Surf Skate Wake Board

Now do you see what I mean by these tolerances being mangled by the first few minutes of riding down the sidewalk? The pressure of you riding, along with the shocks of bumps and the cracks in the sidewalk will quickly add a lot more eccentricity to this groove, but nothing that you can truly notice at all.

These tolerances only mean something if the bearings are used in the capacity they were intended, which is high speed and precision industrial machinery. So for all that cash you threw down on some ultra machined, cryogenically treated ABEC 9 bearings, you might as well have just bought ABEC 1 bearings, because after about 5 minutes of riding, you won’t be able to tell the ABEC 9 from the ABEC 1. As far as speed goes, the only way those ultra fancy ABEC 9 bearings would begin to show you any benefit is if you were able to reach a speed of about 240MPH on a perfectly smooth surface, with 65mm wheels and grease as a lubricant.

If you want to know what things make a greater difference in regards to speed and bearing longevity, look at things like the type of seal used, as well as the materials used to make the ball bearings themselves, not to mention the precision at which the ball bearings were made. Harder bearings will last longer, and rounder bearings will roll truer, longer, and probably faster. Most ball bearings are made of either stainless steel, or chrome steel. However, as previously mentioned, you can get bearings that use ceramic for the balls from companies like Bones with their Swiss and Redz lines, and Quadline.

While there is no evidence these bearings are inherently any faster, one could come to the conclusion that they are superior due to greater hardness, and the fact they will not corrode like stainless and chrome steel balls will. They also will be lighter (though with being so small the weight savings is negligible), as well as having superior heat dissipation, for what that might be worth. They also require less lubrication that standard steel skate bearings.

Speaking of lubrication, this is one of the other methods by which you can actually make a difference in your skate speed and overall rolling distance, as well as significantly increase the life of your bearings. Teflon based oil lubricants work quite well (one article I read said Slick 50 One Lube was the trick). WD 40 can also be used, but being mostly liquid, they will offer no protection once the lubricant has been expelled. Personally, I only used WD 40 to de grease dirty bearings for re-packing. One could also use lithium based grease for longevity of the grease, while maintaining a lighter weight like oil for speed.

So there you have it, the real scoop on ABEC ratings. Feel free to educate your buddies on this stuff, or further look things up yourself for further learning.

Photo Credits: Wondershock

Originally posted 2009-09-24 03:21:37. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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In the worlds of inline and board skating, you will find many areas of much debate. However, one of the most contested areas you will encounter is that of skate bearings. German? Swiss? Ceramic? Stainless Steel? ABEC rating? So many choices, and so many opinions on what is better and what is not. When I was in grade school and into skateboarding, most boards had one of 2 types of bearings: cheap, crappy “American” bearings universally known by their shape which could be described as either mushroom, or T shaped like the Tetris piece, or “German” bearings, which were flat in that profile.

Needless to say, “German” bearings were the bees’ knees. They rolled smoother, longer, and generally faster. They were of much higher quality through and through, while the “American” bearings had cheap shields, generally a press fit cap style. They were sloppy and wore out quickly, as well as being slow in general. If you were rich, you could buy a pack of Bones “Swiss” high precision ceramic bearings, and you would get all the notoriety that came with it, provided you could skate worth a darn. One of the terms tossed around with the “German” bearings was “German Industrial Grade 3” bearings. Those, per all of my skateboarding buddies, were the best, bar none. They made you roll faster, ollie higher, kick flip more accurately, and anything else that could be attributed to such mythically awesome bearings.

If only us kids knew then what can be known now, we would have saved ourselves and our friends some cash, which we could then have spent on more important things like Garbage Pail Kids, marbles, skate shop stickers, and M.U.S.C.L.E. men, among other things. But I digress. Today’s ABEC ratings share a lot of similarities with the bearings of old that I and my friends knew, especially when it comes to sales pitches. Most notable of all being that a higher number equates to a better bearing. Now this is not entirely a lie. In certain industries, a higher number is indeed better. But this would be for reasons that pretty much mean jack for inline skaters and skateboarders alike.

You see, ABEC ratings cover a whole load of tolerance requirements for a bearing, but not much in regards to component quality, lubricant types, or any of that. So basically, ABEC ratings mean next to nothing for skaters at all. The tolerances and precisions that ABEC ratings deal with get mangled in the first few minutes of the bearings life by the simple act of getting on and riding down the sidewalk.

What am I talking about exactly? Well, let us just use the facts: ABEC ratings only specify the eccentricity of the bearings inner ring, or rather, its out of roundness. ABEC 1, the lowest grade, the max allowed out of roundness is .0075mm. As you can see, that’s pretty darn precise already. ABEC 3 is .005mm, ABEC 5 is .0035mm, ABEC 7 is .0025mm, and ABEC 9 is .0012mm.

Continued in part 2.

Photo Credits: Josh [unemployed IT dude]

Originally posted 2009-09-21 03:15:01. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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