How to clean your bearings

Green= wheel, black= hub, silver and red circle= bearing, silver hexagon= lock nut  Image

Before I begin the "how to" part of cleaning your bearings, you might want to first understand the structure of a bearing. What is a bearing? To put it simply, it's the little round thing in the middle of your wheel that makes your wheel spin. In this image the bearing is that little red circle underneath the lock nut. My apologies if it is unclear as to which part is the bearing; I will have my own images and a video uploaded by the end of the week (I hope...I can't make any promises but I will try!) to make this post easier to follow. I would have it up now, but I'm having some technical troubles... In the meantime, please bear with me (ha get it? Bear? Like bearing?).
Anyways, now what are the parts of the bearing? This picture may help answer that question:

Image

Some bearings do not have the rubber shield. The shield in the picture to the left is black, and the shield in the picture above is red.
Now that you know what a bearing is, I will show you how to clean it. Materials you will need include: 

• Pure acetone or another solvent or citrus cleaner (if you're using a harsh solvent like acetone, make sure to read the label and dispose of it properly!)
• thumb tack
• lubricant (I use Bones^® Speed Cream^®)
•  container or jar that won't be destroyed by your solvent (I use and highly recommend the Bones^® Bearing Cleaning Unit)
• towels
• compressed air (optional)
• gloves (optional)

Okay, so you have all your materials and you are ready to go. First, you'll want to set up towels on a table to lay and dry your bearings. Here we go:

1. Remove the rubber shield from your bearing using a thumb tack. Lightly slide the end of the tack under the shield on the inner part of the bearing (where the shield touches the inner race) and carefully pry it upwards. The shield should pop right out. You do not want to poke the tack into the shield. You are sliding it between the inner race and the shield. Once the shield has popped out, lift it out with your fingers, being careful not to bend or damage it. Some bearings have a shield on both the front and the back of the bearing. If this is the case for you, make sure to remove both of them, or they will likely get damaged by the solvent. Do this for all 16 of your bearings. You can clean this with soap and water, but make sure they are completely dry before you put them back on your bearings at the very end.
2. Place one bearing on the axle of your Bones^® Bearing Cleaning Unit (I will post additional instructions if you do not have the cleaning unit). Place one of the spacers that comes with the unit on the axle, then continue alternating your bearings and spacers until there is no room on the axle. It should fit eight bearings and there should be a spacer between each bearing. Screw on the little end piece to keep all the bearings and spacers in place.
3. Pour a little bit more than an inch of your solvent into the container.
4. Screw on the lid that contains your bearings and spacers.
5. Shake the container to agitate the solution for about a minute.
6. Unscrew the lid and spin your bearings on the axle. If they aren't spinning correctly or you do not feel they are clean yet, repeat step five as many times as you see fit.
7. Remove your bearings and let them dry. This is where you can use compressed air, but this can get messy. Make sure you are wearing glasses or goggles, and you may want to do this outside so your solvent isn't being sprayed all over your table. I just use a lint free towel to dry mine.
8. Once you have cleaned and completely dried all 16 bearings, add your lubricant. Never skip this step!! It can cause your bearings to freeze up and that is no fun. If you are using the Bones Speed Cream, put one drop of lubricant on one side of your bearing and another drop on the other side (not one drop on the front side and one on the back side, I mean one on the left side and one on the right side)
9. Place your shields back on the bearings by lightly applying pressure to the insides and outsides of them and they should pop right back in. If they are bubbly looking, take them out and try again until they are smoothly back in your bearing.

There you go! You just cleaned your bearings! I will be posting an instructional video and additional pictures by the end of the week I hope. I know it's super lame that I'm posting this now and then I have to edit it later, but this is a blog for school and this post was due by midnight on November 22nd, so I had to at least get something posted, and I am having some technical difficulties at the moment. Thank you! I hope this at least helped a little. Feel free to ask any questions.

Whip It: Is it a good portrayal of roller derby?

"do you think whip it portrays roller derby well? do you think it's a good or bad thing"

A couple of weeks ago I received this question on another blog of mine, and I thought it would be a fantastic discussion topic for this blog. I feel like Whip It did a pretty stellar job of portraying the life of a girl falling in love with roller derby. I don't know if I can speak for everyone here, but my own experience was almost exactly like Bliss’s. I even found out about derby almost the same way Bliss did, but that is beside the point. The whole “putting on skates every moment you can, sneaking around skating when you’re not supposed to, blowing all your money on gear, practicing nonstop until you can get things right, trying to look tough in the mirror and practicing your derby pose, making sacrifices to play derby” stuff that Bliss did in the movie perfectly describes my best friend, who joined derby with me, and me.  

Maggie encouraging Bliss to join the team. Image here

     Whip It is probably one of the best representations of roller derby that the tv/movie industry has come up with so far (in my opinion at least…which may be a little biased because I am absolutely in love with every single thing about this movie, and I actually like it waaay better than the book by far). I have seen derby in a few shows, all of which, of course, portray it very poorly and they only used the typical derby stereotypes. Which is fine I guess, because hey, it sells, but it is in no way representative of the sport. Whip It shows the reality of derby. It consumes your life, it is addicting, and it is something that most people fall in love with instantly, like Bliss did. It also really captures the essence of the derby community and family, which is a MAJOR part of derby to me. This is especially shown in Bliss and Maggie’s relationship, and when Bliss tells the team that she is underage. Maggie completely takes Bliss under her wing when she is a newbie, and is immediately there for her when things are rough for her at home. When Bliss tells the team she is underage, they aren't angry. They are concerned and right away they start figuring out how to get Bliss to be able to play. Roller derby is not just a sport, it’s a lifestyle. Whip It definitely captured this idea well.
     One of the only things the film didn’t exactly represent accurately is the rules. They show lots of

You might want to check that rule about elbows, ladies... Image here

punching, tripping, fighting, elbowing, and overall some pretty bad sportsmanship, which is definitely not how derby is played anymore. Now that I think about it, I do wish there was a bit more gameplay in the movie, but I understand why there isn’t. A derby game is fast-paced and hard to follow for people who don’t understand the rules, and this movie was not necessarily directed toward derby players and people who know the game, so it makes sense that they didn’t show a ton of pack action.
     Anyways, to put it plainly, yes, I do believe Whip It portrayed derby very well, and I would love to hear the opinions and views of other skaters on this topic, as well!

First day of freshmeat bootcamp

"The first day of fresh meat boot camp is tomorrow. Do you have any advice for me?"

This post is in response to an anonymous "ask" I received on another blog of mine (shown on the right).
Well I am glad you asked! First of all, congratulations!! You are going to have an absolute blast.

• Make sure you’re really paying attention to what the coaches are teaching you, and make sure you’re trying your best to do it. Practice is the time to really push yourself and make lots of mistakes, because it’s how you learn. When you’re learning something new, I know it can be easy to get embarrassed or discouraged, but there’s no need for that! You will be with a group of skaters struggling with the same thing as you, and you will be with coaches who remember exactly what it was like to be in your shoes.



Whoo look at me falling! Photo by the wonderful russellrenophotography

• If you’re falling a lot… GOOD! That’s what it’s all about- falling down and getting right back up. It’s awesome when you fall, because that means that you’re trying your hardest, and that is what derby is all about. 

• Stay low! Keep your knees bent as much as you can, and keep your back straight- don’t bend forward at your waist, because that doesn’t help you much at all. This is called derby stance, and you want to keep it pretty much the entire time you’re skating. It helps to get used to this early on, because when you start scrimmaging you’ll be able to take and give hits better, and it also helps to stabilize you. Also, if you fall, you’ll be closer to the ground so it’ll hurt less. It will burn the hell out of your thighs at first, but it will gradually get easier and easier. After a while it may also start hurting your back, but try to stick with it and push through it, as that will go away too… I’m not sure if that’s good advice medically speaking, but that is what my coaches have told us, and no one has injured their back yet, so there’s that…
• Usually, your coaches will explain and demonstrate something to the group (at least in my

  

  Bliss from Whip It knows what I'm talkin' about. Ask questions!

  league), and then they let everyone go onto the track to try it out. If you are totally lost when they’re explaining what you’re doing, ask questions. They’re there to help you, so don’t feel nervous approaching them or asking in front of the group, because I bet there is at least one other skater in the group with the same question that’s just too nervous to speak up. Also, when you try out what they’re teaching you, you can always call a coach over to watch you do it and see if you’re doing it right (I still do this), and they’ll be able to troubleshoot with you and let you know what you need to fix (or they’ll tell you that you’re doing it perfectly, which is always awesome).
• Look ahead of you at where you are trying to go, not at your feet. My coach told me this on my first practice and it helped soooo muuuuuch.
• When you fall, pick a cheek. Butt cheek that is. Yeah it sounds funny, but it’s what you have to do. You never want to fall right in the middle on your tailbone, because that hurts. A lot. So pick a side (left or right) to land on when you’re falling, rather than falling on your tailbone.
• This isn’t so much for your first day of camp, but in general you should try to get in some extra rink time if possible. If your rink has public sessions, go to them! The more time you spend on your skates, the better. You’ll be more familiar with how everything works, and when you’re at practice you’ll be able to spend less time on keeping your balance and more time on learning how to stop, do crossovers, etc. It’s also a great time to get extra practice trying to do the things you learned at training. It is really hard to improve if you don’t put in extra time on your own. Also, watch some derby! Go on youtube or derbynewsnetwork, watch some gameplay, and learn the rules.
• I had something else to say but I can’t remember so it probably wasn’t that important
• Finally, just don’t compare yourself to others. Everyone learns at their own pace, and I promise there is always that one newbie that makes you wonder if this really was their first practice because they just learn everything so quickly (and that might even be you!). 

Basically, just don’t get discouraged, get back up when you fall, don’t quit, talk to the other skaters (newbies and veterans), and have a blast! This may feel like too much to process, but the most important thing you can do is remember that you are there to learn and improve and have fun while doing it. Any other skaters have some advice?