FKD Bearings

New bearings: Having done my homework, I settled on the FKD Silver (ABEC-3 ) Before the "upgrade" I was using (blue) Piranahs. As can be seen in the pic here, lying on the ground next to the wheel. The Piranahs are also ABEC-3, however I found their dust covers to be inferior, and easily detatched allowing dust and dirt in.
www.fkd-bearings.com		Here's my board, getting fitted with it's new FKD's.

As you can see, the bearing-kit comes well stocked, and is well worth the extra money when you consider that it's one of the only bearing kits that I have encountered that includes the 8 bearings themselves, four spacers, PLUS eight washers as well as some bearing oil (can be seen in the picture). It's nice to have everything you need to do the job in one nice handy box.
	The steel box will no doubt come in handy to store something in, just as soon as I can think of something that will fit in there. I have since transplanted the old (not that old at all actually) Piranah's into my son's skateboard. (As he was still running on the orininal factory bearings that came with the board.) They are those horrible things that have the centre-spacer attached to the bearing itself. They perform well at first, but are DIFFICULT to service, and just cannot stand up to the hammering that normal "street-skating" gives to them. They will now be retired, and if we ever have an emergency, at least we'll have those to use still.
This is the spiffy box the bearings come in.	The price for these was R155.00 (Around $20 US/15 Pounds UK)

Something to remember about bearings, especially with regard to their ABEC rating is the fact that there is far more of a "tolerance issue" between the bearing itself and your truck/axl. If you have excessive play there, then you WILL encounter problems. The issue of "runaway-wear" is prevalent here. ie, what starts out as a very slight, almost impossible to notice "wobble" on the bearing's axis quickly leads to greater and greater wear and tear, and poorer performance. Spacers are a MUST, and regular checks of the amount of "play" on the axl and the correct adjustments of your wheel-nut can help to improve the life and performance of the bearing.
The subject of "break-in" has also come up, and although there are those who debate that run-in time is not a factor, I have experienced first-hand that bearings do improve over time. I have found that 2 days to 1 week are required to get bearings seated comfortably and running smoothly. I am sure this varies from individual to individual. Depending on your board/truck and wheel spec's. And of course skating style. 2 schools of thought as to wheter it is better to oil a bearing or grease it. Personally I prefer oil. Greasing means it "catches" more dirt, and consequently less servicing, but oiling on the other hand gives SLIGHTLY better spin. I would rather just service the bearings once a month (what's 12 times a year anyway!?). I know it'll be worth my while in the long run.
Any questions, be sure to mail me!	A very nice complete package.

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