Wheel and Bearing Maintenance

If you want your inline skates to last long it is best to do some basic maintenance. Luckily maintaining inline skates is a simple process that does not take long.

Rotating the wheels – if you only follow one maintenance tip, do this one.

Naturally the wheels of your inline skates will mainly wear off on one side (the inside side, or, as usually said, the inside "egde"). Therefore if the wheels are never rotated they will be very worn off on one side and not so much on the other.

It is best practise to rotate your inline skate wheels once in a while to make sure they wear off on both sides of the wheel equally. This way the lifetime of your wheels will close to double.

You can do this by taking out the wheels and rotating them. If you have new skates the logos of the wheels will probably be on the outside so that simply means turning the logo to the inside. A more advanced way to do this, is by shifting each wheel one position back. The last wheel becomes the front wheel, the front wheel becomes the second wheel and so on. The best and most advanced way to do it is by switching the wheels between the two skates in the same way the videos show below.

Bearing Maintenance

Bearings are responsible for how smoothly your wheel turns. The ultimate test for bearings is how well they roll when there is weight on them (for example when standing on the inline skates), so don’t judge them by how they roll when there is no weight on them.

There are closed case bearings and open case. Open case bearing have a shield on one side and are open on the other side and they are ready to be cleaned like that. Closed case bearings have a shield on both sides and you will need to remove the shield from one of the sides in order to clean them. You can do that by using a pin or something small to carefully pop the case out, make sure not to damage the case so that you can put it back after you are done cleaning them.

The first step in maintaining a bearing is cleaning it out. You can do this by yourself at home but we recommend the following products to make it easier for you.

• the Turbo Wash is as a washing machine for bearings
• new bearing cleaner solution
• The Wash cleaning tool

You fill the Turbo Wash with the bearing cleaner solution and throw in the bearings (and perhaps the spacers too). Then you shake well and all the dirt will come off. The little pin included in The Wash kit is to open closed shield bearings. The brushes are to remove hard dirt that won’t come off and the towel is to dry yours bearings.

The bottle(s) of The Wash can be used to clean the bearings dry. Keep in mind that the plastic of The Wash cannot withstand the acidity of the bearing cleaner liquid, so those two are not compatible.

Once the bearings are clean you will need to lubricate them again since all the oils will be removed as well. For this you will need the Bones Speed Cream. On the open side of the bearing put two drops for steel balls and one drop for ceramic balls. Once your bearings are re-lubricated they are ready to go. Put them on your wheels and go inline skate.