time bones Swiss have the best quality but they lock up and fuck up too So far the best I have used are oust bearings
@Shaburya I even forker out cash for bronson ceramics , they did the same shit , they were good for a bit then also locked up and sluggish, would run good after a cleaning buck weeks later slow again
Yep! Same here! But mine get squeaky by the end of the first session after I have cleaned them. They sound great and are fast for max two weeks and then one of the bearings stop spinnig and I have to clean them and then they just don’t work anymore. And I’ve tried two sets. Raws are not for me I’ll stick with Bones Swiss.
take a glass jar or something like that. fill .5 way with rubbing alcohol , drop your bearings in there close lid. shake the jar like you would a can of spray paint in a circular motion . take them out and rub the dirt and grime off. they will dry quick. put like a drop of your oil in each one and put your board together. ride it around your block and by the time you get back your bearings will be as good or better then new. now regret throwing out bearings in the past lol
I pop mine but pros telling you to do this it dose shorten the life witch= more barings too sell right? I have a shit load of old ones from the years and i just use what i have!
I've always done it I always thought your board is yours what ever makes it yours is important Im teaching my son that every skater is different but it's all the same love!
I have ride set of fresh Bones reds i pop shields years back and they lasted think 8months they all fall apart so i never done that ever again. My first ever Bones Swiss i have done this to back years back those was alway years old broken in i ride them tell all them fall apart. Only time i pop shields off if im cleaning them or shield don't stay on. I alway wonder how shieldless bearings do since i never try those's.
At the end of the day it's all subjective and everyone has a different experience. I think bearings like the bronson Raw's are probably better shieldless because they were designed that way. Always stick with what you like 👍
@@stickersteve007Bronson Raw i bet be better bet if i do go all shieldless those's be the ones i grab. Least be quicker too clean them out not deal with removing shields so there's that can't beat.
those shields have no structural value. do you really think thats what keeps them together with all the stress and abuse we put them through? those little aluminum rings? cmon now
Nice video. I bought some Raws after watching your review. Hands down the best bearings I’ve ever had. They go! Never rode shieldless until now at 54! Cheers ✌🏼
Hey Steve! For me they just don’t work. I actually bought a second set after watching your review on them here on YT. After less than two weeks two bearings didn’t spin freely anymore. So I had to clean them (no windex here in Europe so I used some kind of Isopropol Alcohol) Then I didn’t lube them like you all say cos that would attract dirt, right? Well by the end of the first session my raws were squeaking like hell, like they were all rusty. This is the second time this has happened to me so I’m gonna give up on them. Will stick with my Bones Super Swiss 6 with shields 😉
at least you can say you tried. iv'e had the opposite experience. it's crazy! Raw's are not supposed to rust because they are tungsten coated. maybe those assholes send different ones to europe haha
I have a set of quantums right now. They recomend riding a couple weeks before popping shields for some reason. I only took them off because they kept popping out.
Just the other day I was thinking about cleaning my bearings with alcohol and using dry graphite lubricant instead of the regular oil to see if they stayed clear longer now I'm gonna have to try it lol great video man 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
I've been thinking about trying it out but my local skatepark has a gravel parking lot so the whole place is dustier than Scarface's desk. Like, to the point where my grip is almost white after a session. I have tried running shields but no lube (soaked them in mineral spirits) and they started making a sqeaky sound after a week or so. Anyway, if I find some Raws on sale or something I'll circle back with my thoughts after giving it a try.
Raws are my favourite for sure. You just got to appreciate that sound straight out of the box! They have a tendency to get a bit squeeky over time though. Will try that alcohol trick and see if that helps. Thanks for the cool vid! 😎👍
i didnt like the ceramics at first but after six months they are pretty damn nice. i was trying somebody's board and it felt like it was in mud. do you know if the raws as fast as these? they might be even faster
i take the sheilds off of every bearing i have used since 85. even my ceramics. it gives the dirt somewhere to go. that was one of my first repairs. my first board had dirt caked bearings so i took the shields off and left them off. i soon learned all the others , replacing bolts, king pins etc. it makes perfect sense that anything getting in goes out almost as fast
In my honest opinion if I Were a pro I'd pop the shield off too, hence I can have a brand new fresh setup for each session If I want. On the one hand bearings go faster without the shield on of course, but from the other hand they won't last you for long, probably they won't even last you a month. Unless you only skate indoor skate parks, you'd definitely want your shields on if you skate in humid outdoor environments , dusty streets and dirty spots . Have you ever noticed the amount of dirt that gets stuck on the surface of your bearing shield after a few sessions? I believe that you don't want that crap inside your bearings' spheres. keep always the shields on If you are not a pro and if you are not sponsored by any bearings manufacturer , and then every few months clean them with white spirits , and ultimately lubricate your bearings with Bones or Bronson speed cream.
goin on 2 years with the bronsons raws i showed in the video. they are designed to be shieldless though. might have something to do with it, but i ve been shieldless since the early 2000's. i only skate outside. appreciate your insight and non elitest comment dude
Newsflash: that dirt is getting behind your shields, the difference is it won't come back out as easily with the shields on so it just builds up and cakes in there. I only recently switched to shieldless and it's 100% better with no compromise as far as I'm concerned.
Tungsten coated raceways? Thats what convinced me to get some raws, not just the no shields. Others aren't advertised with tungsten, usally steel and if titanium its usually just the balls. They have a quicker top speed compaired to the shake junt night trains when going down hills. I'll pop shields off if they start to not spin as good to clean better, works well and can't do it in a way where it can be put back on.
Skated since the mind 90's. Always kept my shields on. Idk why. Never cared to take them off I suppose. Was nice when they all went to rubber shields tho for cleaning. The crimped shields.. or the pigs with the clip were a pain haha.
@@stickersteve007 wow Ive been riding risers pads I just now started to ride without them...that's the thing with skateboarding you have the option of tryin different set ups
I ride with shields on until they mess up (shields eventually mess up). I feel like my bearings break sooner with the shields off but they go a pinch faster and sound better.
I stripped my other set completely down last night. Like took all the ball bearing out and deep cleaned em with acetone. Litteraly like they're brand new
I feel like i still get crud even w shields so taking them off would let the crud fall back out... i bought raws last week haven't put them on anything yet... been skating good on the setup i want them on, scared to change anything r.n. lol my brain has so much food for thought i have to unbutton my mental jeans
I imagine a lot of the variety of experiences people have may be due to the different environments people skate in. Climate could be a huge variable. Someone skating in Florida would probably have a worse experience with dry shieldless bearings than some one in Colorado for example. Or perhaps the pros are mostly skating in private indoor parks, whereas most joes are skating rusty outdoor prefab slabs. Humidity and cleanliness of the area, combined with the intensity of the skating and the texture of the surface they skate, probably would make for a wide variety of bearing reactions. Personally i just buy whatever is cheap and replace em when they feel bad haha
Always pop my shields off my bearings, they last lnger imo and the sound is so much nicer. plus anything that goes in after a spin or two they come straight back out. done this with every set and the one time i didnt they lasted a month before i noticed they were slowing
Typically I keep the shields to keep the bearings nice and clean for as long as possible. Then when I have to clean them, I just usually leave them off. I like Raws too, but they’re not the same after you clean them. I actually balled out a couple years ago and bought some bones Swiss ceramics. Those are stupid good bearings. I don’t think they’re significantly faster than any other bearing out there, but they last forever. I’ve had them for like 3 years now and I pretty much just have to clean them once a year.
I've tried deshielding Bronson ceramics / Indy GP-R /Bones Reds. After one session, they needed a clean. The ceramics rust quick, so yeah. Tested and failed. The Raws I clean with benzene and stay unlubed. Tried the same dry with shields but I'm convinced with atleast 1 drop low velocity lube. The ceramics are favourites. Spacers tightened to the stop n lil touch back. I am hearing impaired but love how smooth they are. I have Raws but still think the ceramics will last longer 0:17
A bearing is the way it is because that’s the tried and tested way. That said I think bearings in skateboarding are so far from ideal bearing conditions that it doesn’t really matter that much for the longevity of the bearing if you keep your shields off or not. But you for sure can’t beat the sound of dry shieldless bearings.
I dare say shieldless bearings can never last longer than the same type with shields. Keeping dirt out is vital. Anything else is just coincidental. Even when you are right how any bearing gets trashed by how skateboarding was never part of the original design.
I used to do shields off until I got the bones swiss ceramics. They were to pricey so i just keep the shields on, I even bought 8 extra bearing shields off the bones website and put shields on the open side of the bearings to. I also clean them pretty often so if dirt is building up with no where to escape its okay in my situation since i weirdly kinda like cleaning my bearing now. I do it regularly with IonicFlux skate lube. Best lube in the game its not a thick lubricant like the bones skate lube is. There dead silent and smooth which is whatever since I never payed much attention to the noise before I when skated without shields either. I just popped the shields out before because I liked the look better. I never minded when other people kept there shields on or off. Im cool with either or.
after I saw jamie foy talk about windex I saw someone else talk about putting pencil shavings (powdered graphite) in their pivot cups to stop the squeeking. I combined the two ideas and now when I setup new bearings I pop the shields ,soak them in windex and dry them out then sprinkle powdered graphite on ONE SIDE of the bearing and then put them in the wheels graphite side in (so graphite doesn't get all over you ) Try it out it works amazing. Side note it feels really bad until you ride it for like 30 seconds or so like oh fuck i ruined these brand new swiss bones but it just needs to break up the graphite, also NO WOOD PARTICLES. dont just dump pencil shavings in your bearings separate, the graphite thoroughly or you will ruin your new swiss bones.
Companies sell products with a little thing called planned obsolescence. Sounds to me like they've found a way to extend that planned time a bit🤷♂️Believe me, bearing companies don't want you to only have to buy 1 set of their bearings. They want you to keep going back for more and more whenever they get crunchy.
I've tried different bearings, the Bronson raws are the only ones i can ride shieldless for a long time before servicing them, and i use dry lubricant the 3 in 1 dry lube, they have tungsten race that's why the raws can withstand that abuse, I've tried it with other bearings and they all get destroyed if i treat them like the Bronson raw, but but! Here's the thing, i also have regular bearings with shields and lubricated that have lasted me over 3 years. So i like the raw because they are loud and last , but yes the shield ones las way more if taken care of.
I avoid removing my shields but whenever I lose them or need to clean my bearings, I’m fine without them. I can alway throw my bearings in a bottle of soapy water, shake em, dry em, lube em and slap them back on. They’ve been good for about 6 months now even with my occasional rainy sessions.
I've been skeptical (like you mentioned "all those dudes get their shit for free") but after watching this I'll give it a try. These machine bearings were appropriated for skateboards, they were designed for machines doing 1000s of RPM in a factory setting, all day every day, where lube and sealing made sense. I get that covers and lube might actually be slowing them down. Thanks Steve .🤙
Better late than never. For me if a bearing has a shield on it I’ll keep a shield on it and if it meant to be shield free I’ll keep it that way. I don’t skate in such crusty areas that I get lots of crap in the bearings. If so I’ll try keep the cleaning hints in mind. Also that edit of 9 club clips was very very rad.
I pop the shields on bones super 6 but use spacers ✌🏼😂 I think that if we don’t push fast enough for ABEC to matter, it seems the shields also aren’t super critical for our application with the amount of pros not using them. Shieldless just sound and feel better to me :). Same thing with spacers, it’s all about what feels good to you.
@@stickersteve007 yeah, bearings were originally designed for industrial applications, and I think the main purpose of shields was to keep the lube in rather than keep dirt out? Shields definitely change the way the board sounds and feels, so I agree it’s personal preference.
I got to skate with Tim Brauch after he came to do a demo at my local park at the time. He rocked shield-less bearings and when he popped out on to the deck they just spun and spun and spun forever. If it was good enough for that legend there is probably something to it..
I try one set of Bronson Raw last year and they are like brand new! This is the best bearing i tried so far, Reds, Swiss, Andale was ok but not really tough. The G2, G3 and Raw are the only i will ever get to the rest of my life. But if the bearing come with shield i kept them until they break.
I had a set of bones Swiss that my friend gave me after he rode them for a few years. I rode them with shields for a couple of years and one day I was like fuck it let’s take them off. I still have those bearings til this day. Spin like champs still
Always loved riding shiedless it’s easy to clean and maintain I break bearings all the time I don’t have a bearing brand I go too if they roll I ride em
This video had me laughing from the beginning. Like I havent popped my shields off bearings since 98. I started skating in Groton, New London Connecticut. It's where Brian Anderson is from. Soo many of us kids did what he did. Donny Barley as well. I rollerblade these days and have for decades after never really getting a confident ollie. I bought shieldless bearing a month ago and I hope they hold out well because every other bearing Ive had felt slow like 3-4 months in of casual skating (3 hours a week max)
@@stickersteve007 hell yeah. It's funny hearing all these rippers take their stuff apart. Again I don't and haven't yet. I'm going to open some old bearings as opposed to buying em exposed next time if it works the same. Again Brian and Donny Barley were my locals. I went to Fitch High the Paprocki family in my class became concrete skate pouring legends after they did our skatepark, so the video having him first and he's the guy who influenced me to actually ride (not many of us black guys were riding in 94-95!) And reminded me my ollie wasn't happening like my friends maybe "you should try fruit booting". This video had me like... "Shieldless say less." By the way I love you like sneakers waaay too much too. I just uploaded my janoski collection the other day. I forget them jawns was 10 years old already. Lol!!!
@@kevincollins8620 i would definitely recommend the bronson Raw's, but if you dont wanna fork out the extra $ it's not 100% necessary. And i'd say im a pretty modest "sneakerhead" haha. Donny Barley as actually the first Pro i ever met back in like 02" at a nike demo. He was super nice and signed a hat for me and chatted it up for a bit. such a good style!
Got an old set of bearings laying around could try it have nothing to lose always been a little weary about trying no shields but thats more pros than id imagine doing it also they always end up popping off after getting old anyways 🤷♂️lol
exactly. you got nothin to lose. these were just a few examples of pro's doin it. theres waaaaay more. one guy commented that all those pros are idiots haha
It's just might not translate as well to skateboarding or in your case rollerskating. The wheels are so close to the ground. They'll gunk up no matter what.
@@stickersteve007 im on quads and ive skated like two days with dry, shieldless bearings. They definitely spin pretty well. They have a weird friction feel to them. We will see what happens, i mostly skate by the beach and streets. So nothing i can do to keep a bearing clean anyhow.
I skate with shields on until they pop out, after that I'm riding them shieldless 😂 BTW it really depends what type of bearings are you using and where do you skate the most and how, some corrode faster than the others.
I pop the shields off my G3’s, swish em around in alcohol for 15-20 minutes. And those things are fast and stay fast for months. Everyone’s got their own thing though!
That's probably the best way to go about it. I think at the very least it's a logical argument. I would suggest Bronson Raw's if you ever want to go shieldless
to each their own, but it's not for me. if they weren't designed to keep stuff out, why are they called shields? i just think of all the times i've overshot a curb and stuck my wheel in the wet dirt. as i said on community notes, it's like not wearing a rubber. i guess it's up to each of us to decide if the reward is worth the risk, and i'd say not. i got 9 sets of bearing/wheel core spacers and i'm gradually working them into all of my setups.
It's all different experiences. I run my Raw's through the dirt all the time on the curbs. And I've been using the same set for year's. They're still good.
i keep Shields on if they're good bearings with ONE SIDE shields only like bones reds or swiss. one side shield, one side retainer cage is the only way. if they have shields on both sides i don't buy em... unless they're some wild deal like $10. taking shields on n off is the most tedious part of cleaning them. also some bearings have worse shields than other and they pop off as you skate. if that's happening with your bearings they're not bones and they're not good and no reason to keep trying to push em back in
Funny thing is that people pay $15 more for the Raws over Bronson G3s, when I asked Gary at NHS what the difference between the two bearings were he told me the only difference is the shields lol. If you guys insist on riding shields off for some reason just pay $20 bucks for the G3s and take the 95 seconds to pry the rubber shields off
That is simply not true.. I have a set of Raws on a cruiser board that I haven’t changed in 3 years now that I still ride every day.. Been through so many sets of G3s shields on and off and the last set blew out in like a month.. Wish it wasn’t the case because I couldn’t care less about getting the big brand products, I would skate Shake Junt bearings if they were decent and lasted a while
Noisy bearings are grinding bearings balls (they’re saying grease me and close the door!), loose bearings are necessary when you don’t use spacers and washers (otherwise you lock the bearings when fasten) but this habit damage and shorten the life of the bearings.
People need more ceramic bearings in their life. Going raw is cool if you're a pro but shields are useful. Raw is more for board feel and weighted acceleration from pushing. It's worth it if you don't care about maintenance.
I think shieldless bearings are just like the super small wheels of the early 90s. Cultural thing. Being a trained maintenance technician I see no technical point in shieldless unlubricated bearings. That ”cheap” sound is the sound of properly lubricated bearing. Edit: *sound of properly lubricated bearings and properly (by feel) torqued wheels.
Bronson Raw are not designated for outdoor , any honest skate shop wouldn't recommend them if they know that you normally skate streets, at least for my personal experience two skate shops told me that they are not suitable for street skating and in addition they are among the most expensive. Most of Pro skaters usually donate their own setup after a few sessions,so they can't really prove and guarantee whether or not the shieldless bearings really last forever like they claim.
interesting perspective. i feel like most pros will give away they're old decks, but not the rest of the setup. many of these pro's stated they've been skating em for quite a while
It seems a bit “anecdotal” to me. People have done the maths that beyond an abec 3 is a waste of precision for skating… that seems irrelevant but people still swear by having better. I can see that in certain conditions you’ll get away with no lube. Maybe people need to use the right amount for the job though and also accept longevity comes with a performance cost. I’d still put the seals on and use graphite instead though. I did an engineering apprenticeship (maintenance). Plenty of machinery that isnt lubricated uses graphite thats in the steel… that stuffs not high speed, but neither is a skaters bearing. Running steel on steel without lube is not clever. It’s kinda absolutely fine until it isn’t, then it’s just gonna chew itself up. How long that takes depends on a lot of things. Adults skating a nice park in a dry climate… it’s no big deal really. Maybe these guys are right as ball bearings have a high carbon content - but - they aren’t that high in chromium compared to a very stainless steel, so rust really is an issue for plenty of people. I see a similar thing screen printing… people in California and Arizona… If they came to the Uk Autumn/Winter and tried working here they’d wonder why everything is going wrong. Cold and damp changes everything.
intellectual and mature comment. i like it. correct me if im wrong, but i believe where i live. (Vancouver WA USA) we have similar weather as the UK. A lot of rain and it always seems to be moist
Yes, also when its occasionally very warm here, its not nice due to the humidity. The narrow part of england south of scotland… its not much over 100 miles wide… maybe its 120 or less than 100 🤣 (dont hard quote that number) but its certainly damp.
It defies logic, but you can’t argue with what’s tried and true. Fwiw, my anecdotal evidence against keeping shields on was my bones Redz seizing up on me while the board was sitting in the trunk of my car for a year. Never even got wet
@@cobysmith592810s of thousands of hours of R&D into his products for the last damn near 50 years. Id trust the guys making the bearings over the guys who skate them. Shields are for increasing lifespan on bearings keeping pollutants out. As the were intended
