Re: Micro bearings - was - My new K2 Mod Lts

On Tue, 25 Nov 2003 08:46:01 -0600, "B Fuhrmann"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

>> Pat" wrote ...
>> I am a little nervous about the micro bearings...
>
>I forgot to add, my opinion is that the jury is still out on 688 bearings.
>They are generally more expensive.  Racers think that they help, but it they
>THINK they help then it improves their attitude and may affect their time
>even if the bearings are not better.
>
>I am very impressed with the TwinCam 688s that came in my Salomon Vitesse
>III skates with Salomon OEM wheels.
>
>They felt quite sluggish the first 20-40 miles that I skated and I bought
>other wheels for racing and figured that I would use the 688 wheels and
>bearings for daily use until they wore out.  My experience has been that the
>better Labeda wheels roll better than OEM wheels that I have had in the
>past.
>
>Since wheels/bearings just don't wear out where I skate in the winter, I
>left the "race" setup in my skates for the next month.
>
>I still had my "race" setup on the skates when I went to Florida last March
>for the Disney Inline Marathon when I ran into water on the Friday Night
>Skate down there, which left me with the Salomon/TwinCam set to use for the
>race.
>
>I was very surprised at how fast they were.  They instantly became my race
>set and were used for the other races that I went to this year.  I went back
>to my old everyday wheels/bearings.
>
>Some people say that they are hard to clean and grease.  I have cleaned one
>set and found that it is no harder to clean them than 608s and they were
>essentially perfect afterwards.
>That set was a "throw away" from another person.  They are BSB branded, made
>in China, with blue shields.
>They were just being squeaky, no water damage.
>
>I don't know about life span of the 688s.  Racers really don't care.
>Most of my bearings die from run ins with water which doesn't care what the
>bearing style is.
>
>Just my overly windy way of saying - don't give up on the 688s too soon, you
>may find that you like them.

The Ninja 688 bearings that came with my rollerblades now have 40
miles on them, (after a little work on the boots in the kitchen heat
setting in the heel area).  

The shields on the bearing have so far kept the fine grained sand that
is usually a problem in my area completely out.  Most 608 bearings I
have tried fail this test miserably.

I skated for a slow 20 miler yesterday breaking in the memory fit in
the new boots and did notice the difference in weight of the bearings
at that distance.  At 10 or 11 miles an hour solo you can't tell much
difference in speed because of the wind resistance.  Rolling
resistance is clearly negligable.  When I got home I spun the bearings
by hand to see if I had picked up any sand and the wheels spun a lot
longer than most 608 bearings and the wheels made made a pendulum
motion when they finally stopped turning.

Since I don't race I am not sure the reduced weight and added speed
capabilities of the Ninja 688's are necessary for me.  What I am
curious about is whether or not these bearings will last as long as a
pair of 608's?  Typically my ABEC 5 608 bearings go through several
sets of wheels before they degrade to ABEC 3 and get tossed.

I still think ruggedness is a valid question for fitness skaters.  If
you only skate these Ninjas on sunny days how many miles would a 170
pound fitness skater averaging 10 - 12 MPH get out of these 688's
before they are ABEC 3's?