5. What should I know about bearings?

Basically, all inline skates use the same types of bearings. These are commonly referred to as 608 bearings. However, all 608 bearings are not equal. Like every thing else in life there are different quality levels. To help rate the quality of bearings, the ABEC rating of 1, 3, 5 and 7 is commonly used. A higher ABEC number indicates that the bearings were manufactured to higher tolerances. Bearings that do not have an ABEC rating are usually low quality.

6.How often should I clean and lubricate my bearings?

It's really a matter of how psycho you want to be about cleaning. In a perfect world, you would clean and lubricate your bearings every time you used your skates. If you did this, your bearings would last a very long time. But we all know that almost nobody takes the time to do this. Of all the things that you have to do to your skates, taking the bearings apart so you can clean them is the most time consuming and dirty task. So most people don't do it more than they have to.

A good way to tell when you should clean your bearings, is to just flip your skates over and give your wheels a spin. Note how freely they spin and listen for any interesting noises they may be making. Crunching and/or grinding noises usually indicate dirt or debris in the bearings. Chirping and/or squeaking noises probably mean you should lubricate the bearings.