Question: ABEC Bearings Ratings - What does ABEC mean for Skateboard Bearings?
Precisely what does ABEC mean? Skateboard bearings often have an ABEC rating, and skaters are often confused about what which means. What are ABEC bearings? Is the ABEC bearing rating fundamental?
Answer: ABEC stands for Annular Bearing Engineers' Panel, and is the American way for rating the accuracy and tolerance rating of bearings. ABEC standards are set by the American Bearing Manufacturers Association (ABMA).
So what on earth does that mean? Properly, bearings are used for a myriad of things, not just skateboard added wheels. The higher an ABEC score, the more accurate together with precise the bearing is. When companies make bearings, sometimes they cheaply slap these together, and sometimes they are extremely carefully designed and assembled so that there is as little space as possible between the parts. When bearings are utilized in expensive and significant machines, companies will spend 100s of dollars on just an individual bearing - it ought to be perfect!

But for professional skateboarding, we use much a smaller amount precise bearings. This is because they are cheaper, and because with all the slamming and sudden will start and stops, a truly expensive, delicate bearing might get ruined.

ABEC ratings are just odd numbers, and get started with ABEC 1:

ABEC 1 could be the most crude, the least precise, the most durable along with the cheapest.
ABEC 3 is precisely what most cheap complete skateboards accompany, especially skateboards from Japan. ABEC 3 bearings will work for most skateboarding, but won't roll very smoothly or fast.
ABEC 5 bearings are the norm in skateboarding. You get a reasonable amount of speed, and at a good cost. However, there are lots of people who argue that this skateboarding industry is laying, and that most ABEC 5 skateboard bearings the truth is aren't actually built to ABEC 5 standards...
ABEC 7 bearings would be very fast and smooth, but very expensive. Plus, you start to run second hand smoke of needlessly damaging them in the event you skate hard or strongly. Also, if you are investing in cheap ABEC 7 bearings made in China, you are probably being lied to (see the Truth about Skateboard Bearings.
ABEC 9 and higher bearings would be ridiculous to use in a skateboard, unless you are doing downhill luge trend skating, or something else where your goal is to go insanely fast. If you happen to aren't spending a fortune on these bearings, then don't trust likely in fact ABEC 9!
The ABEC rating of a bearing is determined by asking these four queries:
How close is this bore to 8mm in microns (a micron is one millionth of an meter)?
How close is the outer diameter to twenty-two in microns?
How close is the width to 7mm with microns?
What's the rotating accuracy in microns?
Don't worry if that doesn't mean anything to you - I just wished to include it in case you're reading this article for a paper there's a chance you're writing for school!

• ABEC 1 = ISO 0 (or "normal") = DIN P0
• ABEC 3 = ISO Class 6 = DIN P6
• ABEC 5 = ISO Class 5 = DIN P5
• ABEC 7 = ISO Class 4 = DIN P4
• ABEC 9 = ISO Class 2 = DIN P2