Bearings. Full set of 8 is £10 including p&p from ATBSports. So, if we're going to bother cleaning our bearings we have to do it for less than £10 for it to be worthwhile.
To clarify this, I mean that if I'm going to clean my bearings then I should be able to buy my cleaning fluid, grease and buy my own free time (currently set at approximately £10 per hour), for under £10.
To further clarify this last point, I like to set a cost for my free time in order to judge which jobs are worth doing and which jobs can be outsourced, especially those jobs that I am not especially fussed about. An example of this could be changing the oil in my car. Whilst I am perfectly capable of changing the oil myself, I estimate that this activity would take me approximatley 2 hours of my time from finding the right tools, doing the job through to getting cleaned up and moving on to something else. This in terms of my free time budget comes to £20 (plus cost of oil). Therefore, if a garage can change the oil for me for under £20 (plus cost of oil), then I'll get them to do the works for me.
Going back to the issue of bearings, if we say that the cleaning fluid and grease can be bought for £5 total, then I need to complete the cleaning in under half an hour in order to keep to the £10 limit set above. Any longer and I may as well buy new.
Can I dismantle, clean and reassemble within £10? Going to buy some bits tomorrow and will attempt this over the weekend. Updates as we go.....
Friday 18th Dec:
Visited Derby Bearings Ltd for a quote for new bearings and got told approximately £3-£3.50 per bearing. Since I can buy them off the internet for £1.25, if I do buy new I'll do just that. Bought 400g tube of grease for £1.60 (smallest size available). This should be enough grease to last me forever!
Realised late last night that to replace all my bearings with new wouldn't be just one set for £10 but rather three sets for £30: 8 x wheel bearings for the noSno and 8 x wheels bearings + 4 x kingpin bearings for MBS board. Blimey, perhaps it is worth me doing them all in one shot! (Or more realistic, I'll clean the spare ones I have and then replace as necessary).... Next job, find suitable cleaning fluid!
Saturday 19th Dec:
House stinks of white spirit. Bearings seems lovely and clean though I had to prise both sides of to get at all the muck. Some bearings seem to be in much better condition that others so I'm going to have to come up with a strategy. I'm thinking taking the bearings off one of the boards, cleaning them up too then pickling the best ones to go back on. The worst case ones don't seem to spin well however much I slosh them around. Next job, re-greasing.
3 comments:
here's a good tip I picked up in a skate shop.Don't spend lots of money on speed lube (which I guess is silicon lubricant) instead use sowing machine lube it's the same stuff.
On weather to but on not to buy I think my piss poor board maintenance (sorry pete,dave and roger) but the bearing in my back wheels are now so bad I don't think there much left of the roller bearing. So it looks like new ones for me :-(
On the up side I have lubed all the bolts and screws in my noSno. So I can still get it to pieces :-)
"poor board maintenance (sorry pete,dave and roger)" -I should think so!
Ade, aren't the MBS kingpin bearings different dimensions to the wheel bearings?
A squirt of silicon spray (from sewing machings or motorist centre) is usually enough to get seized bearings going well enough to ride.
I keep all my spare bearings in a tub of 3in1 and swap them when the ones in the wheels don't spin as freely as I'd like.
And always avoid WD40!
"Ade, aren't the MBS kingpin bearings different dimensions to the wheel bearings?"
Absolutely!
http://notanothermiddleagedboarder.blogspot.com/2009/03/mbs-bearings.html
I need to update this post; had some really positive results with bearings that I thought were completely buggered - were just completely junked up. New grease is going in easily and as long as water is kept out of the mix (or the bearings are really, really, really well dried afterwards) they seem to be good as new. Been using white spirits so far to clean. Absolutely no to WD40 unless using for one last run. I just need to keep an eye on the bearings on the nosno for signs of lateral wear and tear from ABS brake usage - nothing obvious yet...
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