Table of Contents[Hide][Show]
- How to Clean your Longboard Bearings
- Essential Tips To Know Before Cleaning Your Longboard Bearings:
- Tools And Materials Needed To Clean Your Longboard Bearings
- Steps involved in cleaning your Longboard Bearings:
- Selecting a Lubricant
- Importance of Cleaning and Maintaining your Longboard Bearings
- Conclusion:
How to Clean your Longboard Bearings
Longboard bearings are little round metal pieces that fit inside the wheels of the Longboard to fix the wheels to the axle in the truck of the Longboard. Due to the size of the Longboard bearings, most people tend to overlook their importance and fail to realize how significant a bearing is in a Longboard. Longboard Bearings are responsible for the efficiency and speed of the wheel as they roll over different types of surfaces – both smooth and rough.
Cleaning the bearings of a longboard wheel takes a lot of time, but it’s worth doing to save some money on purchasing new ones because if the longboard bearings are not clean on time, they will end up breaking soon which would require you to get a new set. Here is a quick and easy guideline on how to clean your Longboard bearings.
Essential Tips To Know Before Cleaning Your Longboard Bearings:
- People sometimes mistake cleaning longboard wheels with bearing, thinking they only need to clean the wheels and not bother with the bearing.
- Dirty bearings because slow longboards, as the more dirt accumulates, the more clogging.
- Longboard uses the same bearings as skateboard, so the guidelines and different materials below could also work for cleaning skateboard bearings.
- If your bearings use metal shields, your ability to clean inside will be limited, but for those that make use of rubber shields, these guidelines can help you quickly bring them back to life no matter how dirty they may look, although it is essential to note there are some stains or colors that can’t remove.
- A good lubrication of bearings can help increase your speed. Make sure to lubricate your bearings regularly to maintain incredible speed.
- If you use a standard 608 bearing size, your bearings will be interchangeable for the skateboard, meaning users can use them for long and skateboards.
Tools And Materials Needed To Clean Your Longboard Bearings
- Skate tool or Socket wrench: To remove the wheels from the Longboard and fix it back on the Longboard
- Tray: To gather the miniature components removed from the Longboard for easy retrieval when recoupling them.
- Any small object that is sharp and pointy, like a Razor-blade, Safety Pin, Sewing Needle, or a Paper Clip.
- Container: Make sure not to use glass containers or any other containers that would react with the chemicals; also, make sure you use a container with a lid.
- Grease or Bearing Lubricant: For maximum protection against water, use thick grease. Bone Speed Cream and Sabre Bearing Lube are often recommended as they are skate-specific lubricants specially designed for skateboard and longboard bearings. If these are not available, a Longboard user could use a sewing machine oil.
- Degreaser or Solvent: Citrus Degreaser is often recommended, although Petroleum, Acetone, Engine degreasers, and White Spirit are also good alternatives. WD-40 is not recommended but can be used if no other degreaser is not available, but in really desperate times when no degreaser (including WD-40) is available, then he could use washing soap and warm water used. Using bleach is not advised as it could end up ruining your bearing.
- Dry Rag, Paper towel, or old T-shirt for cleaning and drying purposes
- Safety glasses and gloves: This is not necessary but used to protect from degreasing chemicals used during the cleaning.
- Hair Dryer: This is optional to help dry your bearings faster after cleaning them.
Steps involved in cleaning your Longboard Bearings:
- Remove Wheels: Use the skate tool or Socket wrench to remove the wheels one by one by unscrewing the axel nuts of the longboard truck. Ensure to gather the axel nuts, spacers, and washers in the tray to prevent losing any piece and for easy retrieval when recoupling the wheels.
- Remove Bearings and Bearings Shield: With the bearings inside the wheel, gently pull back the wheel to release it, then use the razor-blade or safety pin to remove the shield on it. Note that it has two shields located on both sides. It’s important to note that the function of this shield is to protect the wheel bearings, so try not to bend them while removing them. After getting rid of these bearings shields, clean with water and dishwashing soap, but if it has metal parts, dry it up immediately after cleaning it to prevent it from rusting.
- Bearings in Degreaser: Before dealing with the degreaser, it’s essential to put on your safety glasses and gloves. After removing the shield from the bearings of each wheel, half fill a container (preferably a large-sized cup or mug with a lid) with the degreaser. Place the bearings inside the container, so the degreaser can start dissolving the grease for at least 5 minutes, shaking the container slowly to further clean them before removing them. If detergent and warm water are used, the bearings would be scrubbed with a sponge to effectively remove the dirt and grimes. When Citrus Degreaser or other water-based degreaser or degreaser that are commercially available are used, it’s essential to dry it immediately to prevent rusting. When selecting a degreaser, it’s necessary to choose an environment-friendly one.
- Dry the Bearing: Once the dirt has been removed from your bearings, place it on the dry rag, then blow it with the hairdryer. If the hairdryer is not available, leave your bearings to dry in compressed air or use the dry rag to clean it, but any method you choose to dry it is okay as long as it’s properly dried.
- Regrease the Bearing: After drying the bearings and ensuring they are adequately dried, the next step is to regrease each. This next step is crucial as a dry bearing will cause damaging friction, which would lead to overheating, making your Longboard hot and fizzling. Although it’s possible to use any lubricant of your choice, lubes like Bone Speed Cream or Sabre Bearing Lube are highly recommended, while lubes like WD-40 are not recommended as the effect wears off quickly, causing the bearings to rust easily. To apply this lubricant, drip 1-2 drops of lube on the bearing (as too much lube attracts dirt which would impact its performance and even damage it), then spin so the lubricant can distribute evenly on it. Make sure to reapply the grease on all eight bearings in the Longboard.
- Replace shields and mount bearings: After regreasing them, wipe off every excess grease before replacing the bearing shields, and this step of replacing it is easier than removing. Set them back in place and gently push them in until it’s been successfully applied. If there was a bent one while removing a bearing, then when replacing it, place the bent bearing shield on the part of the bearing going inside the wheels. After replacing your bearing shields on the bearings, gently push them into the wheels in the same way you brought it out. After replacing them, screw the axel nuts, spacers, and washers back in your wheels and tighten them to secure the bearing further. The user should then place the wheels back in the Longboard, then spin each wheel to check if he properly fixed them.
Going on a ride after fixing everything is advised to help further share the lubricant in the bearing evenly, although it would take a while before your Longboard would eventually speed up.
Note: It’s recommended to switch the wheels when replacing them to prolong the wheel’s lifespan.
Selecting a Lubricant
When selecting a grease or lubricant, it’s essential to know the types:
- Thin lubes will make your bearings spin faster, but they will be short-lived because they may break easily.
- Medium grease will be more resistant to dirt, but your bearings will spin slower.
- Thick grease will keep the water out but will attract more dirt.
Importance of Cleaning and Maintaining your Longboard Bearings
It is important to clean and maintain your longboard bearings for the following reasons:
- To make it last longer.
- It helps to prevent rusting.
- It helps to prevent injuries due to faulty bearings
Every time a Longboard user skates in the rain, he should make sure to clean his bearings or a periodic cleanup after two or three months to keep the bearings looking new and rust-free and keep his ride going tremendous and smoothly.
Conclusion:
These Guidelines on How To Clean Your Longboard Bearings is a must-know for every Longboard user – both novice and expert -because maintaining your Longboard Bearing is essential to enjoy your Longboard rides.