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Ten Steps to Happier Bearings
by Ray Vermette
Disclaimer: I am not an expert on bearing cleaning. If you have a better technique or cleaning tip, please share it with your fellow skaters!
1. Before removing the wheels from your skate frames for cleaning, take note of the wear pattern. An uneven wear pattern may indicate a problem with your skating technique a subject for a future column!
2. The first trick is getting the bearing cages out of the wheels. There are some bearing cage pullers out there that do a good job. Personally, I use an Allen key to push the bearing cage out from the opposite side of the wheel. This may not work with recreational skates that use plastic spacers.
3. Bearing cages have inner and outer rings, with plates on one or both sides to keep the dirt out. The plates are typically held in place with c-rings. You can use a safety pin to ¡ the c-ring out and remove the plate. Remove one plate and leave the plate on the other side in, unless your bearings are extremely dirty, seized, or packed with heavy grease, in which case you might want to remove both plates.
4. Fill a container with solvent, such as Varsol, or a bio-degradable degreaser. Add bearing cages and stir! If your bearing cages have plastic or nylon retainers holding the bearings in place, petroleum-based solvents may damage the retainers. If you use a petroleum-based solvent, don't leave the bearings in for too long, or consider using a biodegradable degreaser. Take them out and put them on a paper towel to dry.
5. Slip one bearing cage at a time onto a small screwdriver (like the type used for eyeglasses) or small Allen key. Partly submerge the bearing in the container of solvent or bio-degreaser and spin the bearing with your fingers. I find this is the best technique for getting dirt out of the bearing cage. The bearings should spin freely. If the bearings are seized or obviously have some grit in them, try tapping the bearing cage on a hard surface to loosen the grit, then try spinning again. Repeat as necessary.
6. Pat the bearing cages dry with paper towel or rags.
7. Lubricate! I prefer a light oil, such as sewing machine oil. Light oils with teflon, such as Tri-flow, work well, too.
For a little more money, you can pick up inline-specific lubricants at sports shops. Two drops of oil is all you need. Any more, and the excess lubricant will leak out of the bearing cage and attract dirt. Heavy grease and racing gel will slow your bearings down, but if you aren¢t concerned with speed and want low maintenance, a heavy grease or racing gel may be the way to go.
8. Pat dry again, to remove any excess lubricant.
9. If you removed plates from both sides of your bearing cages, put one of the plates back on now. Leaving one plate off each cage makes for much quicker cleaning - you can eliminate step #3 the next time you clean them. Put the bearing cages and spacers back in the wheels, with the open side of the cage facing inward. The side of the bearing cage with the plate will face outward, to keep dirt out.
10. Put the wheels back in the skate frames. Rotating wheels: if you remove and clean your wheels on a frequent basis, then putting them on in a random order should suffice. Otherwise, follow the instructions that came with your skates or find instructions online.
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