It appeared like a beautiful day for skating this morning. As I was coming back from the Fort Road area one tall ang moh guy waved and shouted out to me "Berkeley!" and I was a little freaked out! Then I realised I was wearing my "all Cal" skating outfit today which probably explains the reaction. Didn't recognise him as one of the Cal alumni though his built looked a little like DH. I learned a new trick while observing lessons at the rink: sudden spin-stop. Basically its a variation of the standard spin-stop (or y-stop, eagle-turn to some people) except that you pivot on your left toe rather than the entire left foot. So basically your left skate flips onto an eagle stance real fast, and with a quick flip of your right foot you are now rolling on backwards voila! The key is catching your balance when you flip your right skate that quickly, or else you will end up on your butt (trust me on that one)! After skating a while though, the weather started turning on me and I got to tell you that your heart just sinks when you see those bearings soaking in all that rainwater......
All that rainfall called for some emergency skate maintenance to make sure those ILQ-9 bearings don't get corroded. And yes, they do get corroded even though they are "stainless steel"! So basically I had to take everything apart and dry out the bearings with a hairdryer. Sounds easy? Well, I got stuck on the first step, luckily I had some handy tools. Apparently all that grime and water made the bearings kinda stuck in the wheels. The K2 skate tool was of no use half the time. That's where the "Sonic Pro Tool" comes in handy! Pops out all the bearings all of the time with minimal effort! And I thought I had wasted good money on that tool.....
In the process of drying and cleaning out all those bearings I found that some of them didn't spin very well. I suppose some dirt got into them, there were no signs of corrosion though. With all that grease inside the bearings its hard to tell what dirt is in there, so I had to find some way to clean them out. Tried using napkins and all, but those were completely of no use, its just too difficult to get anything out from those bearings! Now that's where the "Sonic Turbo Bearing Wash" comes in handy. Basically I threw all the bearings in there, and voila, after 5 minutes, everything was perfectly clean and shiny!!! Even all the grease was removed, it was a miracle!!!! I didn't have to do anything but throw them into the fluid and shake a little!
So now that the dirty bearings are all cleaned and dried out, time to test the spin. Somehow the bearings seem to have a little spin resistance after being completely cleaned out though, as in you can hear some metal grinding or something. Not perfect, but I guess I could use it like that. That's when I found out that just a few drops of "Sonic Super Oil" makes a hella difference! Few drops of that magic lube and the bearings spin effortlessly! I think much less lube was required than the original ton of grease that was in there when I bought those skates.....
The whole process took me almost 2 hours. Probably worth the effort but I'd pay a skate shop 5 bucks if they could do it all for me haha! Somehow though I doubt I could trust someone else to put in as much effort to achieve the same standard.....
All that rainfall called for some emergency skate maintenance to make sure those ILQ-9 bearings don't get corroded. And yes, they do get corroded even though they are "stainless steel"! So basically I had to take everything apart and dry out the bearings with a hairdryer. Sounds easy? Well, I got stuck on the first step, luckily I had some handy tools. Apparently all that grime and water made the bearings kinda stuck in the wheels. The K2 skate tool was of no use half the time. That's where the "Sonic Pro Tool" comes in handy! Pops out all the bearings all of the time with minimal effort! And I thought I had wasted good money on that tool.....
In the process of drying and cleaning out all those bearings I found that some of them didn't spin very well. I suppose some dirt got into them, there were no signs of corrosion though. With all that grease inside the bearings its hard to tell what dirt is in there, so I had to find some way to clean them out. Tried using napkins and all, but those were completely of no use, its just too difficult to get anything out from those bearings! Now that's where the "Sonic Turbo Bearing Wash" comes in handy. Basically I threw all the bearings in there, and voila, after 5 minutes, everything was perfectly clean and shiny!!! Even all the grease was removed, it was a miracle!!!! I didn't have to do anything but throw them into the fluid and shake a little!
So now that the dirty bearings are all cleaned and dried out, time to test the spin. Somehow the bearings seem to have a little spin resistance after being completely cleaned out though, as in you can hear some metal grinding or something. Not perfect, but I guess I could use it like that. That's when I found out that just a few drops of "Sonic Super Oil" makes a hella difference! Few drops of that magic lube and the bearings spin effortlessly! I think much less lube was required than the original ton of grease that was in there when I bought those skates.....
The whole process took me almost 2 hours. Probably worth the effort but I'd pay a skate shop 5 bucks if they could do it all for me haha! Somehow though I doubt I could trust someone else to put in as much effort to achieve the same standard.....
