Inline Skating Notebook

Swiss, the beginning

Bones: since 1983, the name in high-performance Skate Bearings. Not miniature ball bearings for electric motors and industrial applications - but sport-specific bearings. The first Bones, Bones 'Swiss', were designed from the ground up by George A. Powell (of Powell-Peralta corporation) with a Swiss custom bearing manufacturer to be the best possible bearing for roller sports.

The first Bones bearings changed from a standard stamped-metal ball retainer to a high speed precision molded plastic one that could be removed by skaters to allow better cleaning of the bearing. They left one shield off so skaters could get to the inside of the bearing without any tools to clean and re-lubricate it. Next, they adjusted the tolerances and clearances to allow the bearing to take the combination side and vertical loads imposed by skating better than normal bearings do. Finally, the usual lubricant was replaced with a specially-developed one they named Speed Cream™.

Bones SWISS: setting the standard in precision skate bearings since 1983

Engineering this bearing for skating produced the fastest, most sought after, most successful bearing in the history of skateboarding, and its engineered success quickly translated to pro choice for Speed Skating. In fact, testing from Powell and his teams confirms it is still the fastest bearing you can buy for skating even after all these years and after many other companies have packaged and sold ABEC-1, 3, 5, 7 or 9 'super bearings' under a range of names and marketing campaigns.

Powell test all these bearings with custom equipment we have made to compare the important qualities of bearings like drag and vibration at high speeds and extended roll at low and medium speeds. Then have their team ride the bearings until the bearings die to see how long they will last and how they perform in actual skating environments. To quote Powell himself, "Some bearings are junk and some are pretty good, but no bearing we have ever tested has equalled the performance of Bones Swiss."

...Bones are finally distributed in Europe by CadoMotus, so check back to Pure Skating News to learn more about Bones Bearings and what they can do for your speed skating

ABEC versus Skate Rated

For the uninitiated, the ABEC rating of bearings appears to tell us the good, the bad, and the ugly of bearings. After all, with most bearings in the market the ABEC rating rises together with the price - suggesting that the higher the ABEC, the better the bearing?

George Powell, the founder of Bones Bearings, is always asked "What ABEC rating are your bearings?". But Bones are not ABEC rated, they are Skate Rated.

During the past 24 years, Bones Swiss have become legendary because of their superior speed quality, and longevity. Even though Bones Swiss are the highest performing bearing in skating, we don’t give them an ABEC rating.

The ABEC rating system has been around for the last 35 years. The purpose of the ABEC committee (Annular Bearing Engineers Committee) is not to test every manufacturer’s bearings and proclaim them good or bad, but to establish dimensions, tolerances, geometry, and noise standards for bearings in an attempt to aid industrial bearing manufacturers and users in the production, comparison and selection of bearings for general applications. However, since not all bearings are used in the same manner and environment, bearings should be redesigned for special uses (like skating). The ABEC rating system was never intended to be the only criteria used for selecting bearings for use in specialized applications.

Turning your bearings at 2,650 RPM

The ABEC rating system includes grades 1,3,5,7, and 9. The higher the ABEC rating, the tighter the tolerances are, making the bearing a more precision part. High precision and small tolerances are required for bearings to function at very high RPM, in products like power tools that must spin at 20-30,000 RPM. In an application like this, an ABEC - 7 or 9 bearing rating may be appropriate.

A speed skater using 100mm wheels and travelling at 50km/h is turning their bearings at 2,650 RPM (less if they use 110mm wheels) – that’s just 1/10th of the kind of RPM that ABEC 9 bearings are specified for. Such high precision is not required at skating speeds.

The dimensions and tolerances controlled by the ABEC standards include the diameters and widths of the raceways, their shapes to some extent and the smoothness of the running surfaces.

The ABEC rating system ignores side loading, impact resistance, materials selection and grade, appropriateness of lubrication, ball retainer type, grade of ball, the clearance between the balls and the races, installation requirements, and the need for maintenance and cleaning.

A huge difference in performance

All these bearing design requirements are very important to the performance of a skate bearing, even though the ABEC rating does not address them. From Bones’ own testing and 24 years of experience designing bearings for skating, there can be a HUGE difference between the performance of two bearings that both have the same ABEC rating. In many cases, bearings with high ABEC ratings don’t perform as well as others with lower ABEC ratings in a skate wheel. So, the reliance on ABEC ratings alone can mislead skaters and dealers. That is why Bones don’t use the ABEC rating system at all.

Bones Bearings achieve such high performance levels in skating because Bones went to the trouble to skate rate Bones Swiss™ and Bones REDS™, not just select an ABEC rated industrial bearing and put a customized plastic shield on it. Bones bearings have been completely redesigned for skating from the ground up and are built to Bones specifications that include Skate Rated components, lubricants, tolerances and clearances.

Made just for skaters, Not for electric motors

Bones’ component parts are engineered and tested to withstand the high impacts of starting, the high side loads of pushing, edging and turning, and (to the best extent possible) the dirt of skating environments. As a result, Bones roll faster and last longer than other bearings.

Since there is no appropriate ABEC rating that will reflect the superior quality of Bones Bearings, we have given them their own rating, a Skate Rating, to let you know that Bones are special and made just for skaters, not for electric motors.

...condensed from 'ABEC vs Skate Rated' by George Powell. Bones are finally distributed in Europe by CadoMotus, so check back to Pure Skating News to learn more about Bones Bearings and what they can do for your speed skating

The Labyrinth

Bones Bearings latest addition to the successful and reliable Bones lineup is a new 7-Ball Swiss bearing with double 'Labyrinth', non-contact, removable, rubber shields.

Each Labyrinth shield fits into a groove cut into the inner race, and does so without touching the walls or the bottom of the groove. This way, dirt and water must go through a more complex Labyrinth or U-shaped path to get to the inside of the bearing. The Labyrinth shields can still be easily removed by the skater for cleaning of the bearing, but the skate time that is possible between cleans is greatly increased by the added effectiveness of the new shield design.

George Powell notes that Bones' own team of skaters who have tried and tested the Labyrinth said that the bearing runs just as fast as ever (with no added friction from the shield design), and also run quieter, and stay cleaner - longer. Bones factory testing confirms this.

Unlike rubber-shielded bearings whose sealed interiors come at the expense of added friction from a full-contact shield, the Labyrinth's synthetic shield is attached to the outer race, but a fine film-edge of the shield is suspended in a special groove cut into the inner race. Skaters get the same Bones high performance, but dirt and water have a tougher time getting into the bearing.

CadoMotus carry Bones Swiss Ceramics - the ultimate race bearing - fitted with the Labyrinth shield system.

Take a closer look at the Bones Labyrinth-spec bearings. A new approach to protecting skate bearings from their 'unique' range of operating environments. The Swiss Labyrinth Ceramics are in a class by themselves. If you want the best there is... Cerbec™ ceramic balls are much lighter, harder, stronger, waterproof, and longer-lasting than even the finest steel balls.

New Super Swiss 6

The original Bones Swiss bearings have the best reputation in the skating industry, an honor they have held since the 1980s thanks to uncompromising performance and quality. Skaters who have races on Bones Swiss know exactly how fast they are, and how long they last - typically several times as long as low cost bearings.

With such a successful high-performance bearing, over the years only small adjustments to clearances, retainer materials, shield materials and lubricants have been made to keep Bones Swiss ahead of the rest. Simply the fine tuning of an amazing bearing... until now.

The new Super Swiss 6

Bones Super Swiss 6-Ball bearings (SS6) are fundamentally different from the standard 7-ball Bones Swiss. Super Swiss of course have 6 balls instead of 7, but each of the 6 balls is 20% larger in diameter than the balls used in the 7 ball Swiss bearings.

Bigger Balls

The major advantage of using larger balls (similar to skating on larger wheel diameters) is that they roll slower, creating less friction at the same wheel RPM.
Some additional benefits were discovered only after skating our test bearings were even more interesting than the modest decrease in rolling friction, however. The benefits of the larger diameter balls in the Super Swiss 6 are some that will be easily understood by speed skaters who have made the transition over time to larger diameter wheels.
The Super Swiss 6-ball bearings:

Have a higher top speed (because the balls don’t have to turn so fast)
Accelerate faster (because the races are thinner and there is one less ball)
Roll farther (because of reduced friction and lower relative ball rotation speed)
Also last longer because the design accommodating the larger balls is stronger.

How do they feel?

What do they feel like? Like you have added more roll to your wheels. The Bones Super Swiss 6-ball bearings, once up to high speed just roll further and faster, and make high speeds easier to maintain. Their performance in less-than-perfect conditions is improved too - with larger balls and thinner races, the bearing is better-engineered to overcome particles of dirt that manage to get inside. Just as 110mm wheels deal better with bumps in the pavement, the Super Swiss 6's larger balls perform better in real-world race conditions.

To experience new top-speeds, and maintain them for longer, give the new Super Swiss 6-ball bearings a try.