Rotating Wheels

By far, the most common form of skate maintenance will be rotating your wheels. Typical skating motion can be described as pushing off your left skate followed by pushing off you right skate and the cycle repeats. As time goes on the inside portion of your wheels get worn. That is, the right side of your left skate wheels and the left side of your right skate wheels become more and more slanted. And since you tend to lean forward as you skate the wear is worse in the front wheels. After a while a typical wheel on the left skate will look like this. As you can see that
beautiful parabolic shape is gone...never to return again. I said it before and I'll say it again, if I ever win the lottery I will have someone put spanking brand new wheels on my skates every day. Okay, every week. The only thing to do is rotate the wheels so that the slanted side is on the outside part of the skates. Then the whole process starts again. Eventually your wheels acquire an inverted "V" shape. The way I perform the rotation is as follows. I take off all my wheels (from both skates) and line them up in a long row. I then put them is size place order. Then divide the wheels into two stacks placing the biggest in one stack followed by the next biggest in the other
stack, etc. One stack will go on your left skate the other on the right skate. You want to put the wheels back on your skates so that, for a given stack, the largest diameter wheel goes in the front position, followed by the second largest diameter wheel followed by the smallest wheel in the third position and finally place the second to smallest wheel in the back of the skate. Make sure when you are putting the wheels back on the skates that the slanted/worn part of the wheel is facing the outside. If your wheels are very worn prior to rotating them your skates will feel weird when you start to skate again. But trust me the sharp edges wear very fast and your skates will feel normal again in a very short time.

Bearing Maintenance

Maintaining your bearings is very important and I won't lie it's a dirty job. Bearings have gotten cheap enough and they last long enough that a lot of people simply buy new ones once they feel the time has arrived. But if your an environmentalist, and like me, you feel that the bearings have life left in them why not clean them? My honey, June would also say that I'm CHEAP. And sometimes just one bearing locks up and then buying a whole set is a waste of money. So this is how it's done. This will take 1-2 hours to do.

A word of warning here. WD-40 is every mechanics favorite friend but WD-40 is actually a degreaser. That is, it removes grease and grit. So after you spray it on something like a bearing it may appear to run smoothly again but in fact you are removing the grease. We don't want to do that. We want to clean our bearings and then regrease them.

Removing Your Bearings

I thought that removing the bearings was pretty simple but my cousin Shelly called me one night not knowing how to do it so I decided to include this on the web site. After you remove all your wheels you will need to remove the bearings from them. Some skates have "floating" spacers between the bearings while others have "captive" spacers. The differences are unimportant although removing the bearings from the wheels is slightly different. If the bolt that goes through your skate wheels is 1/4" in diameter then you have "captive spacers" if the bolt is 5/16" in daimeter then you have "floating" spacers

Here is a cut-away view of a wheel containing a "captive spacer." This particular spacer is made of blue annodized aluminum although many spacers are made of a white nylon plastic. The bearings slide on to the spacer as shown in the two right photos
To remove these bearings there is an inexpensive tool that makes the job easier but you can alternatively use a 5/16" daimeter bolt or an old spacer if you have one. Simply prop the whole wheel up on some wooden blocks and center the bolt over the spacer. Make sure you are not on the inner race of the bearing but on the spacer. Also make sure that there is a gap

between the wooden blocks that will allow the bearing below to come out. Tap gently with a small hammer until the bearing below starts to come out. Keep tapping until the entire assembly comes out. Here you see the lower bearing starting to come out. You will have two bearings and one spacer for each wheel.
To the right is a photo of a "floating" spacer. Since these spacer do not slide into the bearings the bolt that goes through them is larger and is equal to the bore of the bearings, 5/16" diameter. Further to the right you see the exploded view of the assembly. Again, an inexpensive tool is sold to remove these bearings but alternatively you can place a 1/4" daimeter bolt through the first bearing and on through the
"floating" spacer. Then angle it a little so that it rests on the top surface of the lower bearing. Now it's time to gently tap the bolt. I do emphasize gently. Rotate the bolt to different sides of the lower bearing as you tap down. Do not bang hard or you will damage the bearings.
Once the lower bearing is removed you can flip the wheel over and use the same technique on the other side. Just be gentle. Sometimes they are a bit hard to

remove and you must tap them all around the rim to get them free, not unlike loosening a jar top. Once this is done seperate the bearing from the spacers. Don't lose any thing. There are eight wheels, eight spacers, and sixteen bearings. I put them in cups.

To clean the bearings properly you must remove the shields. Each bearing has a shield on the top and back side to protect it from dust and debris. Some companies will tell you to remove only one of the shields but trust me it's much better to remove both of them. I told you this would take a long time. If your bearings don't have shields they're probably crumy bearings and not worth the trouble to clean them. To remove the shields you must remove the "C"-clips that hold them in place. Use a needle and slide it around the rim of the bearing until it engages the part of the C clip that is angled (see photo)
Note here that one side of the C-clip is angled so that the needle will engage with it while the other side is angled in the other direction and the needle will slip off of it. Since you don't know the C-clip's orientation you will have to feel for the engagement. Once you feel the needle go in pry out the C-clip. Be careful because these babies can go flying off and you probably won't find it. I place my hand over the bearing to catch the flying C-clip. Once removed, the shield is free to come off. However, removing it can still be a bit maddening.I frequently pick up the bearing and throw it on the floor so that its edge hits

the floor just right. This usually knocks out the shield. If not, throw it again. Once you have removed the C-clips and shields you will expose the bearing's cage and balls. Now the hard part is over. At this point you will have, sixteen bearings, thirty two shields and thirty two C-clips. Don't lose them!
Now you need to clean the bearings. The best thing to do and the best environmentally sound thing to do is buy one of the many citrus cleaners sold at skate stores. Soak the bearings in the cleaner for a good while (20 minutes or so). When done you can run them under the faucet and allow the water pressure to push away any stuck on debris. Now use a blow dryer to dry the bearings so that they don't rust.
If you don't have a blow dryer perhaps it's better to skip the faucet cleaning step. These bearings will rust if they get wet. Allow the bearings to dry completely. Now you are ready to apply the grease. Let's talk a little about grease. I work in a machine shop that has a numerically controlled milling machine that uses a high pressure grease. It's thick and red in color and basically really top of the line stuff. But if you can't get that there are many others out there. I like it to be thick. That way it stays in the bearing. Some products claim to be lightening lube but they're too thin and I think they will simply run out of the bearing. Another good product are these teflon greases sold in bicycle shops. It is often white in color. The
key here is to not put too much grease in the bearings. If you put too much grease in them the balls will not rotate as the bearing spins. Rather they will slide because there is too much grease. You want to avoid this at all costs. Put a little dollop of grease in the bearing and try to spread it around. Rotate the bearing so it gets evenly distributed. Now it's time to put back the shields. Get the C-clip started by angling it into its internal groove (lower right). Then give the finger roll until you here it click into position. I sometimes run the needle around the ourtside of the shield

to make sure the C-clip is seated properly. Only thirty one more C-clips to go and you're done.

 

Well, you may never do this again but at least you know how to. Cleaning your bearings is good for the soul and makes you a better person. I don't know about making you a better skater.

Additonal Maintenance

I don't know of any other maintenance for skating other than reminding you to ocassionally wash your wrist guards as they will eventually get a bit funky. But remember to always examine your skates.

When the wheels get pretty worn, what's left of the polyurethane wheel will become precariously close to the inner plastic core of the wheel hub. When this happens the polyurethane wheel will break off the core. The wheel is said to have "decored." Here you can see the arrow pointing the area that is starting to decore. The tire is literally pulling away from the inner core. This is dangerous because your wheel will immediately start to rub against the frame preventing it from freely rotating. The end result is often an immediate and sometimes painful fall. So keep your wheels in check. If this wheel were still in use I would estimate that in less than 5 minutes the entire tire would come off. It happened to me once when

I was skating and resulted in a wicked fall. Just remember. when skating becomes slow and unresponsive check your wheels and your bearings. I skate to work almost every day (around 3 miles each way). I also do a lot of skating on the weekends. I go through a new set of wheels about every 6 weeks and I rotate my wheels almost every week. Such is the life of an avid skater.

Remember to check for other things like missing rivets, cracks in the wheel frames, worn laces, etc. A lot is riding on your skates so inspect them as you would your car.