How to take care of your skates’ wheels
How to clean your roller skate wheels?
The following will be some tips on how to clean your inline skate wheels: First let’s understand the wheels and components that come with your rollerblades or quad skates.
Typically, your skate will have 4 wheels and each wheel contains 2 bearings per wheel. The bearings are what will keep your wheel spinning freely and smoothly.
The bearing also will have a rating of its own which will determine at how smooth or fast the bearing spins. This rating is called an ABEC rating. Abec ratings can vary depending on the skate you purchased, some skates come with ABEC 5 bearings up to ABEC 9 bearings. The higher the ABEC rating, the faster the bearing will spin, thus adding more speed to your skate. Wheel hardness and what style of skating you prefer are also factors and variables to consider when caring for your wheels.
Rollerblade wheel rotation
Inline skate wheel rotation is very important. Most skating styles will take a toll on the inside edges of your wheels. It is recommended to rotate your wheel after every 2-3 sessions of skating and 1-2 sessions if you skate a more aggressive style that consists of more slides and urban style skating.
Swapping the wheels around should become a routine part of your maintenance if you plan on becoming consistent with skating. If your wheels are not rotated in a timely manner this will actually reduce the life span of your wheels by at least half. The easiest method or technique to rotating your wheels to extend the life of your wheels is to remove your 1st and 3rd wheel, rotate those, and flip the worn side to the outside. Repeat the previous step for the 2nd and 4th wheels.
The next step in roller skate maintenance is to check your bearings regularly. Start by removing your wheel. You will then see that for each wheel you have 2 bearings, 1 spacer, and 1 axle. You want to look at your bearings and make sure they aren’t rusted.
Most bearings are sealed bearings and won’t require much maintenance unless you’re running your wheels through water, or you’ve broken the seal. If you hear any grinding noises or any noise in your bearings, this means that oxidation has already started to happen in your bearings. This doesn’t mean they aren’t serviceable or even usable still, it just means they won’t perform as they did when they were brand new. To service a bearing, you have to remove the seal and add some bearing oil. Once a seal is opened for the first time you will have to continue to service the bearings regularly. Before oiling them up, you need a citrus-based cleaner to remove the old dirt and debris out and then dry them prior to adding the new oil.
The last point of maintenance is checking the brake on your skates. This will not apply to all as experienced skaters will not have a break installed on their skates. For skaters who do have a brake, it’s recommended to check your brake frequently, mostly prior to your skate session. Most brakes have a line where it shows the wear point. At this point, it’s recommended to change out your brake for a new one. The more the brake wears, the further back you will have to tilt your foot back in order to activate the brake. It’s best to keep a couple of brakes as backups in case your manufacturer stops making the brake for that specific skate model.
And if you will need new ones cause the old are not usable anymore, then check skating wheels on our website.
