Roller Skate Bearings

 

             Skate wheels need bearings in order to roll, and each wheel core on your inline skates, quad skates or skateboards needs two bearings. When you go shopping for new inline skates or replacement bearings, you'll soon discover that there are many ways to rate inline and roller skate wheel bearings.

 

               ABEC is the most commonly used system, and it stands for Annular Bearing Engineers' Committee. This committee established the standards used for bearings by the American Bearing Manufacturers Association (ABMA). The ABEC rating of skate bearings is based on a scale that is used to measure the precision of a ball bearing. The scale uses odd-numbered levels 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9, with 9, and the higher this number is, the tighter the tolerance of the bearing and the better the degree of precision of the bearing. For example, the ABEC rating of a size 608 size bearing is established with the following information:

 

1.How close the bore is to 8mm in microns.

2.How close the outer diameter is to 22 in microns.

3.How close the width is to 7mm in microns.

4.The accuracy of rotation in microns.

 

These are simple descriptions of the ABEC ratings for your reference:

 

•ABEC 1 bearings are the least precise, the least expensive and the most durable.

•ABEC 3 bearings are commonly found in very low budget children's inline skates.

•ABEC 5 bearings are usually found on recreational inline skates. These bearings

provide reasonable roll for new skaters and social skating activities.

•ABEC 7 bearings are smoother and faster, but considerably more expensive.

•ABEC 9 and other higher rated bearings are used by competitors, racers and other

demanding skaters who are willing to pay more for high performance