I have felt the difference in roll between different wheels, but I have no experience with bearings. All I have ever used is the ones that came with my skates and some that I bought online. I don't even recall what brand they were.
I am looking into getting new bearings now. I know you all probably have different favorites based on what you have or have owned in the past, but my real question is what (if any) difference is there between a generic ABEC 5, 7, or 9 bearing and a name-brand bearing? Are we paying for the name? Is there any actual data or is this really just subjective? I am looking for truth. I don't want to spend a bunch of money on a set of bearings and not feel the difference between them and the ebay specials. If they are as good but last longer, that would be good, too.
the only bearings made for skating are bones swiss bearings... the new qube bearings seem to have a good rep but i havent tryed them myself enough to speak for them.... the abec rated bearings are junk and abec ratings mean nothing once the bearings has been skated and side loads have been put on the bearing.... abec is just a marketing ploy to get people to buy cheaper bearings thinking they are better... i have some real machinary bearings that will skate better then any abec 7 or 9, and the machinary bearings i have are rated at a abec 1.... so when it comes to someone saying their abed 3 roll better then their abec 5's most likely is all in their head... they might be a little better when it comes to quality but thats it
now Bones bearings... they are made to keep rolling around a turn without binding... my machinary bearings are great and for what i payed for them they are worth it but they will bind in the turn and you will lose alot of speed.... for the price everyone says bones reds are great... ive skated them and they are a great bearing but are made from cheaper material and only lasted me about a year... the best bearing ive liked so far considering price is the bones swiss... they last a long time if you take care of them and they roll great... i dont see it worth it to buy the bones ceramics....
now my testing was done all in one night with the same wheels... i put black shields in all the bearings i had(all new with about 2 hours on each for break in time then cleaned and re-lubed) the reds had the least amount of roll yet kept their speed in in the turns somewhat decent... the machinary bearings out rolled the reds yet speed was lost in turns.... the swiss bearings had the best roll in the turns and on the straights... the ceramics were smoothest and rolled great but like i said above i dont see it worth the money...
so blind testing without knowing which bearings i skated(friend putting them in my wheels with black shields so i couldnt look down and see which were which)
best: ceramics
2nd: swiss
3rd: machinary
4th:reds
considering my machinary bearings were of a better quality then any abec rated skate bearing sold and also better rolling then any other ones ive seen (many people i gave these bearings to so they can compare them to the abec rated bearings they received with their skates) everyone said they could tell the diffrence between a real machinary abec rated bearing vs their abec 3,5,7, or 9s when all were knowing mine were abec 1's... all chose my abec 1 eated machinary bearings vs theirs so in my testing i would put these cheaper types of bearings in 5th place below reds
i havent tryed any of the qube bearings enough to speak for them at all so they are still a choice with everyone saying the qube 8balls are great
I never did any blind testing, but I am pretty confident that my Bones Reds are better than the cheapies that I used to use.
I suppose that if you don't skate very much or very hard it might not be worth the money to you. Maybe you could spend the money better at the snack bar. But if you want to get the most from what you have, I think it is money well spent. You just need to take care of them to get your moneys worth out of them.
I can't answer for the really expensive ones. There are probably some that offer a slight advantage for much more money that only a competitive racer would go for. There seems to be some of that in every sport.
I'm to broke all the time to invest in good bearings, but when I can, look out world!!
My thought is this: If each bearing rolls just slightly more efficiently, multiply that by 16. Little bits add up when you are dealing with that many little bits. Make sense?
for the price and if your short on money the reds will be fine for anyone here... just take real good care of them...
In looking back at this thread, it occurred to me that there are two questions:
Is there a vast difference between average bearings and high-end bearings?
Are high-end bearings worth the big jump in price over average bearings?
The first question can be solved scientifically as you did, Niteridr.
The second question it the one that is subjective. You have to look at that based on your need for a good bearing and your ability and willingness to spend the moolah on the good stuff.
see i kinda answered that... for price on the bones swiss... i say its worth it all day i had a set last me 10 years and they still run great... the 2 sets im on right now are both from the early 80's.... i didnt feel like cleaning my swiss's one year so i threw in a set of reds.... at the time i didnt really notice much of a diffrence in speed and smoothness but i was also like 15 years old.... a year later after the same normal use the swiss bearings went threw the reds were dieing.... so i would say the bones swiss is worth it no mater what
the ceramics... yes they are smoother... but worth twice as much??? i myself a very very big person into speed... no i dont see it worth it...
I remember when grease was used in the old bearings. I have an old set that is just as good as they were when my brother quit skating them 25 years ago. And the grease was still good too, that was a surprise.
Need to break in some bearings over a few hour session. Then some others on more sessions(same length of time skating them) then put them on a test stand and loading them down some how for a test using a hard wheel to take the wheel resistance out of the equation