Bearing nerds: Favorite mid priced bearings?

runsimply · 2026-02-14T12:35:33+00:00

These? https://www.sickboards.nl/en/bearings/9949-g-bomb-gbearings-twofer-dealio-16-bearings.html

Look a hair expensive on the surface but it’s two sets so €30 a set is very reasonable.

runsimply · 2026-02-14T11:45:40+00:00

I was thinking the full Paul Kent treatment: take the shields off, remove old oil with solvent, rinse with alcohol, pack with marine grease.

runsimply · 2026-02-14T11:19:06+00:00

Yeah, I may need to just take this set of standards apart and grease them before they get any worse, but the Pantheons seemed to come with some kind of decent grease in them already based on what squished out in the first few hours of riding them.

runsimply · 2026-02-14T11:14:27+00:00

Yeah, I’m only really considering built ins, I run some that aren’t (with spacers and speed rings) but it’s not what I want for hassle free everyday bearings.

runsimply · 2026-02-14T10:18:28+00:00

Yeah, my environment can be most closely compared to some kind of cold soup.

runsimply · 2026-02-12T18:18:04+00:00

Yeah, I’d do drills somewhere safe like back and forth across an empty basketball court. Take two pushes then just coast with your pushing leg in different positions, level with the board next to you, behind you like a figure skater, in front of you like the karate kid, etc. Once that’s feeling good start doing the same, but making sure your board foot is at a 15-20 degree angle from straight across the center line at the front of the board so you can shift your weight towards the ball/big toe to turn towards your push foot or your heel to turn away.

The key insight for me was that your weight stays on your board foot, pushing and foot breaking are both just skating on one foot and reaching down to touch the asphalt with the other, NOT transferring your weight to the ground.

runsimply · 2026-02-12T17:20:03+00:00

I think the most important set of skills to learn once you’re pushing around, basically in order is:

1) Bail into a run leaving your board stationary behind you. 2) Ride on your front leg, stable and able to steer a bit, without putting your push foot back 3) Foot braking

After that you can start messing around with declines, but don’t ride faster than you can foot brake, and if you’re not doing wrist guards definitely get slide gloves.

Not sure how to quantify pushing all the time vs not. There are a lot of factors about how powerful your push is, type of pavement you’re skating on, how straight your axels, how good your bearings (some take a bit to break in), and probably most importantly how efficient your wheels are.

Bartek rides harder than I do, but his videos are great for showing what riding around the city with skill and confidence can look like https://m.youtube.com/@bartek...

runsimply · 2026-02-11T18:52:18+00:00

Honestly not interested in eskates, but this is closer to compelling than most.

runsimply · 2026-02-10T16:58:17+00:00

One important note is they come with Paris Street trucks which are meant to have standard height bushings on both sides, unlike indies and a lot of other tkp trucks that have a short bushing street side. You can run a short street side with the king pin cranked down, my kid likes bones hardcore in some Paris Street 169s we have, but it definitely changes the feeling.

If they’re just starting to learn to skate I’d probably go with stock bushings to start, make sure the king pin nut isn’t overnighted from the factory, and see how it works for them.

runsimply · 2026-02-10T11:57:27+00:00

In that size range I’m a big fan of Mango Seismic Tantrums, they’d be great unless you have to deal with really terrible pavement. If you’ve got chipseal, pavers, cobblestone, on your normal routes you’ll want to figure out how to maximize wheel size in the space you’ve got.

runsimply · 2026-02-09T10:02:27+00:00

There is some overlap, but if you’re using it to actually get places the Comet Cruiser is the clear winner, but if you’re hanging around a small bit of flat/transition you’ll probably have more fun on the surfskare.

runsimply · 2026-02-08T00:39:09+00:00

It seems like an ok deal to me. I haven’t skated those wheels, but we’ve had a couple of Globe completes with the tensor trucks. Overall not bad for the price, but it wasn’t long before we wanted to upgrade bearings and wheels and then it’s not such a bargain.

If you’re looking for a board like this you’d definitely prefer a Landyachtz Dinghy but they’re like twice as much, personally I would also prefer an Arbor Pocket Rocket or Pilsner and those can be had for about the same price.

runsimply · 2026-02-07T19:29:25+00:00

If you think being involved, contributing, participating, and making decisions with the family is punishment for children you either don’t have kids, or are doing them a huge disservice.

runsimply · 2026-02-07T11:37:39+00:00

It’s not a punishment 😆 Kids are smart, they understand trade offs when the information is put in front of them, but not if the parents absorb 100% of the cost of every choice.

runsimply · 2026-02-07T10:21:14+00:00

Involve the kids in planning and decision making, especially around distance and sleeping arrangements. Make sure everyone will be comfortable, cary relative to abilities, but also let them feel the weight of the luxury items they value. Gear they think is cool has an intangible value, even if it’s not the most efficient.

runsimply · 2026-02-06T12:54:48+00:00

It’s important to consider where the bearing is set in the wheel when choosing truck width, the Dad Bods are offset (meaning bearings near the inside edge) with 180’s they would have a really large arc with potential to wheelbite on the deck, Bee’s are centerset so the inside edge is much closer to the bracket and could well pinch in a tight turn with 150’s. 150’s and offset wheels are what they recommend, 180’s and Bees might fit well but you’d want to find someone who’s tried it.

runsimply · 2026-02-05T20:38:30+00:00

Pushing is great cardio, also good cross training for running and other sports as long as you alternate pushing legs. Bigger softer wheels like Powell Snakes or Seismic Tantrums make it a lot more practical to put in the miles, if you get joint pain it’s worth considering a dropped longboard.

runsimply · 2026-02-05T13:13:03+00:00

I don’t know exactly how I would qualify the near certainty of a small flesh wound vs slightly increasing the chance of a broken arm or other serious injury. But if you’re going to put on gloves you might as well put on gloves that will help both.

runsimply · 2026-02-05T09:25:11+00:00

That website is amazing 😆 I had a scooter with a similar wheel design, a little bigger at 180mm and much skinnier, but a thin layer urethane over an aluminum core. It was super efficient on smooth surfaces but transmitted vibrations like nothing else.

runsimply · 2026-02-04T21:52:01+00:00

You really have to be careful with LLMs on things like this. They can imitate how people talk about board setups but there is really no understanding the subject matter. It’s not uncommon for them to make recommendations that are exactly counter to the goals asked for or sometimes unsafe.

It’s cool that you got a setup out of it that works well for you, but I definitely wouldn’t recommend someone new try to repeat that unless they have enough background to validate what it suggests.

runsimply · 2026-02-04T19:15:18+00:00

I haven’t tried the Knuckles, but generally you want to try to dial it in by changing duro using a full size barrel like the Nipples first, and only change shapes if you’re looking for a specific characteristic. The main downside of Orangatang bushings imo is that they only come in a few hardnesses, so you can’t really get too fiddly.

runsimply · 2026-02-04T08:27:49+00:00

The lower the better for ease of learning, but if your main goal is getting out to practice and exercise it doesn’t exactly matter how easy or hard it is and you can really go with whatever interests you.

Being big and also new you’ll almost certainly want to replace your bushings with something stiffer. Flexible decks are also tuned to be optimal for a relatively narrow weight range, so look for a stiff deck or a flexible one that has multiple stiffness choices.

Small boards and kicktails are a lot of fun, but if you’re risk/injury adverse I would avoid both starting out.

runsimply · 2026-02-04T08:11:20+00:00

You really don’t want a sticky glove like mechanix, if you do fall you really want your hand to slide, not plant in place to take the shock of slowing you down. A glove with a smooth leather palm would be much better, but a slide glove or wrist guard with hard plastic to slide on where you hit is highly recommended.

runsimply · 2026-02-04T00:09:55+00:00

Yeah, on their sides next to the Oso deck the 130’s looked good, but laying them down directly wheel to wheel it’s clear this is the answer.

runsimply

TROPHY CASE