Materials needed: Mineral Spirits (Paint thinner), Rubbing alcohol, Bearing Lube, Hair dryer and paper towels

Cleaning your skateboard bearings is extremly important if you don't want to be squeaking around. A cleaning is usually necessary about every 40 hours of use, after every time riding in the rain but mostly just when your feeling some resistance from your bearing.

The first step is to just take a paper towel and get the dirt off the exterior of the bearing. Next, pop off the shield, which can be seen in the image above. This can be done by using a razor blade or knife. Some bearings have an open race and this step can be skipped. Now that the inside of the bearing is exposed, soak the bearings in mineral spirits, aka paint thinner for 30 or so minutes. The bearings can be left in there overnight if you feel as if they need an extra long bath. Take the bearing out of the the cup or whatever they are in and place them on a paper towel to dry for a few seconds. Now it is time to soak the bearings in rubbing alcohol, the higher the content the better. Swish them around in the solution for 5 minutes then remove them.

A hair dryer is now useful to accelerate the drying process, hold it over the bearings until you are sure they are dry. Alcohol evaporates very rapidly so it shouldn't take too long. Now put 2 drops of bearings lube in the bearing, not grease inless you are planning on doing exclusivly sidewalk surfing. Spin the bearings around a few times so the lube gets spread throughout the bearing and it should be functioning like new. Alls thats left to do is put the shields back on, bearings back in the wheels and go skate.

My recommenations on lube are Tri-Flow "superior lubricant." It is not marketed as skateboard bearing lubricant but is essentially the same thing making it much less expensive for a much larger quantity. However Swiss bones makes "speed cream" which in my experience is as good as tri flow and if you pick that up you will be supporting the skate industy.