wonderin bout the(lack of)bearing spacers with Reds? I kno y

**CRASS** · 05-06-2003 11:58 PM

Well i e-mailed some people and i got this:
Orriginal Message;
Hey.. why arent we getting bearing spacers with our orders anymore? Everyone liked how the could get Bones Reds & some spacers all good & all for cheap.. but now we cant. whats up with that?
Reply:
Thanks for the inquiry....we've had lots of feedback that customers just throw away their bearing spacers. We've polled our customers and found that most people don't even use them. We consider it wasteful to continue
including spacers in the Reds - one of our little ways of conserving for a good cause, you know? Why do you use/want bearing spacers?

well there you have it. Newskool shortboarders ruined it for us all.

**raven6241** · 05-07-2003 04:44 AM

Yeah, bought my first set of Reds last week hoping against hope that they might have some in the box, alas, nay.

That's stupid. That's reeeeal stupid. Instead of just polling people and then taking them away, keeping them in there and encouraging their use might have been a little better? That shits me right up.

**sven sven svensen** · 05-07-2003 06:42 AM

man,that pisses me off..spacers are an important part of getting good speed..i use em on all my boards...it makes me mad that just because they went out and poolled a bunch of poser skaters..means that we have to buy a set of 50 dollad bearings to get them....dam!

**Jones** · 05-07-2003 06:54 AM

so a bearing manufacturer is asking why we want to use bearing spacers?? thats dumb, surely they must know.

So, has the price dropped a bit then aswell? No i bet not.

**sven sven svensen** · 05-07-2003 08:42 AM

yea they must be pretty stupid if they dont know what there own product does.....

**cool hand mike** · 05-07-2003 10:47 AM

damn...that's pretty gay.

i was wondering why it didn't come with spacers...

**CRASS** · 05-07-2003 09:04 PM

im still talking to him via e-mail... & the guy got the durometer ratings backwards (Quote: "..a softer wheel like 96a or more") and thinks you would only wanna use them with wheels with a soft inner wall like his wheels which he didnt mention. I would never hire this guy.

**Docter M** · 05-07-2003 10:19 PM

death.....

**solachola0** · 05-07-2003 11:48 PM

ok...everyone cheeeel.....

if you have the new reds...have you noticed how the inner race
juts out a tad more than the average bearing?

the bones wheels have been designed now without the need
for spacers ( i'm telling you the party line...)

some people take spacers and trim them down to fit them
in anyway...i'm running bones red in my surf ones and don't
need them at all...and this is a bowl deck...

the bottom line is, like jc says,"An' if it harms none, do what
ye will."

Ride hell out of them and then in a month if you find there's
a problem, then there's a problem...otherwise.....well....

**CRASS** · 05-08-2003 12:11 AM

i got mine about 2 months ago & some other spacers i had fit dandy.

**solachola0** · 05-08-2003 09:51 AM

can you tell me what size those are?

**SLCMunchie** · 05-08-2003 11:24 AM

i am really confused. you would have to have bearings like the biltins to completely get rid of the need for spacers. by making the lip a little bigger, you might have more surface area touching the axle making them a little more stable with side loads, but it still isn't how bearings are designed to be used. do the inner races actually touch inside the wheel? how do they deal with different width hubs on different wheels, oh wait all shortboard wheels are cookie cutter replicas of each other. can you help me out a little on this sola?
its just a way of side stepping proper function to please the masses. i was already pissed with bones reds when i learned they were made in china, but to do this too?

just buy some pleasure tools, they are better anyway!

**solachola0** · 05-08-2003 01:37 PM

well, the powell surf ones that i have are kind of a hybrid wheel...the
diameter's only 60mm, but they're a softer duro and have a
plastic hub that's got a catch so the bearings don't seat in too
far...but you can see this with other wheels too...

like i said, the party line is that powell built the wheels inside such
that spacers are not required and supposedly the inner race
is not affected...that said, some people still find
spacers to fit in there or cut down the bigger ones because they
are just pretty adamant about having them in there...and are of
course pissed that spacers no longer come with the bearings but
again the party line is that the bearings are designed with a, this
is hard to explain...but when i looked at one side of the bearing
the inner race seems just a tad wider than the other side...they're
not flush...this is confusing to me too ( and
could be an illusion which is why i asked about it up there ) because that seems like it would make the contact issue even worse...at least
in my thinking...

i have ridden this set up without the spacers with the bones reds
and there is no friction or speed issues that I can notice
while riding... they spin pretty true and
i haven't experienced any problems..no sense of
resistance or friction....so i'm taking them at their
word basically...if it does become a problem, believe me i'll say
something about it... i only opted for the reds really because
my guy didn't have any PT's in...which i plan on continuing to
pressure him about ha ha...and for the price of PT's, that would
be a better solution overall....

**tedruxpin** · 05-08-2003 05:04 PM

a lot of the shortboarders around here don't believe that any wheels ever need spacers...I guess the guy in the email is of that school, especially when he thinks anything below 96a is a softer wheell.

I popped into this terrible corporate skateshop here to pick up some spacers (normally avoid the place like the plague, but was walking by), and the kid behind the counter starting telling me that there's never a need for bearing spacers, and that they won't even work in most wheels, so they don't sell them.

It's so painfully stupid and frustrating. Thank god there are a couple other good skate shops here, I feel like an idiot mail ordering 4 small pieces of metal.

**ol'dude** · 05-08-2003 10:55 PM

Ahhh, the joys of a bike shop... chainring spacers work well. Usually. Even used them for speed-washers. (Because an undisclosed manufacturer with a Koa reputation didn't put them on the inside of the wheel... ever try to get a bearing off of a truck when there was no washer?)

**d.max.atx** · 05-08-2003 11:25 PM

This (lack of) bearing spacer problem can be solved easily. Taking an old bearing spacer with you, head to the local hardware store and purchase some aluminum tubing of comparable diameter and thickness (less than $2). While there, snag the smallest tubing cutter you can find (~$5 for a cheapie, ~$7 for a "nice" one). Cut your custom spacers as needed, and you'll have enough material to last a...well, not a lifetime, but a very,very long while.