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Tips on Looking After Your Skates
By Janet Ashby
Maintaining your skates is extremely important, not only to ensure the long life of your skates but for a smooth, safe ride. Skates need routine maintenance as listed below. Wheel Nuts These will need to be checked every few months, more often if you skate a lot. Using a 1/2″ wrench tighten the nuts until they are tight with almost no play but not so tight that they stop the smooth rolling of the wheel. Toe stoppers There are two types of toe stoppers, non adjustable and Carrera type adjustable stoppers. For the non adjustable stoppers check them weekly to make sure they have not become loose from the vibrations caused by frequent stopping. Tighten them with a screwdriver as tight as you can. Adjustable stoppers require less maintenance as vibrations do not cause loosening. They can be adjusted by loosening the nut on the toe stoppers base and adjusting the height by hand. Re-tighten the nut when you are finished adjusting. They should be checked to make sure the nut is tight every six months. Trucks Some people prefer their trucks to be looser as they are more flexible but harder to control when skating fast. Tighter trucks are easier to control but not so flexible. Experiment with your skates to find the tightness that you prefer. For standard kingpins the locking nut must be loosened first using a suitable wrench. The tension can then be adjusted by turning the king pin to change the tension. To loosen turn counterclockwise, to tighten turn clockwise. Once adjusted be sure to re-tighten the locking nut. For inverted kingpins the tension is tightened by turning the kingpin with a wrench. There is no locking nut. Adjustable Plates Some skates, Blue Love and Soul Train makes, have plates that can be adjusted to allow the independent adjustment of each truck especially for freestyle or artistic skating A wider setting is used for the usual recreational setting and most skates will be set for this when purchased as new. You can experiment with varying the width. Wider settings give more stability and control at greater speeds, narrower settings are used when you require tighter turns or spinning. Make small adjustments and see how they feel and how much control you have. Adjusting the Plates Find the locking nut at the base of truck and loosen with a wrench. Adjust the spacing by hand by sliding the assembly on the track. Re-tighten the locking nut as much as possible. Check that this nut is tight at least once a month. Changing the Bearings Bearings will need to be changed after six months to a years use, depending on how often they are used. You will know it’s time to change them when skating is not a smooth as it was and when they start to become noisy. The ball bearings are enclosed in a casing on every wheel and essential to the smooth running of the skates. Bearings can be damaged by skating in wet conditions or on dirt or sand. Most skates have standard 8mm bearings that are easily available.
This intel first appeared on: http://www.rollerskatesltd.com/2008/12/06/tips-on-looking-after-you...
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The copyright for this content entitled "Tips on Looking After Your Skates" has been specified by the contributor as:
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This intel was contributed by janetra
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May, 2012
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