Fair-weather rider looking to dust off the board ready for Summer? Or all-year-round rider looking to maintain the board after a wet Winter? Then now is as good a time as any to do a complete board maintenance session!
In a nutshell, my advice to you is to do the following to all items:
- Clean,
- Investigate,
- Tighten,
- Repair/Replace.
Read on though if you want a more in-depth guide.
Note that this guide is written primarily written for an MBS board, mainly because the photograph collection comes from my own workshop. Contributions for other systems are most welcome! Note that whilst provided in a step-by-step guide, there isn't really an order to any of this; just do the jobs that you have the time for and look like the most fun.
Do remember that however much maintenance you do on your board, that due to the nature of what we do, that things will break and things will wear out. This normal wear and tear can be anticipated to a certain degree and by keeping the right supplies in stock, shouldn't prevent a days riding.
More importantly though, by knowing your board, and the condition that it is in, you are far more likely to prevent an accident brought on by sudden equipment malfunction. Even if you are lucky to break equipment and remain unhurt, through knowing your board, repairs are that much quicker and you can be back on the slopes that much faster. Bonus all round!
But anyway, the wife is in front of the telly watching a evening of soaps, so lets get dirty!
Step 1: Clean that board!
Tools required: Bucket of warm water / jet wash / hose pipe
First thing first, you will want to get all of that crud off your board, not only so that it looks good, but also so that any wear and tear can be spotted and replaced where necessary. Jet wash, hose or good old bucket of warm water should do the job. Normally a bit of caution is required at this point to ensure adequate drying takes place to in turn reduce chance of parts rusting, but since we will be investigating each part separately, feel free to go wild!
(On a day-to-day basis, keeping water away from your bearings is a good idea)
Mud, dirt and grit will find themselves into all the nooks and crannies with the trickiest bits being in the wheel hubs and inside the top hanger. Either use a toothbrush on these areas or wait until the later steps to tackle these areas in more detail.
[toothbrush in hub]
Once clean, wipe off the excess water and dry the rest as best as possible. On a nice sunny day, bits can be left in the sun. Maybe you have an understanding partner and an airing cupboard?
Either way, now you should have a board that is ready to be worked on.
Check the deck for any deep cuts on the base that may have occurred whilst scrapping over something or bottoming out. In a worse case scenario, moisture can get into the deck causing de-lamination of the layers. If in doubt, fill in these cuts with epoxy resin or similar.
[deck de-lamination]
Step 2: Bindings!
Tools required: Set of Allen keys
For a really clean deck, you may wish to remove the bindings from the deck. This will allow you to clean the L-brackets in detail and give the deck a good scrubbing. It's worth noting that if you do remove the bindings at this point then now is a really good time to replace the grip tape, should it be worn through and in-effective. Even if not, give the grip tape a good scrub to improve it's effectiveness, especially if you ride without heel straps.
[L-bracket]
Also worth doing if you really, really like your binding position is to photograph or make note of which binding holes are presently used to secure them to the deck. If you thoroughly clean your deck then you can't simply replace the bindings in the position indicated by the clean bit of deck and it's not always obvious.
[removed L-bracket and dirty surroundings]
Either way, ensure that the bindings are firmly attached to the L-bracket and are in turn firmly attached to the deck. Having a foot disengage from the deck at speed is not fun.
Whilst you're at it, don't overlook the ratchet screw, accessed by opening the ratchet as though you are releasing the binding. Keep nice and tight using either screw driver or Allen key as required.
[Ratchet Screw]
Check the general condition of the ratchets although this is maybe something you have looked at already if your bindings are hard work to disengage, or come loose whilst riding. Things to look out for are broken teeth that should grip the ladder strap but don't, or parts that have worn resulting in teeth that don't lift fully, preventing the ladder strap from being removed.
[worn ratchet]
Another issue can be where the ratchet handle spring breaks resulting in the handle not returning to its original position. Fortunately, apart from a few rattles, this breakage is purely cosmetic. For this and the issues raised above, new ratchets are required and can be acquired fairly cheaply from either MBS, Trampa, or Burton if you want to swap for Snowboard technology.
Similar to ratchets, a ladder strap may slip or fail to disengage should it be worn; or snap if damaged sufficiently. This is common wear and tear and the teeth should be cleaned with a file or knife or replaced fairly cheaply if damage is more severe.
[damaged ladder strap]
Step 3: Trucks!
The trucks can be maintained either whilst attached to the deck or removed; whichever is easiest to work on. A visual inspection can be made straight away, but a strip down will be necessary to investigate each component in detail.
Check the Top Hanger for any visible cracks, usually caused by hitting the odd rock, stump or head. Older Top Hangers even if not broken may be either misshapen or the hole holding the kingpin bearing may be elongated. Both of these effects are unavoidable and are due to the stresses that the springs and general riding places on the components. If in doubt, replace.
[Top Hanger]
Springs can generally misshapen over time, though personally this is not so much of an issue if you occasionally rotate the springs. If you kite-board, or only ever hard power-slide one way, then one side of the springs may be compressed more that the other. If so, swap left for right and vice versa.
[wonky springs]
Kingpin - Investigate for obvious damage and check for straightness. A bent kingpin may restrict the trucks turning.
Kingpin Bearing - A slightly over-design for something that effectively turns through a limited 45 degree range, but it does the job, even if it was designed out in more recent models. Less critical than wheel bearings so clean up the exterior if nothing else. Only strip down further should you have the time on your hands. Worth noting that kingpin bearings are smaller than wheel bearings and so cannot be interchanged.
[kingpin bearings v. wheel bearings]
Eggshock/ Dampas will degrade over time. As these are made of rubber, over time they will become less effective and even start to fall apart. Check them for any obvious ageing and replace as necessary.
[eggshocks v. Trampa Dampas]
Axle. Not much can be done with the axle apart from check overall condition for any obvious bends or cracks.
Once all the individual parts have been investigated, it's time to reassemble!
[correctly assembled truck with green Trampa Dampa]
Just make sure that all the bits go back in in the right order, not forgetting the washers and ensuring that the Top Hat screws are in tightly.
[Top Hat screws]
If after assembling the first set of spring/shocks you have problems getting the other side in, then my technique is to use a g-clamp (with suitable padding so as to not damage the deck) as shown below. Using this method, the second set of springs/shocks should shuffle into place. Wiggle a small Allen key down the hole where the adjustment screw will eventually go to make sure everything is nicely lined up and in place.
[use of a g-clamp to aid truck assembly]
Finally reattach trucks to the decks and ensure that the deck screws are nice and tight.
[4 x deck screws, 2 x adjustment screws]
Remember to reset your adjustment screws to a setting that works for you before your next ride. At the very least you want the top hats to be touching the eggs so that they are unable to move.
Step 4: Wheels!
Tools required: Set of Allen Keys
One thing that can be assured of, is that if your tyres are inflated, and stay inflated, then you probably don't have a puncture. If you do have either a puncture or just a tyre that doesn't stay up for very long then a puncture repair kit is your first port of call (follow the instructions on the side of the pack and you won't go far wrong). Failing that, a new inner tube may be the solution. Either way, make sure you check the inside of the tyre wall for any remains of what it was that caused the puncture in the first place. Failure to do this may involve a second puncture, which is just embarrassing!
[Inner tube and Puncture repair kit]
An alternative to all of this, and perhaps a useful insurance policy may be to squirt some Slime into your tyres. This product automatically plugs any holes up to ~3mm and so should prevent blow-out from the majority of thorns and other sharp objects. Again, follow the instructions on the bottle. Discussions with people who have done the same seem to indicate that one bottle split between four tyres seem to do the trick and touch wood, I've not had a puncture in over a year.
[Slime]
This is a great time to clean your hubs and check for any visible cracks or warping. Check that the hubs bolts are tight, unless they are the MBS Twistar type, which just interlock together. Reinflate your tyres to a PSI that your level that your wheels and hubs can cope with, and unless you are doing anything fancy, inflating all to approximatley the same PSI is recommended.
[Hub Nuts]
Check the tyres for damage and use your judgement on the effectiveness of the remaining tyre tread. Replace as appropriate.
Check bearings and remove external dirt and grime. Rotate each bearing in turn feeling for smoothness and amount of lateral sideways movement. Should the bearing feel gritty, as though the insides are dirty then replace or, if you fancy another job, clean.
Cleaning bearings is a blog post in itself, but in a nutshell, I do the following:
Remove shields and place everything in empty jam jar and fill with sufficient white spirit. Shake occasionally. Wash under tap and spin until running smoothly and white spirit free. Place in oven over 200 degrees C for 15 minutes to remove all moisture and prevent rusting. Cover, not pack bearings with grease and reassemble. Plenty of grease on the outside is a further barrier against dirt and grime.
[bearings soaking in white spirit]
However, there are a thousand-and-one variants to clean bearings and a quick search will bring up lots of how-to guides and videos. Pick one that works for you and enjoy the process. SD Link.
However, excessive sideways movement in a bearing, (brought on by sideways motion of the tyre either by lots of hard power-slides or ABS brakes) is unrepairable. Buy new bearings for around £10 per set of 8.
With the wheels reassembled, place back onto the axle and tighten nuts to be tight enough to stay on, but loose enough to allow the wheel to rotate. One way to do this is to tighten the nuts until hand-tight and then loosen off by half a turn.
Step 5: Anything Else?!
When not riding the board, working on the board is a great substitute though I've certainly not covered everything above.
Other things worth looking at (if you have them) are things like the rubber bushes on skate trucks and noSno's or the general condition of your brake system. As above, the usual advice is clean, tighten, and repair/replace where necessary.
Hope this brief guide helps. Please don't hesitate to post a message if any sections are ambiguous or if I have forgotten anything.
Cheers!
Please note that although this guide is hopefully comprehensive enough to give your board a complete overhaul, many of the items are well worth doing on a per-session basis. If nothing else, its usually worth checking that the bindings are firmly fixed to the deck and that the wheels are firmly attached to the axles. Everything else is just tweaking!
2 comments:
Thank you so much for this post. Its really helpful.
2nd hand laminator
guillotine paper trimmer
plastic comb binding
cheap snap frames
print finishing equipment
Thank you, really helpful.
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