How To: Change your Longboard Bearings
Sometimes we get a little caught up on the technical details and forget about the basic stuff like applying griptape or assembling trucks. In this video, you get a quick glimpse at how to change out your longboard skateboard bearings.
Some of our favorites are the classic Bones Reds, Zealous, or Atlas Blackouts. The latter two come with built in spacers. One of the key tricks to changing out your bearings is to utilize your longboard truck axles to help you out. Since they are designed to fit a bearing perfectly, you can use them to pop the bearings out of your wheel hub. Simply place one bearing over the end of the axle and pry the bearing out of the hub at a 45 degree angle to the side of the axle. Never use a screwdriver to put them in or pop them out! You could end up bending the bearing shield.
If you are using a bearing spacer tighten your axle nuts down enough that your wheels are snug. If you don't have spacers, use a skate tool to tighten the axle nuts just until they’re so tight that the wheel doesn’t spin. Then un-tighten them about a half turn. Your wheels shouldn’t have any side-to-side wiggle and should spin freely.
Good luck and if you have any questions you can always hit us up!