Wacky Hybrid Wheel Core Idea.

Inspired by b264’s difficulties in finding bearings that can survive long term use and abuse through weather and salt, I’ve been spending some time thinking about bearings over the last year or so.

Cars can go years and years without needing new bearings, why are our bearings such a consumable?

From the “Best bearings for our boards” topic.

For real right?
Why can’t bearings just be reliable?

So I’ve been suspecting for a while now that maybe skate bearings are just too small.
Skateboarding can pretty much trace its standardized bearing size all the way back to its origin, when people were taking roller skates, unbolting the trucks off of the boot, and sticking them on a plank of wood.

So we’re taking bearings sized for wheels like this:

And sticking them in wheels like this:

Then whipping them around fast corners at 30+MPH.

So maybe the answer is just, bigger bearings right?

But there’s no way you could just make a new wheel around a new standard and expect it to succeed.
Every truck out there is designed for 8mm axles and a 10mm spacing.
It would be suicide to try and make a wheel that would fill the same part of the market as those trucks, because it could only be compatible with new trucks designed around a new standard. Its just not going to work.

Unless of course… You make a wheel core that’s backwards compatible.

So a standard wheel looks something like this.

So what about a wheel that could do this.

or this

As it happens, the spacers for standard 12 X 28mm bearings have the clearance to fit inside a lot of wheel cores anyway. And with a 24mm spacer, they’re able to fit on the same core.

Far as I can tell the only drawbacks are a missing fillet to help the smaller standard bearings distribute load from the full width of the core, so the 8mm bearing performance is theoretically not as good as it would be with a standard core. That might not matter much in the first place, but with a really good core material it might not matter at all.

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We already have bigger bearings in MTB wheels?

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if I could buy urethane wheels with 28mm or 30mm bearing seats i would

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yes, but legacy issues and the fact that industry standards take years to change or some sort of revolution needs to occur like a Tesla Motors effect. You see this in the car industry. It would take some large corporate entity with large sale volumes akin to Boosted or Evolve to break this mold. Dexter keen to start?

Yes, and its an entirely separate ecosystem.

I’m suggesting that all wheels geared for Eskate should be able to be equipped with the same larger bearing without having give up on smaller bearings. Its not a trade-off that needs to be there.

That we should be trying to get the bearings we’re using on MTB wheels on your Calibers, your Surfrods,your Ronins and your Rouges.

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Personally I think that @Kaly has it pretty spot-on, but I want those for a 12mm axle. Also, I want his quick wheel change system on my GD’s too.

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On 100%. V2 race wheel we have been working on will have a dedicated esk8 core with both standard sk8 and 30mm pockets. Should be back on the pull down rig testing in a few weeks.

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The 638 (8x28x9mm) bearing can be had for a similar price as a 608. Maybe one day we can move away from 608

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If seems like regular skate and electric skate are going different directions. So it would be a little bit of a compromise to fit the latter with the former. For example the bearing spacing is a bit much… you have to also consider the pulley or gear that needs to be attached which in some cases has a bearing attached. Then the axle is super long.

You could do 638 bearing on the inside and a standard 608 on the outside to keep the spacing similar and then use a 17mm spacer to fit two 16100 bearings on a 10mm axle.

Though i think the whole core should be redesigned (looks thin) along with the pulley and even the hangers imo

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Might we require a greater jump in bearing size to substantiate a true upgrade in performance? Or is 638 enough? Any thoughts on using the same bearing as the motors use?

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The bearing in motors are tiny.

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Although they don’t have to deal with the lateral forces I guess.

Cars actually use tapered roller bearings.

I wonder what the effect of tapered roller bearings would be on a board?

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I guess they are mostly ment for high rpms and small loads. The larger the bearing, the longer/faster the balls need to roll

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I’ll try all the force calcs in a bit.
What would be a reasonable time for a board to accelerate to 20mph shall we say?

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