Expert riders know the importance of taking care of their longboards. Proper caring ensures high performance and long lasting usage of a longboard. The bearings and trucks need to care mostly.
The bearing is the most sensitive part of any longboard.
They work behind the acceleration of the speed and agility of any longboard. And the trucks ensure high responsive nature and helps to get good control over the board.
It’s hazardous to go out with a defective board. So you need to check that all the parts and accessories are in good condition on the move for a trip.
Check all the bearing are perfect and give a good spin, no breakage on the deck and trucks is well fitted with your board.
If you are a professional rider or use your board as a daily commuter to your campus or practice or any other distance riding, then you must maintain your board by checking, cleaning and replacing the defective parts at least two times a month.
For ensuring the high performance of your longboard, you must take care of your board regularly. Keep in the notice that after boarding your board may wet, dry your board when it’s wet and clean the bearing with some fixed schedule every week.
If the way you have ridden on is muddy or wet, then clean all the parts like – the deck, trucks, and wheels with an absorbent cloth after your trip.
It helps you to make sustainable usage of your board. I have seen professional longboarders clean their trucks after a ride and hang them on a wall.
These tricks not only act as a part of art but also increase the performance of the trucks.
In this article, I have tried to show you the best maintaining process of a longboard. This will be helpful for both beginner and expert riders to take care of their board and enjoy a safe riding experience.
You need these things to maintain your board
A pin or similar things.
- Lubricant
- Two or more containers
- Skate tools and screwdrivers
- Cloths
- Paper towel
- Strong Alcoholic spirits
- Soap/Detergent
- Hair dryer
For a well understanding of the user, I have divided the caring process into 6 steps. They are bellowed:
Step-1: Separate and Keep Small Parts in Different Containers
- Separate the small parts of your longboard- bearing, rubbery things and the rest.
- Keep the small parts in a small container.
- Put the metal in a metal container and poured in spirit to cover them all.
- Notice that some nuts have plastic interiors.
- For rubber and plastic use detergent, this gets some grease and most dirt off. Use a screwdriver to ensure complete soakage.
Step-2: Clean or Replace the Bearings
The bearing comes with a nylon cage and covers. Remove the cover using a pin.
- To pick out the metal cover of the bearing use a pin. The metal ring can flick out and get lost, so be careful.
- Take the ring and covers from both sides of the bearing and wash them thoroughly with the spirits.
- If you find any defect or breakage of a bearing replaces it with a new one.
- Place the bearing and their parts in a metal container and pour in spirit to cover.
The bearing should be clean separately from other metal parts, because often a heap of dirt comes out of them, making it harder to clean other parts. Again, stirred them with your screwdriver, it’s also very useful to spin the bearing to move the balls around and maximize soaking.
Step-3: Washing the Plastics and Rubber Parts
- Cleaning plastics and rubber with a strong spirit has been known to degrade these materials.
- Then stirred the contents to shake loose grim with a screwdriver.
- The soft bearing cover goes in the rubber or plastic container.
- Wiped the soapy parts to ensure further you got all grime from them.
Step-4: Drying the Parts
- After that metal parts need to be well dried, use a drier flower and blow dry the parts until they are scorched. Be careful not to blow parts away.
- Dry the soapy parts by the draining liquid then blow-drying them.
- Dry the bearings the same way you dried the metal parts, by draining, then blowing.
- And dry them well if you don’t, the remaining spirit will dilute the lube.
- Dry off excess lube with absorbent cloth/towel.
- Once again, place parts in a safe place where nothing can roll away.
Step-5: Setup and Finalization
Clean the bigger parts with a soapy cloth.
- Now spread (two or three drops) suitable oil/ grease in the bearing balls.
- Again spin the bearing to spread the lube.
- Clean the dry wheels. The bearing should be void of water.
- Replace the bearing cover and truck’s bushing.
- Give them a spin to check. If they make a lot of noise, they need more lube.
- Wipe your board.
- Everything is clean, so put them back together.
Step-6: Proper Adjustment
Sometimes the readjustment does not work properly. In fact, you need to lose or tight any parts of the board. After cleaning the parts when you set up it again you should try it so that you can ensure everything works well.
But many times truck or wheel doesn’t adjust properly. In this case, when you tried it you will understand where is the problem then you have to lose the truck or bearing or have to tight of those parts. While the full longboard will work according to your riding style, you can know it is fully ok.
Be careful about all the parts of your longboard. Take care of them and in exchange, they will provide you desirable enjoyment and long-lasting usability. Try to clean your board by separating all the parts following the above instructions every week or twice every month.
Notice any breakage or defect in your board, if found then replaces or fix the parts.
The bearing is the most sensitive part of any longboard, and they need to replace if face any trouble. So always observe if any breakage or fault arises in the bearings. I see that one of them not working accurately then you should replace them with a new bearing.
Final Verdict
Now you have gotten a clean board which able to make you’re riding more enjoyable and ensure high speed and agility. Proper maintenance ensures the long-time usability of your longboard. Keep going and make your leisure with fun longboarding tricks and performance.
By following this maintenance process, you can make your board more active and use it for a long time. Proper caring also ensures excellent service of a longboard; it makes your boarding more thrilling and enjoyable. So just not only ride your board but also take good care of it.