How To: Clean Your Longboard Bearings
Trevor Preston from Motion Boardshop shows you how to thoroughly clean your longboard bearings step-by-step. Crud and dirt collects easily within longboard wheel bearings and can really slow you down. If your bearings are making noise or your wheels don’t spin freely, you’ll really benefit from keeping your bearings clean! Even if they don’t seem dirty, cleaning your bearings regularly will keep them in good shape and hopefully you can avoid having to replace them completely. Plus, riding bearings that are super dirty and un-lubricated will increase friction and cause excess heat, creating more wear and tear on the bearing balls. Eventually your bearings can even stop spinning and lock up and that doesn’t sound like any fun.
What you’ll need:
- A skate tool
- A razor blade
- Some sort of solvent (isopropyl alcohol, mineral spirits, etc.. gasoline works well too)
- Lubricant
- Optional: crayons and a coloring book (preferably filled with kitten pictures)
Remove the bearing shields and throw your bearings in isopropyl alcohol for a few hours. After they soak and get all the dirt out, take your bearings out of the solvent and let them air dry for about 30 minutes. Lastly lubricate your bearings with a tiny drop of skate lube and put the shields back on.