Your skate bearings are one of the major components of your skates. And in the world of inline skating there are two main types of bearings that dominate the marketplace: ABEC and Swiss. ABEC and Swiss bearings dominate in the marketplace not because they are brands, but rather these two bearing types dominate in the marketplace by classification. In fact, many bearing manufacturers will produce both ABEC and Swiss rated bearings. The biggest questions that exist between the two are:
1.) What’s the difference?
And
2.) Which is better?
The answer to the first is rather simple. ABEC, an acronym for Annular Bearing Engineering Committee, refers to the perfection of a bearing. Historically ABEC ratings have been used to grade the quality of a bearing and the smoothness of the polish. According to the ABEC rating system, the higher the ABEC rating a bearing receives, the more efficient the bearing will operate. The more efficient the bearing operates, the faster speeds it is capable of producing. Presently there are 5 classes of ABEC ratings:
ABEC 1 – Class 0
ABEC 3 – Class 6
ABEC 5 – Class 5
ABEC 7 – Class 4
ABEC 9 – Class 2
The above ABEC ratings correspond with the stated class above as measured by the International Organization for Standardization.
The Swiss bearing came long after the ABEC rating system. The primary difference between the Swiss and the ABEC are the standards for which they are rated on. The Swiss system takes into account not only the smoothness of polish on the bearing, but also the entire assembly of the bearing itself. Swiss argues that their rating process and the bearings they produce roll faster and shed debris with less maintenance.
Simply put, the difference that exist are in the standards used to rate the bearing. A Swiss bearing utilizes the same rating for smoothness of polish, but adds the process as a whole to its ratings process.
When making a decision to purchase a new set of bearings for your skates, your decision should be based on what you plan on using your skates for. Swiss bearings, while easier to maintain are generally more expensive. Out of the box, they also tend to be a bit slower, based on our personal opinion. However, if you plan on skating very frequently and in long stretches, or even marathons, the speed of a Swiss bearing will be beneficial for you in the long run.
ABEC bearings are generally less expensive and will be faster out of the box. However, ABEC bearings tend to be more susceptible to debris which can cause friction inside of the bearing itself, and make them less efficient. If you are a recreational skater who skates occasionally, you may not need to spend the extra money on bearings. Instead, educate yourself on bearing maintenance to help extend the life of your ABEC bearings.
Bearing Lubrication:Oil or Grease?
Regardless of the type of bearing you decide to purchase, you will need to select the proper lubricant to service your bearings and help its performance. The two most common types of lubricant that you will be considering are oil and grease. Both work effectively, but each has its own pros and cons given a situation.
Oil is much thinner than grease and as a result creates less friction inside of the bearing. The less friction that is present in-and-around your bearings means the bearing can rotate faster, making your wheels rotate at a faster rate, allowing you to accelerate faster, and maintain speed longer. Unfortunately, the high viscosity of oil does a poor job of keeping dirt and dust from entering the inner parts of your bearings, potentially creating large amounts of friction if not serviced routinely and correctly.
By comparison, grease based lubricants offer the opposite effects on wheels and bearings. Grease is thicker than oil, which creates more friction for the wheel and bearings. This makes a grease lubricant inferior to oil in respect to speed. From a positive standpoint, grease lubricants are the perfect choice to protect the bearing from water, dirt, and dust. This allows the bearing to go for longer stretches with less friction from these elements.
The bottom line when it comes to bearing lubricant is that you want to consider how often you are going to be using your skates, and how often you will be able to flush the bearings and re-oil or re-grease. If you are buying a skate and want low maintenance, you will probably want to get a grease based lubricant. However, if you are buying a skate for aggressive uses like hockey or speed skating, and you plan on taking good care of your skates, then an oil based lubricant is the better selection. No matter which lubricant you select, remember that you do not need much at all. A couple of drops of oil based lubricant or a dab of grease should get the job done on each bearing.
When purchasing a pair of inline skates you should consider the money that you spend as an investment. Like most investments, you will want your inline skates to last for a long time before having to replace them. There are many ways to ensure that this takes place, but one easy way is to routinely rotate your wheels.
Wheel rotation on your inline skates is similar to the process of rotating wheels on a car. The process consists of removing your wheels and then positioning them in a different spot on your frame than they were before. The purpose of this is to make sure that the wear taking place on your wheels is balanced. Most skate wheels are made of a urethane material that while long lasting, begins to wear down after many uses. If you do not properly rotate your wheels, you will wind up with wheels that are severely worn down in one direction. This makes skating very difficult, and forces you to purchase new wheels to remedy the problem.
Ideally you should be checking your wheels before and after any skating session, but every couple of sessions is okay too. Checking before you skate will allow you to assure yourself that your wheels are in good condition to skate on. Checking after you skate will allow you to gauge how much your wheels are wearing down. The rate at which your wheels wear down will depend on the type of skating you are doing and the terrain you are skating on. If you are skating on an indoor skating rink, your wheels will not wear down as fast as if you were skating outdoors on pavement. Also, the Durometer rating of your wheels will play a factor in the wear as well. Keep these two things in mind when inspecting your wheels and making a determination whether you should rotate or not.
A standard wheel rotation should involve swapping wheel position, as well as flipping the wheel so that the inside edge now faces outwards. This will help keep the wear balanced and prevent you from having to replace wheels worn to a 45-degree angle on one side. Additionally, swapping wheel position is important because pressure isn’t always applied equally on each wheel. To remedy this issue you will want to swap wheel positions. You are welcome to re-position your wheels in any manner that you like, but the following method is the most common for 4-wheeled fitness or recreational skates.
1-3-2-4 Swapping Method:
For 4-wheel skates with wheels that are all the same size, you will want to utilize the 1-3-2-4 rotation. This method is known as the 1-3-2-4 because it requires the 1st and 3rd wheels on the frame to be swapped, and the 2nd and 4th wheels to be swapped.
There are other swapping methods as well, for 5-wheeled skates and Hi-Lo roller hockey skates as well. For a more in-depth review of those processes, please review Inline Skates 101 Guide.
Flipping and rotating your wheels is an easy way to save some cash, improve the performance of your skates, and increase the longevity of your skates in general. If you don’t feel like rotating your wheels, you are more than welcome to purchase new wheels every time, but don’t be upset if you spend more money on replacement wheels in 6 months than you did purchasing your skates.
The key to keeping your skates rolling and performing like the day you bought them is preventative maintenance. Preventative maintenance is nothing more than a few simple decisions on your part.
First, make sure you choose the right surfaces to skate on for the type of skate you own. Avoid skating through water, sand, mud, or any other type of material that can cause severe damage to your skates. The fewer opportunities your skates have to get dirty and collect debris, the longer they will continue to perform like the day you took them out of the box.
Second, if you want to avoid Stinky Skate Syndrome, make sure you select the appropriate sock to wear while skating. This should be a thin athletic sock. If you wear thicker socks, the more moisture builds up and the more your skates will stink. Once Stinky Skate Syndrome sets in, there is not a lot you can do about it.
Restorative Maintenance
If you have slacked on the preventative maintenance but you want to get an old pair of underperforming skates back in top shape, you will need to conduct some restorative maintenance.
Restorative maintenance will require that you focus on 3 areas of your skates: Wheels, Bearings, and Brakes.
Wheels: Rotating inline skate wheels is an essential part of keeping skates performing well. Analyze the wheels of the skates you are looking to restore. If they are in good enough shape to keep, analyze them for a rotation.
Bearings: Likely the key area to look when skates are underperforming. Bearings that are properly cleaned and lubricated will perform best. It is highly recommended that you remove the wheels from the frame and inspect the bearings for debris. Conduct a cleaning and lubrication before inserting them back into the wheel hub. Keep in mind that when servicing your bearings, there are two types of bearings you are likely to encounter. For a more thorough discussion on how to service and maintain your bearings, please review our Bearings Article.
Brakes: Checking your brake is a very important part of the inline skate restoration process as well. If you spend the time to make the skates go faster, you may just want to spend a bit of time making sure you can stop as well. Many brakes will have a recommended ‘wear-line’ that will help you determine how low you should allow your brake to wear down. We recommend that you do not wait until your brake gets to this line, but rather keep an eye on it and change it when you feel it becoming ineffective.
The idea behind an inline skate bearing is to reduce the friction that exists between a moving skate wheel and a fixed, non-moving frame. Each wheel requires two bearings, one on each side, a bolt threaded through the center of each bearing, and a wheel to attach to the skate frame. Bearings are positioned in the center of the wheel, also referred to as the hub. Bearings can be removed from the wheel for cleaning and maintenance at any time. The diagram below illustrates the inner workings of your inline skate bearings:
Inline skate bearings are small and circular, containing a number of small metal balls, better known as ball bearings, inside. The ball bearings are surrounded by a lubricant that allows them to spin feely and easily inside the bearing housing. In a nut shell, this is the meat and potatoes of your bearing, which allows you to actually skate. To further illustrate what we’ve described, review the following bearing diagram:
Beyond the Basics: Bearing Ratings and Types
Now that you know the purpose of your bearings and also the inner workings of them it is time to discuss bearing ratings and types. Inline skate bearings are rated using Annular Bearing Engineer Council rating, better known as an ABEC rating. ABEC ratings typically have five levels:
·ABEC 1
·ABEC 3
·ABEC 5
·ABEC 7
·ABEC 9
ABEC ratings indicate closer conformance to certain critical bearing dimensions and typically refer to the efficiency in the bearing. The higher the number, the higher the efficiency and the less effort you will need to put forth for a longer roll.
For those interested in the specifics of how an ABEC rating is determined, the following items are used in rating calculation:
·How close the bore is to 8mm in microns
·How close the outer diameter is to 22 in microns
·How close the width is to 7mm in microns
·The rotating accuracy in microns
If you want even more specific information on ABEC ratings, we recommend you speak with an Engineer…he or she will certainly be able to clear it up for you. One important thing to remember when comparing bearings is that each manufacturer of bearings has their own ranking system. This is important because what one company considers an ABEC 7 for example, may only be an ABEC 5 at another company. Typically this is a factor of not only measurement statistics, but also the country of origin. An ABEC 5 made in China not typically going to be good as an ABEC 5 bearing made in the United States.
In addition to ABEC rated bearings, more recent “precision” bearings have hit the market. Precision bearing do not follow the ABEC rating scale and are present in forms such as Titanium, Swiss, or Ceramic. The lack of rating makes them difficult to compare to ABEC rated bearing, but they generally considered to be superior to ABEC bearings. If you wanted to rank precision bearings, the following would be the best ranking scenario:
·Titanium
·Swiss
·Ceramic
Finally, you should also be aware that bearings not only come in a variety of different ratings, but they also come in different types. For years bearings that came standard on inline skates were Standard 608 bearings. As skates have changed throughout the years, so have bearings, best represented by the Micro 688 bearing.
Standard 608 bearings are rated using the ABEC rating system described previously, as well as the Precision types also discussed. Microbearings are not rated on the ABEC scale either, but offer excellent performance. The performance aspects of Microbearings stem from their construction which involves more ball bearings per bearing than a Standard 608. The result of this construction is that a skater’s weight is more evenly distributed; allowing the bearing to operate more efficiently…efficiency is the key. Microbearings are also much smaller and lighter than Standard 608 bearings. The small size will allow for faster acceleration, and the lighter weight reduces the overall weight of the skate. If you have skates with Standard 608 bearings and wish to switch to a Microbearing setup, you will more than likely need a spacer kit to compensate for the smaller bearing size. To understand the size difference we are referring to, see the image below:
Beyond the Basics: Sealed or Shielded Bearings
Every inline skate bearing has what is known as a casing. The casing is basically what keeps all of the internal parts of your bearing protected from the elements of the terrain you skate in. Casings will be present in one of two possible forms. One is known as a sealed casing, the other is a shielded (also referred to as serviceable) casing.
Sealed bearings are just that, sealed. Their covering is not removable and thus you are unable to get inside of the bearing for cleaning and lubricating purposes. In most cases, you will find sealed bearings on lower end, inexpensive skates. Understand that sealed and impenetrable are not interchangeable phrases here. Water, dirt, and dust can easily get into sealed bearings. The sealed part is meant to describe the inability for you to service this type of bearing.
Shielded bearings on the other hand are what are known as serviceable. A serviceable bearing is typically found on middle- or upper-end skates. They provide a metal “cap” which can be popped off to access the inner workings of the bearings, and allow for easy cleaning and lubrication. The following images are of serviceable bearings, which will give you an idea of what we are describing:
To remove the cap, you can use the tip of a knife, a safety pin, or another thin object. Depending on the bearing, it may also have a seal around the cap which you must remove prior to removing the cap (see the top image above). If it does not have a seal (see image 2), you will simply need to remove the shield.
It is more likely that you will see a serviceable bearing nowadays, as they are more common than sealed bearings. Please note that you do not have to remove the cap of your serviceable bearing in to clean or lubricate it. It does however make the job much easier, and results in a much better cleaning and lubrication and ultimately prolonging the life of your bearings.
Beyond the Basics: Bearing Service and Maintenance
You’ve got the basics of bearings and a lot of information beyond the basics to this point. You understand the difference between sealed and serviceable bearings, and not it is time to put it altogether in order to service and maintain your bearings.
Understand that your bearings are the most delicate part of your skates, and therefore you should take the greatest care of them. After all, the better you take care of your bearings, the better your skating experience will be, and the less frequently you will have to replace them.
Before we get started in the actual maintenance of your bearings, let’s first go over a few preventative items. Things you should avoid that will ultimately add years to your bearings and result in fewer times you have to service your bearings.
1.Stay away from water. Water is an inline skate bearing kryptonite. It results in the lubrication becoming diluted and can eventually cause the bearings to rust. As you can probably guess, rusted bearings are neither fast nor smooth. If you want to go through a puddle for some fun, jump in the car and splash some people on the sidewalk.
2.Stay off of the grass. It is recommended that if you are beginner and you are having difficulty stopping that you skate off into the grass. While we will not discount this learning technique, we cannot emphasize enough that you stay off the grass if possible. Kids in particular love to walk or skate into the grass on purpose. Grass is filled with dirt and crud and when these particles get into the bearings, it clogs them up and can cause them to seize up. You don’t need us to tell you that a seized up bearing is nothing more than a new paper weight for the home office.
3.Trails are a common choice for inline skaters. We recommend trails too, but make sure that if it is a dirty trail, you try to utilize it for a running trail rather than a skating trail. Solid dirt or very dirty trails are filled with more of that kryptonite that clogs bearings. It may seem like fun, but you won’t be smiling or laughing when your skates stop moving. Once that happens, you will have no choice but to use that dirty trail to run on. Keep your skate bearings happy and your pocketbook happy by steering clear of dirt and dirty trails.
With the preventative measures out of the way, it is now time to learn how you actually service your bearings.
Step 1: Remove the bearings from the wheels. This process begins the same way you would replace the wheels. Start by unscrewing the axles using the proper tool, usually an Allen Wrench. Next you will need to pop the bearings out of each side of the wheel. Recall that each wheel will have two bearings, one on each side. This means there will usually be 8 per skate, or a total of 16. For a visual demonstration of this, check out the clip below:
Step 2: Your bearings have now been removed, allowing you to do a number of things with them. One of those choices is to clean your bearings. To clean your bearings, begin by simply wiping each bearing off with a paper towel or a cloth. This will remove any excess dirt and grime. We also recommend that you when cleaning your bearings that you purchase a bottle of bearing cleaner. Bearing cleaners come in aerosol cans that allow the cleaner to simply be sprayed on, or you can elect to purchase a bottle that allows you to fully submerge your bearings for soaking. Whichever method you choose, please follow the directions precisely to ensure proper care is being taken of your bearings. If you do not elect to purchase a cleaner, simply wipe them off. Whatever you do, do not use WATER! Remember, water to bearings is like kryptonite to Superman…it is NO GOOD!
If you have serviceable bearings, you can also elect to clean and lubricate the inside of your bearings as well. To do so, you begin by removing the shield. Recall that you do not have to do this, but we recommend that you do so for a more efficient bearing servicing. Lubrication of your bearings is very important because it is what allows your bearings to spin smoothly. Understand that the lubricant used within the bearing will affect the speed, and that different bearings use different types of lubricants. A common lubricant is grease. Grease offers protection against contaminants, but is not as fast as oil because it takes a slight amount of friction to melt grease to the proper lubrication consistency.
Other lubricants available are gels or oils, which are typically faster. They do however require more maintenance because they do not last as long. It is worth noting that re-lubricating a bearing with a different type of lubricant isn’t bad, but matching them is preferable.
A common mistake is the use of lubricating products such as WD-40. While it may seem like you’re doing the right thing, you should never use this product on your bearings. The reason is because it is not a true lubricant and it will corrode your bearings.
To lubricate your bearings, spray a few shots of the lubricant into the bearing or around the seal if it is an aerosol lubricant (remember no WD-40). You may also put a few drops in if the lubricant is a liquid. You will then want to allow your bearings to sit for a few minutes and wipe any excess lubricant gently off.
Step 3: After your bearings have had a few minutes to sit, it is time to put them back together (if you took them apart), and then put them back in your wheels. Put the shields back on the bearings if you removed them, and pop one bearing into one side of the wheel. Insert your spacer and insert your second bearing on the other side of the wheel. Put the wheels back on the frame and screw the axles in. Once you have completed your reassembly, you can now go enjoy your freshly cleaned and lubricated skates.
Replacement:
Provided you have properly maintained your bearings, you will not have to replace very quickly or frequently. However, bearings will need replacement at some point. You will know that your bearings need to be replaced when they no longer glide smoothly or efficiently, and all service and maintenance is no longer helping. This is primarily a judgment call on the part of the skater, but is the general course of determination. To replace your bearings, follow the same process outlined above for servicing them. Although brand new bearing simply need to be popped in to your wheel in place of the old ones…no need to clean or lubricate them fresh out of the packaging.
You can of course elect to replace your bearings before they go bad. This is done frequently by skaters looking to upgrade to a smoother, faster bearing without giving up the comfort of their skates.
We cannot emphasize enough how much proper bearing maintenance will affect your skating experience. If it does nothing else, it will increase the life of your skates.
