Best Bearing Spacers for Skateboards: Top 5 for Your Consideration in 2022

Bearing

The bearing is one of the most crucial parts of skateboard that enables the wheel to spin. The bearing includes five components: inner race, outer race, ball, crown and shield.

Among those, the inner race and outer race are the central parts. Inner race should be set tightly in the axle where it can hold in and stay stable. Balls separate the inner race from the outer race. They eliminate friction and let the outer spin. That’s how the wheels can roll in the road.

There are usually eight bearings under the decks. So, they can maximize sustainability and speed.

Bearing Spacer

Bearing spacers are set among bearing. As its name, it creates a space between two wheels. It looks like a cylinder made from metal.

Bearing spacers do help a lot in improving skateboarding quality. It affects the movement and also durability.

How can spacers be that good?

Smoother Sliding and Rolling

Within the setting of bearing spacers, wheels and bearing can be set in place and reduce friction.

Let’s imagine the installation of spacers as below. Spacer sits between two bearing and keeps them separated. Space eliminates the possibility of traction and chattery between two wheels (or bearing).

That is the reason why wheels will not collide and make noise when you are sliding.

When the wheels keep in touch and traction is born, you may have trouble with your movements. Generally, you will move slower. Or worse, the wheels might stop riding or get stuck.

It’s also a supporter of faster riding.

More Durable Wheels

When the wheels or bearing hit each other during the ride, it might cause noise. It might not bother you much at first time. However, long-lasting traction can damage the wheels.

The most dangerous situation comes unexpectedly. When the bearing has to withstand too much pressure in a certain of time, it can explode. The situation may threaten your safety if bearing explosions occur during the ride.

Now, it’s time to reveal its secret.

Durability

Usually, there are six ball bearings in a set. They are held by the crown laying between inner and outer bearing. The balls will move around the inner then cause the external to rotate. It’s how the wheels can spin.

Thus, it’s understood that balls should be the part which rotates the most. Besides, there are spaces for dust and dirt among the balls. Literally, these stainless balls will have a long lifespan because of its shape. However, erosion happens faster than we thought.

Without spacers, the ring off the ball will be the centre of dust; there are no spaces for the dust gets out after getting in. Therefore, metal beads inside, besides confronting traction from themselves, face rubbing from unwelcomed obstacles.

With spacers, dust will be pushed out of the rings. Most of them stay in the middle of two bearings – the spacers. Needless to say, it helps a lot in reducing erosion.

Plus, when the erosion occurs, your wheels have problems with moving.

Security

Without spacers, bearings lie next to each other. That’s the main reason of chattery wheels. No matter how correctly the bearings, you cannot make sure they spin at the same frequency.

Besides, when they sit door-to-door, all force during riding pours into the same point. Now, the axle is handling uneven pressure.

Within spacers, all these problems are solved.

Firstly, the bearing spacers make up a room between two wheels. As a result, no frictional contact occurs. Secondly, the place between can share pressure on the axle more evenly. In fact, that also means the better balance and more durable axle.

The Attitude

We know that many people doing skateboarding love speed. Speed is also the challenge that skateboarding offers best. They are all aggressive.

So how to maintain, or even enhance the speed?

The key, absolutely, depends on the function by wheels. However, to maintain the wheel performance, reserving bearings is essential.

Without spacers, spinning appears good at the beginning but no longer after that.

Within spacers, the situation lasts longer. Speed is stable as well as the sturdiness of the wheel along every movement you made on streets.

The Decks

Every deck provides different skateboarding performance. For example, a longboard can help you do quick cut and turns.

If you are not asking for skateboarding with high speed and instant flexibility, the spacer is not indeed.

Spacers create stability under continuous pressure on the wheels. Therefore, faced with the sudden turn or speed up, your skateboard can take control as still.

However, all of those feature can be exposed most efficiently only when you choose the right bearing spacer.

If you are still confusing if all spacers bring the same effect, the next part is for you.

Examine Your Situation

Let’s check if you need a spacer. Some skateboards come with the long-sleeved inner bearing. Therefore, the inner has left a room between them on their own.

In this case, spacers are no need.

The Brands or Design of Bearing

We are talking about the model of your skateboard.

Generally, all of the spacers, if it fits your board, work the same. And, the axle and bearing are made in the same size for many skateboards, so that people can come by spacers from retailers.

However, there’s also the exception.

Some brands come with specific diameters. Therefore, either you buy the spacers specialized by brand or skate without spacers.

The micro-bearings are much smaller in width. Thus, the size for spacer must be different responding to the diameter of the bearings. Sometimes, you cannot even find suitable ones.

Besides, you can try possible choices to find out the best spacers.

The Size of the Axle

There are common three sizes for an axle. They are 6 or 7 and 8 mm.

Axle decides how the spacers are set up within bearings.

With small axis like 6 or 7 mm, spacers stay with inner bearings.

With 8mm, you should expect floating spacers because, at this size, you cannot set it up with the inner ring.

Material

For variant demand of users, spacers can be made from plastic or metal.

Plastic might be less bulky. They are more affordable but less durable. Metal is sustainable material which suffers the weather and high pressure.

Side Effects of Wrong Picks

The key to choosing the right spacers lay in size: too loose or too tight spacers all-cause adverse effects to bear and the axle.

The wrong size cannot even improve the situation but worsen it faster.

Let’s us give you some recommendation