So a friend and I were boarding around a 14 mile lake here in my hometown. I noticed he was rolling alot smoother and faster than me. He was riding a stock sector 9 with crappy abec 5 bearings. I was riding my omen pike, otang baluts, and freshly cleaned bones reds bearings. Something was wrong with this picture.

At this point we only had about 5 miles left, but I proceeded to hop off my board and look it over anyway. That’s when I remembered my 80 year old grandpa helped me clean my bearings last time. It was nice of him to help me, but He’s old school and must think everything works better when things are shoved in nice and tight. I noticed he shoved my bearing shields in way too hard and they were rubbing against the balls in the bearings. Obviously, this slowed the bearings.

Instead of finishing the last few miles with bad bearings, I sat down on the road and spent the next 45 minutes trying to pop my bearing shield off with the tip of a mechanical pencil. It was a struggle, but I eventually had them all off placed nicely back and on my board. We finished the last few miles in the dark, but it felt incredible riding the adjusted bearings at night, in 65 degree weather, with a slight breeze.

Moral of the story: don’t let your 80 year old grandfather clean your bearings.