I’ll give you a bit of background. I’ve been in the bearing industry for 11 or so years now. No, its not “exciting” but it can be interesting at times and I work with some really good people. I am not a P.Eng but I do know a fair amount about bearings and power transmission items. Far more so than the average schmuck.
So, with that being said, I will now say this:
**NO!!! ABEC 7 BEARINGS WILL NOT MAKE YOUR ROLLERBLADES GO FASTER THAN AN ABEC 1 BEARING!!! **
There! I said it! And yes, its true!! I don’t give a shit what you say!
This is one of those cases were a little bit of knowledge is worse than none. I don’t give a shit if you and your pimply teen-aged face has been selling rollerblades for 2 years. That does not make you an expert in bearings. You have absolutely no fucking clue what you’re talking about… and everytime you try to justify it you make yourself sound even more like an idiot. You are a tool of some rollerblade bullshit marketing machine, and thats it. If you genuinely DO notice a difference, its due to one of two things:
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Its in your head and you are trying to justify your purchase to yourself.
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The bearings you use are absolute shit.
Here is a rule of thumb. If it actually says in the bearing what ABEC rating it is, chances are its junk. I have never, ever seen a bearing say what its ABEC rating is actually on it other than possibly coded into the part number (which an average joe blow couldn’t understand, nor would there be a need) or MAYBE written on with an electric pencil. I actually have very serious doubts that one of these “high-performance” rollerblade 608’s would actually be any better (or even comperable) to a standard 608 you would get in any bearing shop. I wouldn’t be suprised if they are actually worse. I wish I had the facilites to test them but I do not, but from what I could tell by looking at them the overall quality of many of them just doesn’t look right.
And no, the “good quality” bearings don’t have shields and some mysterious goop in them that “keep out the dirt”. That has fuck all to do with the “quality” of them. And no, if they are made out of “titanium” that is not going to make you go faster either.
So please, save your money and my time. The only factors with a “quality” bearing that is going to have the even the slightest impact on how fast they help you go in rollerblades are this:
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The drag that lubricant has on the rotation of the bearing.
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The drag that the sealing mechanism has on the bearing.
And both of those are minimal.
A true, quality ABEC 1 608 bearing that costs about $3 with comperable grease/oil and seal/shielding will perform just as well as a $35 true ABEC 7. The ABEC rating has absolutely, positively nothing to do with it. End of story.