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| Bearing Reviews (4976 Posts)
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Powell Ceramics
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On 4/26/2000
Jonas
wrote in from
(152.163.nnn.nnn)
The ceramic version of Powell's Black Swiss are identical to standard Swiss but the balls are made of ceramic material.From the outside you can't tell.My main disappointment with this bearing is the puny sticker thay come with. You'd think for $100 they could come up with more!Other than that it's a great product. They come with the same black annodized spacers that come with other Powell bearings.
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Ceramic bearings
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On 4/26/2000 Lindsay
wrote in from
(202.37.nnn.nnn)
OK, I checked the archives.
What exactly are ceramic bearings? I cant visualise spheres
of ceramic material...I am suspecting they are like ceramic
engines, where in this case there is ceramic coating on the
bearing races...?
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bearing press
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On 4/26/2000 jake
wrote in from
(216.101.nnn.nnn)
HEY!! I just found a cool bearing press on longskate.com. I've been looking for one for years and haven't been able to find any except ones that cost $250!! This one is only $49.99.
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Speedemons
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On 4/26/2000 Herbn
wrote in from
(207.198.nnn.nnn)
Its what you do on/to your bearings,I have them on a Speed/carving board,one of 4 boards ,I was using them a lot for a while and they do still spin nice no loose sheilds at all.I guess your"freestyle" is tougher on bearings,structually. Probabely the safest bet in bearings are China bones. By the way my Reflexes are still perfect also,as are my Swiss and I just got some Ceramic swiss that are getting fast each time out,the Ceramics seem only a little faster in straightline seem much faster when sideloaded(turns). No offence taken,were they gold or clear Speedemons?
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Spacers and washers
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On 4/25/2000 The Kanoa kid
wrote in from
(38.29.nnn.nnn)
Yes, personaly I think you should always use spacers and washers. Washers help prevent the wheel from riding on the nut, and spacers give support between the berings, esp. if you don't have an inner plastic core on your wheel, if you hit a rock, curb, or oly with out a spacer it can cause your wheel to give and come off, break or other... A lot of guys don't use them, I don't agree. would you drive a car with no center in your rim? no support.
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speed demons
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On 4/25/2000 Nick
wrote in from
(24.4.nnn.nnn)
Herbern hey man I found that speed demon's have come to be crap in my experience. Not to cut you down but I use to use my freestyle board for cruising and an ole' every now and then. But I still blew them out every week and it got to be expencive after a while. Not to cut you down herbern but i dislike them alot.
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Ceramics(?)
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On 4/22/2000 Herbn
wrote in from
(207.198.nnn.nnn)
Just hit 45 on Sibbald ,my most local hill,thats up 2 mph from my previous fastest bombing,the guy pacing me claims his speedometer to be correct,that was with a serious topend accelleration near the runnout as the hill reaches it's steepest.
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Speed Demons and Tri-flow
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On 4/21/2000
Mike
wrote in from
(64.7.nnn.nnn)
I found the best bearing that last a long time are Speed Demons. A good lube that i found is tri-flow. HINT: dont put to mutch on cuz u only need a small spray.
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Speed Cream
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On 4/20/2000
Jonas
wrote in from
(205.188.nnn.nnn)
Although it seems kinda expensive, the directions only call for using 1-2 drops per cleaned bearing. I tend to use more (3-4 per bearing)and let the excess fling onto the surface of the bearing to collect dust.Even at this rate a bottle will do many sets of bearings so taking good care to clean and lube can help make bearings last several years. To me it's worth it, but you can use any lube you like.
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SPEED CREAM
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On 4/20/2000 BENNY
wrote in from
(152.169.nnn.nnn)
IS POWELL SPEED CREAM WORTH $5 FOR ONLY HALF AN OUNCE?!
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re: Swiss bones, spacers, and washers
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On 4/20/2000 matt
wrote in from
(63.23.nnn.nnn)
I have the turbo's with swiss bones, and exkate makes a special spacer for these wheels to fit them perfectly. So dont use the ones that come with the bones bearings.You should contact Exkate to get the special spacers. For an IN-DEPTH explaination on the purpose of bearing spacers and speed washers go to the links page and click on the one labeled "about bearing spacers".
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Swiss bones, spacers, and washers
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On 4/20/2000 Marcus
wrote in from
(130.39.nnn.nnn)
I just installed swiss bones on my new board. I put them in in exkate turbo 76mm 76A wheels. I didnt put the spacers htat came with the bones in because after putting one bearing in and a spacer in it didnt even reach the top of the hub where the other bearing would touch. Do I need to put the spacers in ? what purpose do they serve? How do I get my bearings out of the hub? Also, do I need washers on both sides of the wheel? As of now I have one b/w the truck and the wheel, but not the nut and the wheel. Sorry about the length, Thanks, Marcus.
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fast bearings
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On 4/20/2000
RooX
wrote in from
(142.66.nnn.nnn)
look down a few postings or check the archives.. they give a lot of good info mate.
cheers
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Lucky
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On 4/19/2000
nick
wrote in from
(152.163.nnn.nnn)
lucky bearings are pretty good. i used to have 'em and they held up for good speed for almost a year. they didn't really slow down. and by the way, does anyone know what some REALLY fast bearings are?
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Lucky 7's
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On 4/19/2000 mountainboaRder
wrote in from
(4.4.nnn.nnn)
How are lucky 7 bearings?
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GMN
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On 4/19/2000
kaylee
wrote in from
(129.24.nnn.nnn)
Some guy recently wrote in comparing bearings and raved about German bearings. He then went on to say that he hadn't seen them in years. They have them at www.zprod.com and have several different kinds of GMN's. I was told that GMN went under years ago and these are old bearings that have been sitting on a shelf. Never the less, I have had the rubber sheilded GMN's for about a year, and I think they're the best. They roll as well as Swiss, and about 10 times as durable. I have never cleaned them in a year's time, and they are still as quiet as when I got them, and that's with daily abuse, mind you. Given that ABEC and brand names are crap, doesn't durability then play a major role in the value of the bearing. The GMN BRS 608z's get my vote in best overall bearing. Check them out, I doubt you'll be disappointed. Laters.
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bearings
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On 4/18/2000
hugh r
wrote in from
(205.216.nnn.nnn)
Here is my humble opinion on cleaning bearings. I like to shoot them with a spray cleaner/degreaser first. On bearings with removable sheilds I use Birchwood Casey Gun Scrubber to remove all the gunk. Then I use an electrical contact cleaner to remove any remaining traces of dirt. Then I use a very fine oil (3 in 1, sewing machine oil, or birchwood casey gun oil)
If the bearings are fully sealed, I would soak them a short time in MEK, then use the oils mentioned above.
Some bearing do come packed in grease, but I have never had any experience with those.
Be very careful removing the bearings from your wheels. If you apply too much pressure to them, you can damage them permanently.
These methods work well for me... HR
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NEW RIDER-Maintaince
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On 4/18/2000 Wannabe
wrote in from
(216.67.nnn.nnn)
hey fellas,
just got my ride a couple of weeks ago and i was curious about keeping my wheels and bearing up to date. for saftey that is. so whats how do i keep them in check? my dad said clean them and add a little oil? true? oil cool right? or is grease? thats about it...help me out if you got time...thanks
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Fafnir and GMN and Swedish Bearings
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On 4/18/2000
John Gilmour
wrote in from
(149.130.nnn.nnn)
All this hype over ABEC. The straight dope. If the bearing
is made in a first or second world country all ABEC 1's
and ABEC 3's are actually "reject" ABEC 5's or just
as good as ABEC 5's but are labeled as 3's and 1's
to create different price points. Ussually they
are identical. Only Rollerbladers were stupid enough
to be suckered by the ABEC marketing strategy so they
could be sold RUSSIAN "ABEC 7's" which were not even
as good as German ABEC 1's
.The ABEC
rating goes in odd numbers with higher numbers having
closer tollerances and while close tollerances are good
up to a point they can actually increase friction. A ABEC
9 bearing would be used in parts of Nuclear Subs that have
to be very quiet. More important is the plant where
the bearing was made and the quality of the steel used
in the bearing. Low Oxide steels are better. Most
Japanese bearings in the 1970's were lower quality
steel (remeber IKS Bearings), since then they have
gotten better. NMB bearings
ABEC 5 608z run extremely well and are made in England.
I also have had great luck with Swedish bearings as
their steel quality is very good. The Fafnir bearings
are good as well and have 8 balls instead of 7 so at
any one time 4 balls are bearing the load instead of
only3 with a 7 ball bearing.
GMN used to make a great greased bearing when the
seals had a channel carved into them and if you broke
them in in a clean environment they lasted a really
long tijme and ran nearly frictionless and silent. I
haven't seen these in about 10 years.
Definitely clean your bearings all the time if they
are oiled bearings..... no sense buying expensive
bearings and not cleaning them every 10 miles of riding
or they instantly become cheap bearings. One wild thing
you cando is to have a thin hole drilled in you axle
longitudinally and then have another thin hole or slot
machined in the spacer area and drill tiny holes in teh
spacer. you can then make a fitting for injecting
lubricant on a regular basis to purge grit out of
the bearings after each run, makes a mess, but your
bearings will last forever and always break in perfectly.
If you look up the expected life of a bearing in the
specifications book you will see that skateboarders
get no where near this life and this is due to the
fact that we run tehm in dirty environments and
rarely clean them. ALso teh bearing is subjected to a
sideways load which it is not ideally designed for.
A tapered roller bearing would actually be better ,
but the 608z bearing was chosen for its low cost in
small quantities and its ready availablity.
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Keeps the dirt out, and those wheelz zzzzpinning
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On 4/18/2000 Gunnar
wrote in from
(193.217.nnn.nnn)
Doesn't anyone ride on rubbersealed bearings (RS1 or RS2bearings)???
I do, and i never have to clean them,
I think skate or inline shops don't sell them because if they did, they wouldn't sell any bearings at all
They are maybe not the best fore competition but they work just fine fore me.
///G
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I'll Second the Bones Bearings
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On 4/17/2000
Chris
wrote in from
(167.208.nnn.nnn)
I have to agree with Jonas. I've found that Bones Bearings are great. I have several sets of China Bones, Reds (I bought these recently, and I think they're about the same as China Bones), and Swiss Bones. All of them have been great. For $15-$20, China Bones and Reds are a great deal. At roughly twice the price, Swiss Bones are well worth the extra cash. I tend to just use the Swiss Bones on boards I'm racing with.
As far as maintanence goes, I tend to be on the other end of the spectrum. I tend to just ride until they start making noise or running slow. Still, I can usually just pull them off, soak them in paint thinner for about 15 minutes, dry them as best I can with a rag, and put in a couple drops of 3-in-1 Oil. This is usually enough to get them to spin better most other bearings new. I have one set China Bones that I had for a fairly abusive 2 years. Each time I think I'm going to have to get rid of them. I clean them, throw in a bit of oil and I'm good for another 6 months.
You might find better bearings for the money, but most of the time when I've tried, I've ended up with worse. Later,
Chris
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Bones Bearings
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On 4/17/2000
Jonas
wrote in from
(205.188.nnn.nnn)
While I am no longer a fan of the Powell Corp.(Skate One/Surf One/etc)here is a prime simplified example of low/mid/high bearing ranges.I beleive all their bearings are of average to above average quality.I have several sets of both China and Swiss and with regular care I have never had to replace any.The China's,because of their lower cost,I tend not to service as regularly but they still hold up well even with abuse(5+ foot acid drops included).The Swiss I tend to use more for downhill use and have found them superior to any comparabily priced bearing.With regular care they last a long time.So long,in fact,I haven't even tried the black version,and only have 1 gold version because the 3 sets of old(1 set is 10+ years)silver shielded still spin better than new!For these bearings I also use Powell's speed-cream and have no complaints.
It all comes down to what you want and what you are willing to pay.If you want the best take care of what you have and it usualy won't let you down.
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summery
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On 4/17/2000
Eddie Glayzer
wrote in from
(216.119.nnn.nnn)
OK im trying to get some kind on somery out of all this... if i dont want to spend a fortune or go slow what is a happy meduim or high end of the meduim bearings that will last, go fast, and not cost a pound of flesh? im open to sugestions...
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yak research
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On 4/16/2000 nick
wrote in from
(203.96.nnn.nnn)
Has anyone tried any of the bearings availible from yak research? They have abec1 to abec7,s but abec doesn,t mean shit right, does anyone know if there are any other differance,s between each of these or are we all wasting our money on anything higher than an abec1 for skating?
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BLACK Ps ARE THE DEVIL
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On 4/15/2000
beaner
wrote in from
(4.4.nnn.nnn)
BLACK PANTHERS ARE PI$$ POOR BEARINGS FOR ALL APPLICATIONS.
THEY ARE CONSTRUCTED WITH POOR QUALITY MATERIALS.
THE PLASTIC CASE THEY COME IN WON'T STAY CLOSED.
GET CHINA BONES FOR LESS MONEY AND GO FASTER!
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