Which Bearings Are You Guys Running?

[swongolianbbq]

I don't use spacers but I'm also a fan of the "Seattle rattle" and I popped the shields off for like 15 years

My board used to fall in water a lot, axle slip used to be a lot more prominent, that one Appleyard interview.. but yeah leaving that rattle space made it easier to tap my axle to fix axle slip

If I used spacers and fully tightened my wheels it sounded like a department store board and felt slow

No spacers for life

Though after riding my ceramics in the rain a shit ton, shields vs no shields, I started leaving the shields on all the bearings I bought. Also, one less step. And they're not as quiet as I remembered, and it doesn't bother me at all. Never thought I'd be a shields-on guy but here we are. I still let em rattle and don't fuck w/spacers tho. Mini-logos, reds, black bones, six balls, ceramics, whatever. I had some periods of trying other bearings but nah I just fuck w boans

[rikki]

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anyone clean their skfs?
what kind of grease do you use after that

[close]

Ah so I looked into this in detail. The grease is SKF LGLT 2.0 Low viscosity super high speed grease. I had to call around industrial bearing retailers - finally tracked down a tube that will last me till the end of my skating days.

It's the truth. Also works great in other bearings like Bronson G3's - the "micro-grooved raceways" seem to be conducive to the SKF light grease. With Swiss/6 I still use speed cream.

[close]

This looks great. Would you happen to know what's the difference between SKF LGLT2 and LGMT2 greases? Any critical differences for skate bearing purposes?

[close]

Hey sorry late reply! I think the LGMT grease is more viscous/thick than the LGLT and therefore will provide more resistance/less speed. Peter Verdone has a good breakdown on bearings and lubricants - LGLT is what he uses in his Swiss 6. If you can find the LGLT grease in a tube I'd snap it up!

Cheers pal. Appreciated.

On a general note, I've read somewhere that grease is more optimal for longboarding/downhill/high-speed purposes, as it can be a bit slower initially starting from zero, but faster at extremely high speeds. Thus some sources say that for street skating oil would be preferrable, as it will be initially faster. Any thoughts from your side?

[Texas_Tone]

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anyone clean their skfs?
what kind of grease do you use after that

[close]

Ah so I looked into this in detail. The grease is SKF LGLT 2.0 Low viscosity super high speed grease. I had to call around industrial bearing retailers - finally tracked down a tube that will last me till the end of my skating days.

It's the truth. Also works great in other bearings like Bronson G3's - the "micro-grooved raceways" seem to be conducive to the SKF light grease. With Swiss/6 I still use speed cream.

[close]

This looks great. Would you happen to know what's the difference between SKF LGLT2 and LGMT2 greases? Any critical differences for skate bearing purposes?

[close]

Hey sorry late reply! I think the LGMT grease is more viscous/thick than the LGLT and therefore will provide more resistance/less speed. Peter Verdone has a good breakdown on bearings and lubricants - LGLT is what he uses in his Swiss 6. If you can find the LGLT grease in a tube I'd snap it up!

[close]

Cheers pal. Appreciated.

On a general note, I've read somewhere that grease is more optimal for longboarding/downhill/high-speed purposes, as it can be a bit slower initially starting from zero, but faster at extremely high speeds. Thus some sources say that for street skating oil would be preferrable, as it will be initially faster. Any thoughts from your side?

From my experience the grease that is in the skf’s originally thins up after use, I cleaned mine and used sewing machine oil, but I wanted to replace it with the aforementioned skf grease so I’m gonna cop a tube and see what’s up, I’ll report back

[BeachChicken]

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Are skateboard bearings actual that high speed compared to industrial use cases?

[close]

Not really, I am not an engineer but have asked around, you'd have to go 60MPH to start going into well above 10,000RPM range.

This is why I wondered why the SKF skate bearings have grease. I'm not an Engineer myself, but my father/grandfather both are. My grandfather used to buy SKF bearings for me as a kid, remove the grease, and use light oil and they always were super fast and lasted forever. Equivalent to Bones Swiss. IDK which ones he bought, but they were cheap from a parts supplier.

Looking at something like a Lathe (my lathe has grease-packed bearings) skate applications seem like grease would be sluggish. I have a friends that tried SKF and moved on as they felt they were a bit slow, but maybe long-term grease ends up better from a maintenance/consistency perspective.

[GnarAlarm]

One of my Bones Swiss started making an annoying squeaking sound so I popped them out to clean and oil them, threw in a set of Bronson G3 in the meantime. Skated the Bronsons for a few weeks before I finally got around to putting the Swiss back in.
It's been a while since I skated normal price point bearings, I've been on the same set of Bones Swiss for over a year.
The difference is pretty significant. Basically two pushes on the G3 were equal to one push on the Swiss, and the Swiss maintain speed for a lot longer.
Obviously I'm comparing entry level to (nearly) top shelf, but definitely put to bed any doubts I had if the cost for the Swiss was worth it.

[Bingyflip]

One of my Bones Swiss started making an annoying squeaking sound so I popped them out to clean and oil them, threw in a set of Bronson G3 in the meantime. Skated the Bronsons for a few weeks before I finally got around to putting the Swiss back in.
It's been a while since I skated normal price point bearings, I've been on the same set of Bones Swiss for over a year.
The difference is pretty significant. Basically two pushes on the G3 were equal to one push on the Swiss, and the Swiss maintain speed for a lot longer.
Obviously I'm comparing entry level to (nearly) top shelf, but definitely put to bed any doubts I had if the cost for the Swiss was worth it.

In about an hour, I'm going to skate my first set of swiss (super swiss 6) bearings for the first time ever. Life long Reds user. Can't tell you how excited I am haha.

My local is pretty crammed space wise so eliminating a push would be hugeee.

[GnarAlarm]

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One of my Bones Swiss started making an annoying squeaking sound so I popped them out to clean and oil them, threw in a set of Bronson G3 in the meantime. Skated the Bronsons for a few weeks before I finally got around to putting the Swiss back in.
It's been a while since I skated normal price point bearings, I've been on the same set of Bones Swiss for over a year.
The difference is pretty significant. Basically two pushes on the G3 were equal to one push on the Swiss, and the Swiss maintain speed for a lot longer.
Obviously I'm comparing entry level to (nearly) top shelf, but definitely put to bed any doubts I had if the cost for the Swiss was worth it.

[close]

In about an hour, I'm going to skate my first set of swiss (super swiss 6) bearings for the first time ever. Life long Reds user. Can't tell you how excited I am haha.

My local is pretty crammed space wise so eliminating a push would be hugeee.

Awesome!
Never tried the super 6, let us know how they roll!

[moonordie]

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One of my Bones Swiss started making an annoying squeaking sound so I popped them out to clean and oil them, threw in a set of Bronson G3 in the meantime. Skated the Bronsons for a few weeks before I finally got around to putting the Swiss back in.
It's been a while since I skated normal price point bearings, I've been on the same set of Bones Swiss for over a year.
The difference is pretty significant. Basically two pushes on the G3 were equal to one push on the Swiss, and the Swiss maintain speed for a lot longer.
Obviously I'm comparing entry level to (nearly) top shelf, but definitely put to bed any doubts I had if the cost for the Swiss was worth it.

[close]

In about an hour, I'm going to skate my first set of swiss (super swiss 6) bearings for the first time ever. Life long Reds user. Can't tell you how excited I am haha.

My local is pretty crammed space wise so eliminating a push would be hugeee.

[close]

Awesome!
Never tried the super 6, let us know how they roll!

In my experience swiss 6 are the same ass regular swiss but the last a little longer. I get 5 years our of my swiss and 6 from the other ones.

[pantyhero]

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Are skateboard bearings actual that high speed compared to industrial use cases?

[close]

Not really, I am not an engineer but have asked around, you'd have to go 60MPH to start going into well above 10,000RPM range.

[close]

This is why I wondered why the SKF skate bearings have grease. I'm not an Engineer myself, but my father/grandfather both are. My grandfather used to buy SKF bearings for me as a kid, remove the grease, and use light oil and they always were super fast and lasted forever. Equivalent to Bones Swiss. IDK which ones he bought, but they were cheap from a parts supplier.

Looking at something like a Lathe (my lathe has grease-packed bearings) skate applications seem like grease would be sluggish. I have a friends that tried SKF and moved on as they felt they were a bit slow, but maybe long-term grease ends up better from a maintenance/consistency perspective.

There are different types of grease with different viscosity for different applications. Presumably SFK's bearing grease is of a low viscosity. Grease is usually preferable to light oil because it lasts much longer and is more resistant to water. You wouldn't want thick, marine grade grease in a bearing, but I don't see why a lightweight grease intended for wheel bearings (especially once engineered by SKF for their own products) wouldn't be preferable to oil.

[conan777]

Bit of a weird question but I visited my parents house the other day and found a box of old bearings in the shed. There's a few dozen sets that have all been skated  These would all be 20-25 years old. Would they still be ok? I'm a grown man with money now who buys new stuff whenever I want but I thought I'd just give them to the kids at my local if they're still good. Can't be bothered testing them and I hate throwing things away

[Mbrimson88]

Bit of a weird question but I visited my parents house the other day and found a box of old bearings in the shed. There's a few dozen sets that have all been skated  These would all be 20-25 years old. Would they still be ok? I'm a grown man with money now who buys new stuff whenever I want but I thought I'd just give them to the kids at my local if they're still good. Can't be bothered testing them and I hate throwing things away

I would just spin a few between my fingers and see if they do still run at all.

If anything that might be a yes, they could easily go to anyone who would be willing to put in the time to fix them, but if they are not spinning at all, then maybe don't put so much effort into trying to get them to someone who would make them work.

More often than not, some kids would not have the means to do anything with them, but some others might get them working again and they would be worth giving to someone.

Guessing it also depends on who, where, etc.  If there is a local shop that could pass them on to a skate rescue type place or whatever, that might be easier than leaving them at a spot or park for someone to find.

[Unkle Fleak]

Take your worst bearing and fully disassemble that shit. Of the middle ain’t shiny and you got metal bearings through them away. If you got ceramics there might be hope. Best to use spacers. Even if there’sa small gap between the bearing and the spacers it’ll spin as one when debris gets up in the gut there keeping the races shiny and new.  This is how my bearings last decades. Ceramics balls and spacers. Don’t lock your nuts down. Use 3 speed rings and go flush.

This should be all mofos. Use

And

2x a year
And boom. You’re going the distance. Even with yearly foul weather. Actually the street salt is good for ceramic bearings I think. I can photo the races next time I guttum then you’ll see the light

[rikki]

Question for all ya luberz: Bones Speed Cream or regular sewing machine oil?

The latter is thinner, so on paper it might manifest less friction and more speed. But is Speed Cream longer lasting?

Questions, questions. The mysteries of the unfathomable universe.

[BeachChicken]

I've always used something thin but it prob doesn't matter much lately I use the Quantum lube cuz it came with my bearings. Before that I had gun oil which worked great.

[moonordie]

Always used 1 drop of speed cream per bearing

[Amocat]

Question for all ya luberz: Bones Speed Cream or regular sewing machine oil?

The latter is thinner, so on paper it might manifest less friction and more speed. But is Speed Cream longer lasting?

Questions, questions. The mysteries of the unfathomable universe.

Had a set of G3 that I originally cleaned and used sewing machine oil, the next clean I used speed cream. They seemed better with the speed cream to the point I got rid of the sewing machine oil.

It could very well be I didn’t clean them as well first time or amount of lube used or any other variable.

Either way I prefer speed cream currently but the difference was slightly noticeable but not huge.

[Texas_Tone]

Question for all ya luberz: Bones Speed Cream or regular sewing machine oil?

The latter is thinner, so on paper it might manifest less friction and more speed. But is Speed Cream longer lasting?

Questions, questions. The mysteries of the unfathomable universe.

The only reason I use sewing machine oil is it’s readily available, and since I have a sewing machine I have a large bottle, I can find grab a lil bottle of speed cream from the shop WHEN they have it in stock or whatever, but you can get sewing machine oil pretty much any craft or hobby store, I’ve also used the lil bottle of oil that comes with my beard trimmer, basically whatever is available when I feel like cleaning my bearings

[Osage]

  Anyone use any of the cheaper ceramic bearings? CCS, Acer, Kveni, Daddies etc...?

  I'm setting up a new rain board and figure ceramics might be easier than my current rain board strategy of using whatever old bearings are lying around or mini logos and changing them regularly.

[back smith]

  Anyone use any of the cheaper ceramic bearings? CCS, Acer, Kveni, Daddies etc...?

  I'm setting up a new rain board and figure ceramics might be easier than my current rain board strategy of using whatever old bearings are lying around or mini logos and changing them regularly.

Got some local shop ceramics and they have loose inner races and sound like fingernails on a blackboard.

[lamfordie]

  Anyone use any of the cheaper ceramic bearings? CCS, Acer, Kveni, Daddies etc...?

  I'm setting up a new rain board and figure ceramics might be easier than my current rain board strategy of using whatever old bearings are lying around or mini logos and changing them regularly.

I skated the Kveni ones and they were prertty good at first but then after a couple of months it started to slow down and just feel like regular bearings.

[Osage]

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  Anyone use any of the cheaper ceramic bearings? CCS, Acer, Kveni, Daddies etc...?

  I'm setting up a new rain board and figure ceramics might be easier than my current rain board strategy of using whatever old bearings are lying around or mini logos and changing them regularly.

[close]

I skated the Kveni ones and they were prertty good at first but then after a couple of months it started to slow down and just feel like regular bearings.

  Cool. I don’t care about speed with this setup, just want something that won’t easily rust in bad weather.

[JimmyFive]

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anyone clean their skfs?
what kind of grease do you use after that

[close]

Ah so I looked into this in detail. The grease is SKF LGLT 2.0 Low viscosity super high speed grease. I had to call around industrial bearing retailers - finally tracked down a tube that will last me till the end of my skating days.

It's the truth. Also works great in other bearings like Bronson G3's - the "micro-grooved raceways" seem to be conducive to the SKF light grease. With Swiss/6 I still use speed cream.

[close]

This looks great. Would you happen to know what's the difference between SKF LGLT2 and LGMT2 greases? Any critical differences for skate bearing purposes?

[close]

Hey sorry late reply! I think the LGMT grease is more viscous/thick than the LGLT and therefore will provide more resistance/less speed. Peter Verdone has a good breakdown on bearings and lubricants - LGLT is what he uses in his Swiss 6. If you can find the LGLT grease in a tube I'd snap it up!

[close]

Cheers pal. Appreciated.

On a general note, I've read somewhere that grease is more optimal for longboarding/downhill/high-speed purposes, as it can be a bit slower initially starting from zero, but faster at extremely high speeds. Thus some sources say that for street skating oil would be preferrable, as it will be initially faster. Any thoughts from your side?

Yes this is generally the idea. Greased bearings will not free spin and will be slower initially but speed up as the grease warms. Grease also stays within the bearing and will provide lubrication over a long period of time whereas thin oil will be expelled quickly. Heavily greased bearings are also far more resistant to the elements and as longboarders often skate in damp/wet conditions they are preferred. Zealous bearings seem to be the bearing of choice for many longboarders - they are sealed on both sides and contain a thickish self-polishing ceramic grease.
Oil like speed cream, Bronson ceramic oil etc is generally better for skateboarding as it is more of a start-stop activity and allows bearings to free spin. The SKF LGLT grease is also a good lubricant as it is super light and non-viscous as allows for high speeds within a short period of time.

[back smith]

They sell 2-packs of Reds if one or two from your old set are bad. That's pretty cool.

[rikki]

Cleaned my Super Swisses and put two drops of sewing machine oil per bearing as opposed to my regular dose of one drop of Speed Cream. Feels good, feels fast.

Homie asked if I was on soft wheels because my wheels made hardly any sound (on super smooth indoor concrete) and I was like nah, just 97's, shields on and recently lubricated. Some pals are put off by the quietness, I don't mind. Sound or no sound, a smooth and fast roll is key.

[moykky]

I've been using SKF (since before they had skateboard line) because they've been readily available where I live and Reds. Just recently I bought a set of Powell Swiss for discounted price and I don't have anything bad to say about them - on the contrary they "feel" to be smoother and a bit faster. I just bought another set of Reds to other setup and I'm happy with them too. I guess I like the Swiss bearings mostly because I have a soft spot in my heart to things that are well made...

About the ceramic bearings. It's known that they cannot handle impacts very well. I would only put them on to a skateboard if I wasn't skating street or anything impact/high load application (I've seen them "explode" under the weight of a middle aged shredder in a skate park). And, for example, if I was a downhill skateboarder, I would only use them if I got them for free, since I'd need to change them more often.

The other "problem" with ceramic bearings is the fact that only the balls are ceramic - and they're much harder material than the steel used in the bearing race. So, in time, the ceramic balls eat away the race, creating a "groove" that will significantly add to the friction.

I couldn't find any skateboard specific data, but this guy is pretty well known in cycling world and he has a pretty good article about steel vs ceramic in low speed bearings. Notable is the fact that the ball deformation is only 3% of the friction losses and it's even less in real world applications.
https://www.hambini.com/ceramic-bearings-vs-steel-bearings-an-engineering-analysis/

So, if I would change my Bones Swiss to (broken-in) Bones Swiss Ceramic (both equally good quality bearings?), I wouldn't notice any difference?

[neonbrown]

OMG Hambini linked on Slap

[Osage]

  Reading this thread and looking for cheap ceramics for a rain board got me thinking that I've never bought anything more expensive than Reds in my life. I don't really care about going as fast as possible and honestly, for a good while now have just been riding old bearings I've saved. Reds or Mini Logos mismatched. I'll clean and oil them and once one just doesn't spin great I toss it and replace it with another from the bag of used bearings. I went to the skatepark today and rode my Sons board for a while. He's been on Swiss 6 for a couple months and I was kind of shocked at how smooth they were. Not just a smooth ride, which they had, but it seemed like there was less vibration coming up through my feet and cracks just weren't quite as noticeable even though he rides harder and slightly smaller wheels. Is this a thing? Not just a better ride but slightly less fatiguing as well? Was I just making this up because the roll was better? It really made me want to buy some nice bearings and try them in my setup.

[neonbrown]

  Reading this thread and looking for cheap ceramics for a rain board got me thinking that I've never bought anything more expensive than Reds in my life. I don't really care about going as fast as possible and honestly, for a good while now have just been riding old bearings I've saved. Reds or Mini Logos mismatched. I'll clean and oil them and once one just doesn't spin great I toss it and replace it with another from the bag of used bearings. I went to the skatepark today and rode my Sons board for a while. He's been on Swiss 6 for a couple months and I was kind of shocked at how smooth they were. Not just a smooth ride, which they had, but it seemed like there was less vibration coming up through my feet and cracks just weren't quite as noticeable even though he rides harder and slightly smaller wheels. Is this a thing? Not just a better ride but slightly less fatiguing as well? Was I just making this up because the roll was better? It really made me want to buy some nice bearings and try them in my setup.

High quality bearings are not going to be noticeably faster, despite the marketing. What they will do is roll smoother and last longer.

[back smith]

But not roll smoother in the way he is describing.. Pretty sure the wheels on his son's board were just more suited for the surface despite being smaller and harder, or just better wheels.

Reds are high quality bearings in my experience.

[BL0B]

  Reading this thread and looking for cheap ceramics for a rain board got me thinking that I've never bought anything more expensive than Reds in my life. I don't really care about going as fast as possible and honestly, for a good while now have just been riding old bearings I've saved. Reds or Mini Logos mismatched. I'll clean and oil them and once one just doesn't spin great I toss it and replace it with another from the bag of used bearings. I went to the skatepark today and rode my Sons board for a while. He's been on Swiss 6 for a couple months and I was kind of shocked at how smooth they were. Not just a smooth ride, which they had, but it seemed like there was less vibration coming up through my feet and cracks just weren't quite as noticeable even though he rides harder and slightly smaller wheels. Is this a thing? Not just a better ride but slightly less fatiguing as well? Was I just making this up because the roll was better? It really made me want to buy some nice bearings and try them in my setup.