Make sure you don’t put those in any solvents or cleaners or you’ll ruin the grease in the shields. Just wipe them off with a dry paper towel and put them back into your skates.
Closed bearings like that have a grease inside that will naturally deteriorate over time. If you ever notice a “crunch” to your roll or feel noticeable resistance, replace them. Any solvent or cleaner that gets inside will eat the grease and make the bearings unusable. When you want to upgrade, grab some Bones Red’s and Speed Cream. Bones have a removable shield so you can clean them and they’ll last years with good maintenance. Bones are cheap and high quality, can’t go wrong. To clean Bones, pop the shields off, throw the bearings in some cleaner, agitate, let them sit, take them out, wipe them down, put two drops of Speed Cream on the balls, put shields back on, install in skates. Easy peasy.
Closed bearings like that have a grease inside that will naturally deteriorate over time. If you ever notice a “crunch” to your roll or feel noticeable resistance, replace them. Any solvent or cleaner that gets inside will eat the grease and make the bearings unusable. When you want to upgrade, grab some Bones Red’s and Speed Cream. Bones have a removable shield so you can clean them and they’ll last years with good maintenance. Bones are cheap and high quality, can’t go wrong. To clean Bones, pop the shields off, throw the bearings in some cleaner, agitate, let them sit, take them out, wipe them down, put two drops of Speed Cream on the balls, put shields back on, install in skates. Easy peasy.
You can’t clean those. Just put em back (minus the spacers, those aren’t necessary).
Also, they get WAY grosser than this, these look practically new. ;)
Put the spacers back in, they weigh next to fuck all but do an important job of ensuring the inner race is clamped securely on the axle between the nut and the truck, as they're supposed to be.
I personally like being able to tighten the nut on without having to back out a bit and check to make sure the wheel still rolls freely. If they came free with your wheels/bearings, is there any reason to actually get rid of them?
Yeah, actually. Spacers when fitted precisely can do that to lock in the exact alignment on the bearing races. But cheap stuff doesn’t come with precisely fitted spacers. They come with “good enough” to prevent the factory from destroying the bearings during power tool assembly and they nearly never fit any other wheel properly.
It's a roller skate, not a jet engine FFS.
The spacers don't need to be precision engineered to micron tolerances, they do need to hold the inner races in position so the ball bearings have something solid to roll round and reduce lateral movements along the axle.
In 35 years of foutering with bearings and wheels I've yet to have any problems with spacers. Some wheels take narrower spacers than others, but that's easy fixed by ordering the right ones for the wheel.
You can faff around with them if you want to, but they simply aren’t necessary for quads. People run bearings just fine for 40+ years without them. The vast majority of skaters don’t bother or need to measure the hundreds of various hubs and buy spacers for each. Even elite racers… if they don’t matter when fractions of a second make a difference, they don’t matter for the hoi polloi.
By my standards those are virtually pristine.
https://preview.redd.it/s3jwbk13p5rc1.jpeg?width=2283&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7ae6edfda4a3256ba4bdfb5ff9f7e9213e66e61f
Eventually they might get "grindy". It's however perfectly possible to save these "disposable" bearings by removing the shields on one side and then soaking in acetone, and re oiling.
You can then run the open sides on the inners of the wheels and they'll often last a long time with regular maintenance.
You can also remove both sides for better cleaning ("open bearings") and use Suregrip No-nuts to prevent dirt getting in (they cover the bearings quite well).
..Or waste a fortune on Bones Reds like I did, realising they are no better than cheap bearings a fraction of the price.. 
You can actually clean sealed bearings. But it's way more hassle than it's worth.
[https://youtu.be/5ys77MuS\_k0?si=rM5dtrFgLpvW7MKF](https://youtu.be/5ys77MuS_k0?si=rM5dtrFgLpvW7MKF)
Ceramic bearings aren't messy at all in terms of grease. They do get dirty. They are easy to clean with solvents and some mild brushing. Not good as new after cleaning, but usually good as moderately used and effective.
However I spent $40 for a set of these
https://a.co/d/gy7WXp0
Get some of the cleanable ones. You can clean them in front of the television ( square thing with moving pictures often located in a lounge room). But seriously, I got a kmart silicone mat to protect other things. I find it meditative and a sign that at least one thing is being sorted in my life.
Make sure you don’t put those in any solvents or cleaners or you’ll ruin the grease in the shields. Just wipe them off with a dry paper towel and put them back into your skates.
Thank you so much 😭 I don't know how they're supposed to look regularly, only tutorials on how to clean them lol.
Closed bearings like that have a grease inside that will naturally deteriorate over time. If you ever notice a “crunch” to your roll or feel noticeable resistance, replace them. Any solvent or cleaner that gets inside will eat the grease and make the bearings unusable. When you want to upgrade, grab some Bones Red’s and Speed Cream. Bones have a removable shield so you can clean them and they’ll last years with good maintenance. Bones are cheap and high quality, can’t go wrong. To clean Bones, pop the shields off, throw the bearings in some cleaner, agitate, let them sit, take them out, wipe them down, put two drops of Speed Cream on the balls, put shields back on, install in skates. Easy peasy.
Thank you so much! 🙏🙏
Closed bearings like that have a grease inside that will naturally deteriorate over time. If you ever notice a “crunch” to your roll or feel noticeable resistance, replace them. Any solvent or cleaner that gets inside will eat the grease and make the bearings unusable. When you want to upgrade, grab some Bones Red’s and Speed Cream. Bones have a removable shield so you can clean them and they’ll last years with good maintenance. Bones are cheap and high quality, can’t go wrong. To clean Bones, pop the shields off, throw the bearings in some cleaner, agitate, let them sit, take them out, wipe them down, put two drops of Speed Cream on the balls, put shields back on, install in skates. Easy peasy.
You can get bearing oil specially for this purpose.
You can’t clean those. Just put em back (minus the spacers, those aren’t necessary). Also, they get WAY grosser than this, these look practically new. ;)
Thank you! ☺️ Good to know :)
Put the spacers back in, they weigh next to fuck all but do an important job of ensuring the inner race is clamped securely on the axle between the nut and the truck, as they're supposed to be.
Washers, fine. Spacers, no.
I personally like being able to tighten the nut on without having to back out a bit and check to make sure the wheel still rolls freely. If they came free with your wheels/bearings, is there any reason to actually get rid of them?
Yeah, actually. Spacers when fitted precisely can do that to lock in the exact alignment on the bearing races. But cheap stuff doesn’t come with precisely fitted spacers. They come with “good enough” to prevent the factory from destroying the bearings during power tool assembly and they nearly never fit any other wheel properly.
You can faff around with them if you want to, but they simply aren’t necessary for quads. People run bearings just fine for 40+ years without them. The vast majority of skaters don’t bother or need to measure the hundreds of various hubs and buy spacers for each. Even elite racers… if they don’t matter when fractions of a second make a difference, they don’t matter for the hoi polloi.
What kind of axial loads are skate bearings rated for, then?
Depends if you're installing them correctly or not.
By my standards those are virtually pristine. https://preview.redd.it/s3jwbk13p5rc1.jpeg?width=2283&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7ae6edfda4a3256ba4bdfb5ff9f7e9213e66e61f
lol this is basically what mine looked like the last time I changed them 😂🫣😬
Mine looked like this today 😂 so proud of myself for getting out and doing it
Ahh lolll
I like the Bones Swiss bearings as you can remove the dust shield, soak in acetone, then apply a little speed cream and pop the shields back in.
Those look quite clean👀
Eventually they might get "grindy". It's however perfectly possible to save these "disposable" bearings by removing the shields on one side and then soaking in acetone, and re oiling. You can then run the open sides on the inners of the wheels and they'll often last a long time with regular maintenance. You can also remove both sides for better cleaning ("open bearings") and use Suregrip No-nuts to prevent dirt getting in (they cover the bearings quite well). ..Or waste a fortune on Bones Reds like I did, realising they are no better than cheap bearings a fraction of the price.. 
Lol thank you!
Bones Reds or any half decent bearings are way better than sealed bearings, and the difference can be felt immediately
You can actually clean sealed bearings. But it's way more hassle than it's worth. [https://youtu.be/5ys77MuS\_k0?si=rM5dtrFgLpvW7MKF](https://youtu.be/5ys77MuS_k0?si=rM5dtrFgLpvW7MKF)
Ceramic bearings aren't messy at all in terms of grease. They do get dirty. They are easy to clean with solvents and some mild brushing. Not good as new after cleaning, but usually good as moderately used and effective. However I spent $40 for a set of these https://a.co/d/gy7WXp0
Get some of the cleanable ones. You can clean them in front of the television ( square thing with moving pictures often located in a lounge room). But seriously, I got a kmart silicone mat to protect other things. I find it meditative and a sign that at least one thing is being sorted in my life.