For the average skater, non-maintained bones reds will last anywhere from 6 months to a year. Meaning, low impact skating - a trip to skate park a few times a week and some flat ground in front of their house. It's possible that skating under these conditions can make a set of Bones Reds bearings last two year. This is a very remarkable design achievement in our eyes.
Now, if one were to actually maintain a set of Bones Reds properly - then their life expectancy is a whole other story. With proper maintenance and regular servicing of a set of Bones Reds, the regular street skater can probably extend the life of their Bones Reds by 6 months. This would include ten stair flip tricks, hand rails, grinds and gaps.
The idea behind Bones Reds bearings was to make an affordable alternative to the traditional Bones Swiss bearings. The problem was that Bones Swiss were made in Switzerland and of course they cost more to produce. Instead, Bones decided to take a similar bearings design and have them manufactured in China. This cut the cost down of the bearing production.
A pack of Bones Reds bearings will come with a sticker, speed washers and very detailed instructions on how to service the bearings. You may also want to invest in Bones Speed Cream - a necessary lubricant needed for bearing maintenance.
SKATEDAILY.net
Tweet This
by bk27 Mar 2010 at 12:59pm
Skate Rock Tour to Hit the East Coast
by bk26 Mar 2010 at 1:55pm
Two Peas in a Pod
by bk26 Mar 2010 at 12:33pm
Make It Count At The SPoT
by Derek26 Mar 2010 at 12:07pm
Perfect Contest Format
by Derek26 Mar 2010 at 11:45am
Full Schedule In PA
by Derek26 Mar 2010 at 11:38am
Doing It Online For Johnny Romano
by bk26 Mar 2010 at 11:33am
DC?s Southern Comfort Hangover
by Derek26 Mar 2010 at 10:11am
Franklin?s Paine Skatepark Fundraiser Tomorrow
by Derek26 Mar 2010 at 9:40am
New Jeremy Klein Model
by Derek25 Mar 2010 at 12:04pm
Reviews by Real Skateboarders:
S. Sammeli 1-19-09
The bearings I skate... actually I dont even know what Im riding right now I started off with Bones Reds those were ok till they got rusted and started breaking I still have a couple of those in my set up right now. Then I got some lucky titaniums pawned off on me like 4 bearings so those are alright too. But I think the best bearings ive skated were probably Bones Swiss, oh and flip bearings are good too. I never just have a solid set in my wheels its always like 8 different bearings I can scrounge up out of the shoe boxes of my busted ass old sh*t. Lets see what else can I say about bearings? Oh when i was little I was always riding black panthers but now that I look back on it the last time I bought a pair of those they werent very good. Who ever came up with the idea of soaking bearings in wd40? That wrecks your shit! Soak your bearings in gas if you feel the need to soak them in anything. Theres that new company actually I dont think there that new but what is it like skf or some sh*t like skate fast bearings. I saw an add with reynolds on it so those are probably pretty good. Uhh oh i herd FKD sawblade bearings were good too.
Tom 1-21-09
Some people like to say that all bearings are the same but I don't think so. I think that some of the bearings are the same but a lot of them aren't. Bones Reds bearings are a little better than generic but they work good and at most skate shops there cheep. Bones bearings are my favorite because there cheep and they last pretty long(2-3 months). Some other good things about bones reds are that they are pre-lubricated with bones speed cream. Bones reds are also very quiet. Bones bearings consist of 7 steel balls with a rubber with one side. Bones reds are Made by the same people who make all the Bones Swiss bearings (the best out there), REDS are awesome. Tons of bearing companies out there farmed their production out to China so that they could get cheap, crappy bearings to sell to you at a good price. Bones has a name to protect, however, and they put out the effort to make sure that REDS are high quality, well made bearings. They are still made in China, which is why they are still such a good price. Their quality is close to Bones Swiss - not nearly as good, but close. Bones bearings are my favorite.
T. Gustafson 1-24-09
So you're asking me to write you a bearing review on my favorite brand of bearings. I would simple have to go with Red Bones, they are the best, most long lasting bearings by far. They blow away all other brands. If you're not riding with these bearings in your wheels, then your just not riding. They are the smoothest, fastest bearings around. The price of the Red Bones aren't ridiculous either so you should really go buy a set and see for yourself. I have always rode Red Bones, I've tried other types of brands but they weren't as good as the Bones. They didn't last nearly as long as the Reds did, and didn't ride as smooth. Reds don't pop and explode as much as others do, this is one reason why they are the best around. I think that everyone should be riding them , and you can pick them up at any skate shop or skate website like at www. elskateshop.com, they always have the cheapest stuff out there. But really just go pick up a pair and get read for the ride of your life with the smoothest fastest bearings on the market, you would be a fool not to. I would and I did, that's why im writing you this. I want to just say how great the bearings wrote for me, and how long they have lasted and are still spinning. They just roll forever. So if you want strong bearings that hold up to your switch flips down 10 stairs I would go with the Red Bones, best bearings I've ever skated. No matter what you skate the reds bearing will be perfect for you, weather its holding up to the impact of a stair session, or smoothness of skating tranny, or the speed for hill bombing, Red Bones are the right bearing for that.
B Uhlig 3-2-09
If you spin 'em, it goes for 35 seconds. Not ABEC rated, but still worth it. Although the sheilds do dent easily. These bearings are probably the best priced ABEC-5 bearings out there. They ride smooth and don't break easily. If you are looking for quality bearings at affordable prices, keep these in mind. these abec 5 are crap the lube leaked out of one of them after a couple of days of use. I was not impressed with them being fast either. Although I haven't personally tried these bearings(yet), just wanted to let everyone know they're available. These bearings are the ultimate go fast bearings I currently am aware of. The balls are made of carbon/ceramic material that feature the lightest enertial resistance coupled with excellent heat disipation. They are not even ABEC rated as they are technically non-comparable. The only downside(MAJOR) is their cost. These rip!!!! I called Powell, and they said that the only difference on these (besides the red shield), is the fact that the shield is less likely to bend, and thht there is a new crown which doesn't shatter at cold temps (under 50 degrees fahrenheit) like the previous version. These arent quite as smooth (when new), as the Black Panthers, they are strong as hell, and even feel faster. Listen to Jesse. There may be better bearings out there for the price, but if there are, I haven't found them. Another good thing is that they have a plastic seal on the inside for easy cleaning and relubrication. On 1/30/1997 Jon Henry wrote in from ()I have been riding the ABEC 5's from this comapny and wow ! Smooth and fast. They are too easy to clean and have lasted an extremely long time. Price was not bad, and I notice that alot of the comapnies are using the 3's from Termintor, like Gravity, Sector 9, Envy, Powerhouse, Karma, Bareback, and more. I'm currently on a gravity.
B. LaBrec 3-5-09
i like bones reds right now. the fastest bearings ive had that i loved and miss. are destructo sendai. they were unbeleiveibly fast to me. a few kicks and i would fly down the street. spitfire bearings are okay but they fell apart on me so i wont be buying them ever again, i am currently riding rush bearings abec 7 that i bought from zumiez for 10 dollars. i really want to try swiss bearings but i cant afford them. all the people i know that have swiss bearings go really fast and they only kick twice! i wish i had those. i usually ride bones bearings and that is because they are consistant with staying together by lasting a long time. they go fast and are only like ten bucks. i am saving money up right now because my rush bearings suck. they make funny noises when i go fast so i wouldnt recomend them. i am saving money to but bones swiss labrnyth bearings. i hope the work good because they are really expensive. the bearings i alwyas get are bones reds but i wanna try something new..
C. Franklin 3-14-09
I recently just bought for some beautiful looking bones reds and bones swiss bearings. Lets get to the point first alright bones reds. Bones reds would have to my favorite bearings because unlike any other bearing they just keep going and going and goin i mean its like the damn energizer bunny no matter how fast your wheels take you they just keep going anda going liike i was skating with my boy paul and he has just recently purchased some lucky bearings from utility board supply and he has had those things for about a week .. First stage squeekiness those wheels after about a few days get really squeekiy so thats the first stage second stage you start feeling some random bumps while you are skating like if your rolling down a big hill you'll feel little like .. ohhh i dont know what to call them but they will just randomly stop out of nowhere then the final stage is complete stopping of rolling moving or whatever the hell manuvers that thing can do so they all stop so paul is just up there saying ohh yah the only stopped because i was messsin with them the other day so im like ok first your damn board wasm at my house second why in the hell would a dumb person like you be stupid enough to buy wheels and break the bichis first time i meen i know u skate alot but damn the first week a god dang target boards bearings last longer than that so that that i mean bones reds always work some times you might have to pop rthem out and clean them but seriously how long is that going to take you like sixty minutes no more like ten god damn minutes i mean god if your a true skater you wont mind and you'll go on ahead and clean them out. .....Ok bones swiss bones swiss are phenomenal i mean there better than bones reds i would feel so lucky to be sponsored by that team ...well anyway bones swiss are so good they come with a little lubricant so every so often you can spray it on and it will restore like health or whatever to your wheels well just say it will fix the damages in the wheels i have had some bones swiss' in the past and there really really good the reason why i dont usually get them is because they are like thirty seven to forty dollors depending on where you get them at for a set just enough for your wheels and i know there good and all but forty bucks thats why i stick to bones reds if they were like twenty five then yeah i would fosho be gettin those every time i got a new deck but over all i will usually always stick to bones reds just because of the prices of both of them .... So yeah thats my little review on the bearings
C. Franklin My Review will be over bones reds I got them from a friend since he had gotten a new set up for christmas and i did not .He had them for about three months or so maybe more. They seemed to be brand new, they were a little dirty so I cleaned them with a q-tip.They cuold spin so nice and long.I had them on my skateboard wheels and Cruiser baord wheels also and it worked great for both.They are lasting way better than my other bearings ive had in the past that were new like Lucky,Element,and many many other brands.I know alot more about bearings than most skaters do in my town imgood and cleaning them i know the history of them kinda.They are pretty much my favorite part of my skateboard. The guys i skate with think its all about the ABEC number,well Ive got news for them.The ABEC is the allowable tolerance. The ABEC 1 tolerance for the bore of a 608 bearing is .3150" +.0000 / -.0003".==== that means the Bore could be anywhere from .3147-.3150" (8MM). ==== ABEC 7 is .3150 +.0000 / -.0002. (.3148-.3150) What does all this mean??? The Abec tolerance is all but INSIGNIFICANT in a skate application. Skateboard Truck Axels are not manufactured to the same tight tolerances as the Bearing. And the O.D. of the Bearing goes in a flexible urathane wheel. This eliminates any possible advantage of the Abec tolerance would give to assure accurate fit. The Abec is the DIMENTIONAL TOLERANCES. The Abec tolerance does cover out of roundness and for this reason I would use ABEC 3 or better. Almost any bearing with the country of origin on the bearing except for china will be Abec 3 or better. Back in the 80's they had to sort bearing lots to get the Abec 3 and Abec 7 Bearings. Todays modern machines make to Abec 3 or better even if they are marketed as abec 1. They will have an Abec 3 price and a Abec 1 price to give you a choise, but it will be the same Abec 3 bearing. ANY BEARINGS FROM CHINA WILL NOT BE BETTER THAN ABEC 1. China will put "ABEC 7" or "FUCK YOU" on the bearing if you order 5000 or more!! No laws in China against that. You cant mis-mark the bearings in the other bearing manufacturing Countries. Bearings with a Metal Ball Cage have a 40,000 RPM Rating. Plastic Cage = 100,000-150,000 RPM.
WHAT IS IMPORTANT. 1) The Manufacturer. All Chinese bearings are crap. All those weird name brands are shit. Top of the Line bearing manufactuers make 608's with the proper Raceway Curvature, cages and internal clearances. WIB, GMN, GRW and NMB manufacture the best bearings in the world for skateboard. For those of you not fimiliar with these names, WIB makes all the bearings for "Bones" All Bones bearings marked "Swiss" are manufacturered by WIB Miniature Bearing in Switzerland for Bones. GMN and GRW make all the German Bearings no matter what name may be marketet on the shield. Plastic or non-metalic ball cage will make more way more difference in speed than any ABEC change. OPTIMAL BEARING: I have used everything in the world, Ceramics manufactured just for my SkateBoard, Abec 9, Bearings Manufacturered by every bearing company in the world. I have access to over 400 Lubricants in my field. WHAT DO I SKATE ON ??? The best bearing by design right now is the Super Swiss 6 by Bones with SpeedCream. The Bearing had several advantages. 1) It is manufactured by WIB Bearing. 2) They are made with a tight Raceway curvature to avoid "Excess Axial Play" 3) They are supplied with a Re-enforced plastic cage rated at 150,000 RPM 4)Laberinth Non-Contacting Rubber Seals to keep out dirt. This is the obtimum design for free rotation and keeping out contamination. Ceramic Ball Bearings are only good if they come with Plastic or Phenolic Ball Cages. As a Hardcore skater skating 4-5 days a week. Super Swiss 6 with Speed cream cant be beat. Fuc* the Abec rating. The Abec rating is designed so that the bearing has manufacturing consistancy in order to manufacture mating parts to simular tolerances. (Re: Precision Shafting and Housings.) Ron
Oh Yeah ... one more note on why the Super swiss 6 has lower starting and running torque (This is Known as Speed to us skateboarders) All 608's are made with 7 ball compliment. The Super Swiss 6 is the ONLY 608 manufactured with a 6 ball compliment. The Balls all bigger, can take higher load (Impact), Have less ball surphase touching the raceway with 6 balls instead of 7 which lowers the running torque of the bearing making the bearing get to full speed quicker. I am sure within the next year you will start seeing more 6 ball designs, but right now its WIB(Bones) that makes 'em...At all possible, stick with German or Swiss with Plastic or non-metalic ball cages. Any bearing with a steel cage will be slower no matter where it's made. Grease is just an oil with a thickener, the thickener in the grease will slow down your bearing and running just oil will attract contaminates from far away and not provide proper protection. Use the Good-old Speed Cream in the skate shops. By buying German or Swiss what is important is you will know the bearing is manufactuered by a very high quality bearing manufacturer who does the final raceway polishing what the chinese dont, and who it is. There are so many names and marketing stratagies going on with Chinese Bearings, you will get lost in it all. At my old Company we brought in Chinese Bearings for .12 Each. We had the Stamping machines to Mark the Shields. We did PIG,GIRL,SPEED DEMONS, and several others. All were from the same manufacturing lot with different color/marked shields. Any of those weird brands are probably a .12-.18 cent bearing made by the millions with no quality control and several key manufacturing processes left out in order to sell the U.S. for .12 cents. Bearings marked "Thailand" = NMB Bearings marked "German" = GMN or GRW Bearings marked "Swiss" = WIB Bearing Someone mentioned to me SKF Bearings. SKF Bearings are manufactured in almost every country in the world. SKF no longer manufacturers miniature bearings and hasen't for over 10 years, SKF Contracts out their miniature bearings to the Miniature Bearing Manufactuers. Last year it was IKS and NTN. Could be someone different next year. SKF Specialises in Large Bearings. Don't use SKF.... . . . . . .
Yes, the Bones-Chinese[Reds] are in the same class as the other Chinese Bearings. Bones China are may be a little better than the other China or unmarked brands as far as consitancy since they probably been using the same China trading Company for years, but still is a .12-.14 cent bearing. . . . . . . . On your third question the smaller balls tend to brinell the bearing races easier than the larger ball will. A brinelled race will have little indends from the balls impact, basically destroying the bearing. Thicker races will make the bearing a little stronger from the standpoint of cracking the races, but that should be a rarity. But Brinelling the bearing is more common than cracking races..Should be... As far as Bearing failure, Brinneling is one reason, Lack of proper lubrication is #1 cause for bearing failure because once you run metal on metal and balls and raceways get scored, everything will wear and fail quickly.
As far as Oust Bearings...Its another Marketing Stategy. Look, it comes down to everything I said in these bearing post as far as the bearings configuration. Notice the low end Oust MOC5 is "Carbon Steel Cage" with standard non-contacting rubber seals. Their Rolls royce is the MOC9. Here is their desciption of the Seal "The Moc 9 Buna Non-Contact Seal is set into a U-channel design in the inner and outer races to keep all foreign particles out of the ball area. It also stops any oil leakage that might occur on a standard bearing seal." THIS IS THE LABYRINTH INNER RING and seal weve been discussing that the Bones-Swiss, Black Hole Bearings have. The MOC9 also comes with a non-metalic cage....thats what makes it quicker than the MOC5. No matter what brand you like, 1) get bearings with a non-metalic cage 2) Buy the bearings with the Labyring inner ring and seal design,no matter what they may call it. Your bearings will outlast a dozen sets of the old style shielded bearings. . . . . . . .
The Swiss and German manufacturers make their 608 with a tighter raceway curvature as well (harder to mfr.) than the Chinese. This eliminates a lot of excess axial play(end play)in the bearing. . . . . . . .
....As far as installing, VERY good question indeed. You can ruin a bearing installing it before it turns even once on your axel. The Rule is "Only apply preasure to the ring being mounted." To put the bearing in your wheel, some people put the bearing on the axel, unside down and press the wheel on the bearing. BAD ! The pressure against the balls can brinnell the raceway if hit with too much force. Since the Outer Ring is being mounted in the Wheel you need to apply preasure to the outer ring only! Not the inner ring. I use an Old bearing that I disassembled and have the outer ring only, put it against the outer ring of the bearing being mounted, and a small block of wood and rubber mallet. As far as removing them, another good reason not to re-use the bearings. The same rule applied to dis-assembly if the bearing is to be salvaged. However, there is no way of removing the bearing using the outer ring. Even the bearing pullers must remove the bearing by pulling on the inner ring. Brinelling will not happen everytime you mis-mount the bearings, but the degree of damage can be so slight, you may not notice. Yes, I use a bearing puller when removing bearings, however, bearing pullers were desighed for alot bigger, more durable bearings. Using a Bearing Puller on a Miniature can and will cause at least microscopic damage almost every time. Remember: Only apply pressure to the ring being mounted. Alot of people ruin their bearings before they even start!See how long they have gone from the start?! ABEC bearings are used in many ,many places for various purposes today.
Jacob B. 3-24-09
My favorite skateboard bearing is Bones Reds. The reason they are my favorite is because they are the only brand of skate bearing I have ever skated on. The reason I have only skated on Reds is because that is the only kind my Father is going to pony up the cash for. I own two sets. If I could skate on any brand of bearing I wish, it would probably be Tweakers by Baker, because I have a Baker board and I like BAKER. Of course I would like to skate on swiss ceramic bearings but that ain't happening any time soon. I have a friend who has ceramic bearings & he sprays them with WD-40 when they get sticky. I think his mommy is going to be buying him new bearings soon. I have disassembled my bearings a few times to clean out the gunk. I use Eco-tech Finish Line, spray until it runs clear, then dry them with paper towels and a can of compressed air. I use Break-Free as a lubricant. Popping the bearings in and out of my Ricta wheels eight times, every time I want to clean them is a pain, but we tend to trash our bearings a lot, by going through puddles, snow banks and the dirt trails between the skatepark and home. I live in a small town in Minnesota with a smaller skatepark. There is a bike shop in the next town that has some skate stuff, but not much selection. We need to travel long distances to an indoor skatepark in the city during the winter. We actually spend as much time skating around town as we do at the skatepark (STREET!) Nobody at the skatepark talks about what bearings they ride. decks yes, bearings no. Everybody behind the counter says Bones Reds are good bearings for the price.
M. Bravo 4-09-09
There are many bearing brands in the market but Bones bearings are the best ones and I'll be reviewing their Reds bearings. Ill start off by saying that the price is really cheap for bearings that perform as great as these do, their only about $15-$17 dollars so its quite a bargain. As for the bearings themselves, they perform fantastic because they are pre-lubricated so they spin fast right from the package. It does not take long to break them in and when you do these bearings get even better and faster. Another good thing about reds is that they have rubber shields unlike other brands so the bearings are much quieter and friction is reduced. One of the common problems with cheap bearings is that after lots of hardcore skating they pop off and actually break. This is not a concern with bones reds bearings and their durability is definitely one of the best things about them. I have had reds on my current setup for about eight months and they are still holding up after all the abuse put on them. One thing I noticed about cheaper brand bearings is that some of them are oiled and after a while when you take the wheel off and the bearings, it is a mess because the oil is all over the bearings and actually makes them worse. The bearing lubricant that is used to pre lubricate bones reds bearings don't cause this kind of mess when I took off the wheel and bearings to take off the dust. This brings me to my next point about cleaning these bearings. Again, the rubber shields are useful because it is easier to remove the dust on them than metal shields because the dust/dirt gets stuck in the little edges around the bearing. In all these bearings are amazing, I highly recommend them especially if your on a budget and need a great performing bearing for your skateboard.