Which Bearings Are You Guys Running?

[rikki]

SKF is an age-old Swedish bearing factory, founded in 1907. The world's largest bearing manufacturer for every industry imaginable.

We used to use their bearings in the late 80's for skateboarding here in the Nordics, even they did not supply skate bearings per se back then. Worked well, just had to find the right size.

Haven't tried their new "skate" bearings which are probably just their normal classic bearings repackaged and branded.

[goodatmeth]

Got some toy machine abec 7 for free and those are surprisingly good so far

3 months later and these are the best bearings I've ever had. What the hell is going on these are amazing

[toe_knee]

Anyone know what's up with SKF? Was perusing the 303 Memorial Day sale and looks like there's signature bearings for Alexis, Ishod, and Oski but I've never heard of this company before

I’ve been skating the standard set they came out with at first, they are indeed packed with grease, I’m usually a pop the shields guy and I didn’t for these specifically to see if it affected them in the long run, I’m about 4 setups deep on them so far they’ve broke in nicely, I cleaned them about two weeks ago with iso and then used my sewing machine lube to make sure they stay lubricated, I will say they are smooth still, and there is hardly any play side to side on the bearing itself, usually reds will just feel kinda loose side to side when you mess around with them, I’d say they are a more solid red, I feel like these are gonna last me awhile as well I haven’t felt the need to switch back to reds like I usually do with any other bearing….quantum’s included

[moonordie]

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Got some toy machine abec 7 for free and those are surprisingly good so far

[close]

3 months later and these are the best bearings I've ever had. What the hell is going on these are amazing

For me the ultimate best cheap bearing are HKD 5

[tom]

Quantum Fusions. I’ve had them set up since February and I have to clean and relube them for the sixth or seventh time now. When they’re good and rolling they’re really good. They eventually dry out or something which makes them start to roll slow with any sort of load on them. I’m eventually going to get fed up with cleaning them so much and going back to Bones


The HKD 7’s used to be really fast. Haven’t had a set in over a decade though so I’m not sure if they’re still the same

[Scottboarding]

Bones Reds now. Dusty, dirty Arizona destroyed multiple sets of Quantum’s too quickly and constantly cleaning bearings is annoying. Bought some Reds and plan to just use them until they get bad, clean them once, then pitch them once they’re bad again. I do feel like the Quantum’s got dirty and rough much quicker than my Swiss but I have been skating different spots so I can’t say for sure. One positive aspect of the quantum’s is that they’re considerably faster than than the Reds. I’ve had to do a lot of extra pushes since switching.

[JimmyFive]

On my 3 setups I am running original Swiss, Quantum Atoms and Oust Moc 9 "Airr" bearings. I can say that out of these I actually prefer the Oust bearings. They took a while to break in but now they are so silky and feel almost frictionless. They are about as fast or maybe faster than the Atoms (and without the loudness) and a fair bit faster than the Swiss. Super surprised - US made quality bearings indeed! I had my doubts after reading some negative reviews. The one downside is they need more frequent lubrication than the other bearings. The lube is very thin and the bearings dry out quickly so I purchased some of their lube as well. I don't mind the maintenance to have such silky, friction-free performance. I ride transition pretty much exclusively and speed matters.

[Easy Slider]

After 7 months on Quantum Fusions I switched back to Swiss Super 6 and it is really remarkable how much faster these are.

To think that I have wasted 7 months on those slow high maintenance Quantums only because they were hyped on Slap (and then I was too stupid to immediately ditch them once their flaws had become apparent). Thanks for nothing. 

[toe_knee]

After 7 months on Quantum Fusions I switched back to Swiss Super 6 and it is really remarkable how much faster these are.

To think that I have wasted 7 months on those slow high maintenance Quantums only because they were hyped on Slap (and then I was too stupid to immediately ditch them once their flaws had become apparent). Thanks for nothing. 

Same grabbed a set based on people hyping them up on here, three seized up and I ended up ditching them off on some kid at the park, have been on green SKFs since, these still haven’t showed any signs of slowing down, i feel like the tolerances on these may be outshining the reds, I just want a good set of bearings that don’t seize up, or need to clean them every other shesh, I’ve got burned by trying to be core so I’ll stick to reds and the skf greens from now on

[rikki]

Quantums are overhyped, overpriced pieces of shit. Stay away from them.

[manysnakes]

Quantums are overhyped, overpriced pieces of shit. Stay away from them.

It's pretty funny how they milked Slap and then nuked the thread the moment I and a few other people were like "They're fine bearings, maybe not the greatest thing since sliced bread." I mean, joke's on us, clearly.

[moonordie]

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Quantums are overhyped, overpriced pieces of shit. Stay away from them.

[close]

It's pretty funny how they milked Slap and then nuked the thread the moment I and a few other people were like "They're fine bearings, maybe not the greatest thing since sliced bread." I mean, joke's on us, clearly.

Pwned.
That's why you don't betray Swiss

[LebowskisRug]

After 7 months on Quantum Fusions I switched back to Swiss Super 6 and it is really remarkable how much faster these are.

To think that I have wasted 7 months on those slow high maintenance Quantums only because they were hyped on Slap (and then I was too stupid to immediately ditch them once their flaws had become apparent). Thanks for nothing. 

Man, I've had the complete opposite experience. I have a set of Swiss 6, a set of Fusions, and a set of Atoms. I am pretty meticulous about bearing upkeep and it is not even close which are fastest. Both Quantums beat the Swiss by a notable margin and require less frequent lubrication. I run them all with shields and the Swiss 6 sometimes jam, which a Quantum has never done on me.

Sorry you had such bad luck, but did you ever try contacting Quantum? I messed up a shield once and they sent me a ton for free. I had their bearings very early on and had a weird set that would get really slow. They replaced them and those are the Atoms that I still have that somehow seem to get better with age.

[LebowskisRug]

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Quantums are overhyped, overpriced pieces of shit. Stay away from them.

[close]

It's pretty funny how they milked Slap and then nuked the thread the moment I and a few other people were like "They're fine bearings, maybe not the greatest thing since sliced bread." I mean, joke's on us, clearly.

I don't think they milked Slap and people were absolutely shitty to them often for no reason just coming up with elaborate ways to say their product names for things were corny. I actually know a lot of people that don't post on Slap and never have that use their bearings and love them. There have been a handful of negative reviews especially early on and mostly from people that run their bearings shieldless against the manufacturer's reputation. They're price competitive with Swiss and perform just as well- well enough that most of the people I know that have tried them have not gone back to what they were on before with many of them Swiss riders.

Slap is an echo chamber for overwhelmingly positive or negative experiences. There are almost never any "yah its good" or "they're fine but not lifechanging" reports about gear ever. Its always "this is the best" or "this is trash"

[Easy Slider]

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After 7 months on Quantum Fusions I switched back to Swiss Super 6 and it is really remarkable how much faster these are.

To think that I have wasted 7 months on those slow high maintenance Quantums only because they were hyped on Slap (and then I was too stupid to immediately ditch them once their flaws had become apparent). Thanks for nothing. 

[close]

Man, I've had the complete opposite experience. I have a set of Swiss 6, a set of Fusions, and a set of Atoms. I am pretty meticulous about bearing upkeep and it is not even close which are fastest. Both Quantums beat the Swiss by a notable margin and require less frequent lubrication. I run them all with shields and the Swiss 6 sometimes jam, which a Quantum has never done on me.

Sorry you had such bad luck, but did you ever try contacting Quantum? I messed up a shield once and they sent me a ton for free. I had their bearings very early on and had a weird set that would get really slow. They replaced them and those are the Atoms that I still have that somehow seem to get better with age.

Happy for you. I run them with shields but they keep getting loose. I had two sets and two extra bearings on top. 7 months later I have six still running despite frequent cleaning. At times I had to clean one or two after every session, low impact dry weather. I am not going to bother to ask them for a replacement, I am over those bearings. I never had a Swiss Six dying on me and I ran them for 7 months on a slappy set up slamming and pinching them into ugly fs crooks for hours. Never cleaned them and they only get faster.

[tzhangdox]

Damn that sucks. I've had several sets of swiss/swiss 6 and both my quantum atoms and isotopes have been significantly better than swiss in terms of holding speed and durability

[switchfakie]

bronson g3

i honestly cant tell the difference between em and the g2 but the extra money i spend on them make me feel like they do last longer

[LebowskisRug]

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After 7 months on Quantum Fusions I switched back to Swiss Super 6 and it is really remarkable how much faster these are.

To think that I have wasted 7 months on those slow high maintenance Quantums only because they were hyped on Slap (and then I was too stupid to immediately ditch them once their flaws had become apparent). Thanks for nothing. 

[close]

Man, I've had the complete opposite experience. I have a set of Swiss 6, a set of Fusions, and a set of Atoms. I am pretty meticulous about bearing upkeep and it is not even close which are fastest. Both Quantums beat the Swiss by a notable margin and require less frequent lubrication. I run them all with shields and the Swiss 6 sometimes jam, which a Quantum has never done on me.

Sorry you had such bad luck, but did you ever try contacting Quantum? I messed up a shield once and they sent me a ton for free. I had their bearings very early on and had a weird set that would get really slow. They replaced them and those are the Atoms that I still have that somehow seem to get better with age.

[close]

Happy for you. I run them with shields but they keep getting loose. I had two sets and two extra bearings on top. 7 months later I have six still running despite frequent cleaning. At times I had to clean one or two after every session, low impact dry weather. I am not going to bother to ask them for a replacement, I am over those bearings. I never had a Swiss Six dying on me and I ran them for 7 months on a slappy set up slamming and pinching them into ugly fs crooks for hours. Never cleaned them and they only get faster.

I'll repeat my question: did you ever reach out to Quantum directly? If not, that's your bad as I would personally have contacted a manufacturer if a product that expensive was not performing as expected. I would wager they would have at the very least sent a replacement pair. I've had to do the same with Skate Ones and some god awful Swiss 6 and the fact that you won't exercise your consumer "power" is really not Quantum's fault here.

[Samsquantch]

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After 7 months on Quantum Fusions I switched back to Swiss Super 6 and it is really remarkable how much faster these are.

To think that I have wasted 7 months on those slow high maintenance Quantums only because they were hyped on Slap (and then I was too stupid to immediately ditch them once their flaws had become apparent). Thanks for nothing. 

[close]

Man, I've had the complete opposite experience. I have a set of Swiss 6, a set of Fusions, and a set of Atoms. I am pretty meticulous about bearing upkeep and it is not even close which are fastest. Both Quantums beat the Swiss by a notable margin and require less frequent lubrication. I run them all with shields and the Swiss 6 sometimes jam, which a Quantum has never done on me.

Sorry you had such bad luck, but did you ever try contacting Quantum? I messed up a shield once and they sent me a ton for free. I had their bearings very early on and had a weird set that would get really slow. They replaced them and those are the Atoms that I still have that somehow seem to get better with age.

[close]

Happy for you. I run them with shields but they keep getting loose. I had two sets and two extra bearings on top. 7 months later I have six still running despite frequent cleaning. At times I had to clean one or two after every session, low impact dry weather. I am not going to bother to ask them for a replacement, I am over those bearings. I never had a Swiss Six dying on me and I ran them for 7 months on a slappy set up slamming and pinching them into ugly fs crooks for hours. Never cleaned them and they only get faster.

[close]

I'll repeat my question: did you ever reach out to Quantum directly? If not, that's your bad as I would personally have contacted a manufacturer if a product that expensive was not performing as expected. I would wager they would have at the very least sent a replacement pair. I've had to do the same with Skate Ones and some god awful Swiss 6 and the fact that you won't exercise your consumer "power" is really not Quantum's fault here.

Fer sher, they won't improve them if they don't know there's an issue. If there's one thing I've noticed about Quantum, is that they at least seem to hook up people that have issues with their products. Unfortunate to hear about the issues people are having.

Just curious @LebowskisRug,  what was wrong with that set of Swiss?

I tried my new set of six ball on Saturday and even fresh outta the box, not broken in, they rolled noticeably farther than anything else I've had.

[Creachteach]

Just reporting in.
I got a set of Enuff Swiss as a part of my Christmas gifts.
I haven’t tried much in bearings as of just coming back into skating sometime September last year.
Back when I last skated I upgraded my bearings from unknown to “china bones” (can you even say this nowadays?) in 2001.

My next bearing experiences is currently Bronsons G2, which has performed above expectations. A guy at my mini ramp who swears by shieldless un-maintained Bones Swiss, said mine rolled much better than his.
Then came Christmas, and I got unsolicited bearings as an extra gift from my spouse. I got “Enuff Swiss Bearings”
I doubt they’re swissness, but supposedly they come pre-lubed with “Militec oil”, which is obviously the bomb when it comes to oil. They hold speed really well and I’m really positively impressed by how they do.

Will keep you up to date.
Have looked into the oil they use, and by European standards it’s basically unicorn fat.

[LebowskisRug]

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After 7 months on Quantum Fusions I switched back to Swiss Super 6 and it is really remarkable how much faster these are.

To think that I have wasted 7 months on those slow high maintenance Quantums only because they were hyped on Slap (and then I was too stupid to immediately ditch them once their flaws had become apparent). Thanks for nothing. 

[close]

Man, I've had the complete opposite experience. I have a set of Swiss 6, a set of Fusions, and a set of Atoms. I am pretty meticulous about bearing upkeep and it is not even close which are fastest. Both Quantums beat the Swiss by a notable margin and require less frequent lubrication. I run them all with shields and the Swiss 6 sometimes jam, which a Quantum has never done on me.

Sorry you had such bad luck, but did you ever try contacting Quantum? I messed up a shield once and they sent me a ton for free. I had their bearings very early on and had a weird set that would get really slow. They replaced them and those are the Atoms that I still have that somehow seem to get better with age.

[close]

Happy for you. I run them with shields but they keep getting loose. I had two sets and two extra bearings on top. 7 months later I have six still running despite frequent cleaning. At times I had to clean one or two after every session, low impact dry weather. I am not going to bother to ask them for a replacement, I am over those bearings. I never had a Swiss Six dying on me and I ran them for 7 months on a slappy set up slamming and pinching them into ugly fs crooks for hours. Never cleaned them and they only get faster.

[close]

I'll repeat my question: did you ever reach out to Quantum directly? If not, that's your bad as I would personally have contacted a manufacturer if a product that expensive was not performing as expected. I would wager they would have at the very least sent a replacement pair. I've had to do the same with Skate Ones and some god awful Swiss 6 and the fact that you won't exercise your consumer "power" is really not Quantum's fault here.

[close]

Fer sher, they won't improve them if they don't know there's an issue. If there's one thing I've noticed about Quantum, is that they at least seem to hook up people that have issues with their products. Unfortunate to hear about the issues people are having.

Just curious @LebowskisRug,  what was wrong with that set of Swiss?

I tried my new set of six ball on Saturday and even fresh outta the box, not broken in, they rolled noticeably farther than anything else I've had.

3 of my Swiss were not to tolerance and had lateral play. There was enough where it would basically bind the wheel up and feel really notchy. I thought it was me not using spacers or something so I took them out and if I pinched the inner race I could move the outer laterally with my hands. Sent a video to Skate one and had new bearings a few days later.

My Swiss 6 were fine for a while honestly, but after 6-7mo would slow down constantly. I was cleaning them every few sessions and trying different lube and they just never got fast again. After a while if I landed primo the wheel would often jam. I still have em around I think they're on my Mini Beach Bum.

There are a lot more people than Slap realizes using Quantum now it's not like they did a cash grab here.

[Murge]

I mentioned it way earlier in this thread but Olympia is a quality bearing for the price. I had the mid tier ones and they still work in my back up set up. Ended up getting the ceramics that are like $40 bucks and I’ve had them for 2 years or coming up on 2 years. I’ve randomly swapped them but keep coming back. I’ve only cleaned them once and they are doing great.

I do wanna try the Bronson shield less gimmick things cause shield less bearings sound cool andi i  can’t bring my self to do take the shields off my Olympia’s.

[PatrickSkateman]

Bones Swiss only. Shields off, spacers in.

[Frank and Fred]

I have a set of Swiss 6 on the go that are about 4 years old. I think I've cleaned and lubed them once. They just won't die. They've been in multiple wheel sets at this point. Shields on but sounds so good. I've had my best luck with Swiss 6.

I also really like Quantum's but they have not proved to be as quite as durable as Bones Swiss 6 and they aren't much cheaper at this point. I still highly recommend the Isotopes though. I have a set of Quantum metallics in some wheels at the moment also and they are really good for a $30 bearing. I hope they prove to be long lasting. If so they will be my new budget bearing.

Indy Blacks were cheap and mostly reliable for a budget bearing but I don't think they make those any more.

[Easy Slider]

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After 7 months on Quantum Fusions I switched back to Swiss Super 6 and it is really remarkable how much faster these are.

To think that I have wasted 7 months on those slow high maintenance Quantums only because they were hyped on Slap (and then I was too stupid to immediately ditch them once their flaws had become apparent). Thanks for nothing. 

[close]

Man, I've had the complete opposite experience. I have a set of Swiss 6, a set of Fusions, and a set of Atoms. I am pretty meticulous about bearing upkeep and it is not even close which are fastest. Both Quantums beat the Swiss by a notable margin and require less frequent lubrication. I run them all with shields and the Swiss 6 sometimes jam, which a Quantum has never done on me.

Sorry you had such bad luck, but did you ever try contacting Quantum? I messed up a shield once and they sent me a ton for free. I had their bearings very early on and had a weird set that would get really slow. They replaced them and those are the Atoms that I still have that somehow seem to get better with age.

[close]

Happy for you. I run them with shields but they keep getting loose. I had two sets and two extra bearings on top. 7 months later I have six still running despite frequent cleaning. At times I had to clean one or two after every session, low impact dry weather. I am not going to bother to ask them for a replacement, I am over those bearings. I never had a Swiss Six dying on me and I ran them for 7 months on a slappy set up slamming and pinching them into ugly fs crooks for hours. Never cleaned them and they only get faster.

[close]

I'll repeat my question: did you ever reach out to Quantum directly? If not, that's your bad as I would personally have contacted a manufacturer if a product that expensive was not performing as expected. I would wager they would have at the very least sent a replacement pair. I've had to do the same with Skate Ones and some god awful Swiss 6 and the fact that you won't exercise your consumer "power" is really not Quantum's fault here.

Bro they lurk this site and the Quantum dude sent me a non committal dm after reading my rant. I repeat, I don‘t want anymore of those bearings in my life, I had two sets plus two extra bearings. I will save those dudes the shipping cost of replacements to Europe. I have another set of Swiss 6 on ice that I copped on a sale so I am good for the foreseeable future. And this is my last post on the topic, it‘s my personal experience and I understand many dudes are happy with the product, which is perfectly fine.

[rikki]

Personal experience: I've never had a Bones Swiss bearing fail on me from other than really old age. On the other hand, I've had two (2) sets of Quantum Atoms both in which at least one bearing went to shit after only a couple of weeks of skating.

So I did the math and decided not to use them again. This is just plain logic, not hating.

[OhioGuy]

Had the same set of Bronson G3s for a year. And it feels like they lose speed easily. Idk, I want to try some Bones Swiss to see what the hype is about, but they’re so expensive. I’d really like to push less though 🤔

[rikki]

Had the same set of Bronson G3s for a year. And it feels like they lose speed easily. Idk, I want to try some Bones Swiss to see what the hype is about, but they’re so expensive. I’d really like to push less though 🤔

They're worth the money. Once you go Swiss, it's really hard to go back to any other bearing, honest. G3s are crappy compared to them. Bones Swiss are solid, long-lasting and fast, and last YEARS if you clean and lube them a couple of times per year or so.

[radcunt]

I dunno, Bones Swiss are pretty unbeatable, but they're way more expensive these days.

[manysnakes]

Bro they lurk this site and the Quantum dude sent me a non committal dm after reading my rant. I repeat, I don‘t want anymore of those bearings in my life, I had two sets plus two extra bearings. I will save those dudes the shipping cost of replacements to Europe. I have another set of Swiss 6 on ice that I copped on a sale so I am good for the foreseeable future. And this is my last post on the topic, it‘s my personal experience and I understand many dudes are happy with the product, which is perfectly fine.

This is where I am at with the Quantums. Mr. Q DM'ed me and maybe offered me replacements (I don't remember) but honestly I don't care. I'm not mad that my $45 ceramic bearings didn't turn out to be magical - I wasn't anticipating that they would be, and it's only here on this little subforum where people are expecting them to be. I could bother them for some new bearings, or I could just stick with Bones Swiss, which have continued to work perfectly for me since I started buying them a few years ago.