Everything you Ever Wanted to Know about Skateboard Bearings.
There’s a lot questions that people ask about bearings. Here you have some answers from the owner of Mosaic Bearings, Tristán Grijalbo.
This interview was originally published on welcomesk8.com, reproduced here with their permission.
Abec 3, Abec 5, Abec 7, Titanium, Ceramic? Skate bearings’ dimensions and size? There are many different kinds of bearings. Tristán’s family has an industrial bearings company since 1947, and he has been 17 years developing bearings for skateboards, 14 with Mosaic, his own brand. There’s no one better to answer some of the questions that are usually asked in any skate shop.
What parts does a bearing have?
Outside and inner rings, balls, cage, cap and lubricant.
What is the ABEC of a bearing?
ABEC is the abbreviation of Annular Bearing Engineers Council. In other words, ABEC’s role is to establish tolerance standards in manufacturing. The higher the ABEC, the more accurately each piece of the bearing is made. That is to say, if you were to look at it through a microscope, the smoother everything would be. But the ABEC system does not include lateral load or impact resistance, so it is not enough just to have a very high ABEC rating for the bearing to be good for skateboarding. The way the bearing is manufactured, the materials used and its quality is more important than the ABEC rating.
Why did abec 9 and ABEC 11 suddenly come out?
Because an American company developed the manufacturing precision of the parts further. But as I said before, you can have an ABEC 11 bearing which is not suitable for skating beacause the ABEC system does not include lateral load or impact resistance.
As a general rule, we believe that ABEC 3 is slower than ABEC 5, and ABEC 5 is slower than ABEC 7. Is it true?
Normally this is true within the same brand. However, if you compare the ABEC 3 of a certain brand to the ABEC 7 of a worse brand – the ABEC 3 will be faster and last longer than the ABEC 7 of the worse brand.
What is it that makes a bearing go fast?
Various things such as the quality of the materials, the ABEC rating, particularly in the ball bearings and the rails of the rings. Also the lubricant.
Ceramic bearings. What do they consist of? What are they composed of? Are they really the fastest?
We at MOSAIC were pioneers in making bearings with white ceramic balls. The ceramic skate bearings balls are harder than the metal ones. This means that they don’t get deformed when they have weight on top, or after long exposure to impacts (something that happens with metal balls). Ceramic bearings are much faster, and can be spinning for a long time because they don’t heat up.
They have a drop of our SR1 lubricant, and last much longer than other bearings. The longer you use them, the better they run. If you feel that your Mosaic ceramics have lost speed it probably is because of the dirt. No matter if they are 3 months or 5 years old, or even if the metal is rusty, just clean them and after that they will run better than new ones. They are easy cleaning skate bearings.
Titanium Bearings. What do they consist of? What are they composed of? Are they faster or more resistant?
The Titanium Mosaic skate bearings’ outer ring and the inside are made with a thin layer of titanium. This makes them more resistant to corrosion. They are very fast, they are faster than the MOSAIC S1 skate bearings, and cost less than the Ceramics.
What can you tell us about Bones bearings? They have the reputation of being the best, could you tell us why? Could you make a comparison with your own bearings?
Bones has undoubtedly been the most recognized and best brand of skate bearings, manufactured with materials of very high quality, and they have done so for over 30 years. Right now I’d say that we have matched Bones quality, and perhaps even surpassed them given that we have a more competitive price on bearings of similar ranges. We manufacture with the highest quality materials, and our exclusive skate bearings’ lubricant SR1 makes ours some of the fastest and most durable bearings on the market in each price range.