How to Maintain Your Skateboard: Bearing Cleaning

There are few things more frustrating than pushing off down your local skate park and feeling that sluggish, grinding resistance underfoot — or worse, hearing a horrible scraping sound coming from your wheels. Nine times out of ten, the culprit is dirty bearings. The good news is that cleaning your skateboard bearings is one of the most satisfying bits of maintenance you can do yourself, it costs next to nothing, and once you know how, the whole job takes under an hour.

This guide is aimed squarely at beginners — people who are just getting into skating in the UK and want to keep their board rolling smoothly without having to fork out for new parts every few months. We’ll walk through everything: what bearings actually do, how to spot when they need attention, what you’ll need, and a full step-by-step cleaning process you can do at home on your kitchen table (just put some newspaper down first).

What Are Bearings and Why Do They Matter?

Each wheel on your skateboard contains two bearings — so a standard four-wheeled board has eight in total. A bearing is a small, circular metal component that sits inside your wheel and allows it to spin freely around the axle. Inside each bearing is a ring of tiny steel balls packed in grease, all enclosed within an inner and outer metal ring called a race. A small rubber or metal shield on the outside keeps the grime out — in theory, at least.

When your bearings are clean and well-lubricated, your wheels spin freely, your pushes go further, and your riding feels effortless. When they’re clogged with dirt, grit, water, and general muck — and if you’ve ever skated at a British skate spot in October, you’ll know exactly the kind of filth we’re talking about — that free spin disappears. You’ll feel resistance, hear noise, and in bad cases, a bearing can seize up completely, which is genuinely dangerous at speed.

The UK’s weather is not kind to skateboard bearings. Wet pavements, puddles, sandy coastal spots like those along the promenades in Brighton or Blackpool, and the general damp of British winters all accelerate how quickly your bearings get gunked up. Skaters in sunnier climates might clean their bearings two or three times a year. In the UK, doing it every one to two months during autumn and winter is perfectly reasonable.

How to Tell When Your Bearings Need Cleaning

You don’t need to be a mechanic to diagnose dirty bearings. Your board will tell you. Here are the most common signs to watch for:

The spin test fails. Remove a wheel, hold the axle still, and give the wheel a firm spin with your hand. A clean, well-lubricated bearing will spin smoothly and coast to a slow stop over several seconds. A dirty bearing will wobble, rattle, or stop almost immediately.
You can hear them. A grinding, crunching, or rattling sound when you ride is a classic sign. Sometimes it sounds almost like gravel rolling around inside the wheel.
You’re losing speed. If you feel like you’re working harder to maintain momentum than you used to, your bearings are probably the reason.
The wheel wobbles or feels rough. If you can feel vibration through the board on a smooth surface, that’s a sign the bearings are not rolling cleanly.
Visible rust or discolouration. If you pop the shield off a bearing and can see orange rust or black sludge, it’s well past time for a clean.

If you notice any of these signs, don’t put it off. Skating on neglected bearings will damage them faster, and eventually you’ll be buying replacements rather than just spending twenty minutes cleaning them.

What You’ll Need

The great thing about cleaning bearings is that you don’t need anything fancy or expensive. Most of this you can source from a hardware shop, a chemist, or order online from UK retailers like Screwfix, Halfords, or Amazon.

A skate tool or a 1/2 inch socket wrench (for removing the axle nuts)
A bearing removal tool, or simply the truck axle itself (more on this below)
A small pin, needle, or safety pin
A container with a lid — a small jar or an old Tupperware box works perfectly
Isopropyl alcohol (also called rubbing alcohol or IPA) — 90% or higher is best. You can find this at Boots, Superdrug, or online. Acetone (nail varnish remover) works too, but isopropyl is kinder to your bearings and less harsh to work with.
Skateboard bearing lubricant — Bones Speed Cream is the most popular choice among UK skaters and widely available at skate shops like Route One, Slam City Skates, or online at Skatehut. In a pinch, a very light machine oil works, but avoid WD-40 as a lubricant (more on that shortly).
Clean paper towels or a lint-free cloth
Newspaper to protect your work surface
Optional but useful: latex or nitrile gloves

A Word on WD-40

This comes up constantly in beginner forums and Facebook groups, so it’s worth addressing directly. WD-40 is a water displacement spray — it’s excellent for loosening rust and displacing moisture, which is why the name stands for “Water Displacement, 40th formula.” It is not a lubricant. Well, technically it has some lubricating properties, but they’re short-lived. If you use WD-40 on your bearings, it will dissolve the existing grease, clean the bearing briefly, and then leave it essentially dry. You’ll have a faster-spinning bearing for about a week, and then it’ll be worse than before. Always finish with a proper bearing lubricant.

Step-by-Step: How to Clean Your Bearings

Right, let’s get into it. Set up your workspace somewhere well-ventilated — isopropyl alcohol has fumes — and lay down your newspaper. Work through these steps steadily and you’ll have sparkling clean bearings in no time.

Remove the wheels from your board. Use your skate tool to undo the axle nuts on each wheel. Keep the nuts, washers, and speed rings somewhere safe — a small bowl or cup is ideal. Small parts have a talent for rolling away at the worst possible moment.
Pop the bearings out of the wheels. You don’t need a bearing press for this. Slide the wheel back onto the truck axle at an angle so the outer bearing is resting against the axle’s lip. Apply gentle downward leverage and the bearing will pop out cleanly. Flip the wheel over and repeat for the other bearing. Do this for all four wheels.
Remove the bearing shields. This step is optional but strongly recommended for a proper clean. Find the small C-shaped metal clip (called a C-ring or retaining ring) sitting in the groove around the outer edge of the bearing. Use your pin or needle to carefully hook it out. Set it aside — you’ll need it later. The rubber or metal shield will now lift free. If your bearings have rubber shields (they’re usually black or red), these are easy to pop off without damage. Metal shields are a bit more fiddly. Some cheaper bearings have non-removable metal shields, in which case skip this step and just soak the whole bearing.
Place all bearings in your container. Drop all eight bearings (and any loose shields) into your jar or Tupperware. Pour enough isopropyl alcohol over them to submerge them completely. Put the lid on and give the container a good shake for about thirty seconds. You’ll quickly see the liquid turn brown or grey as the dirt lifts off.
Soak and agitate. Let the bearings soak for at least ten minutes, shaking occasionally. For really grimy bearings — the sort you’d get after skating in a muddy London park or a wet Scottish skate spot in February — leave them for twenty minutes and shake more vigorously.
Drain and inspect. Pour out the dirty solvent (it’ll look surprisingly grim) and have a look at your bearings. If there’s still visible dirt, you can repeat the soak with fresh isopropyl alcohol. Most of the time, one or two soaks will do the job.
Dry the bearings thoroughly. This is a step beginners often rush, and it matters. Lay the bearings out on a clean paper towel or cloth and let them air dry completely. You can gently spin each one with your finger to help the alcohol evaporate from inside. Do not rush this with compressed air unless you’re being careful — you can blast grit further into the bearing. Give them at least fifteen to twenty minutes, or longer if you can. Any moisture left inside will cause rust.
Lubricate the bearings. Once completely dry, apply one or two drops of bearing lubricant to each bearing. Less is more here. Too much lubricant attracts more dirt and actually slows your wheels down. Apply the lubricant to the inner area where the balls sit, spin the bearing gently with your finger to work it in, and wipe off any excess from the outside.
Replace the shields and C-rings. Carefully press the shield back into place and reseat the C-ring in its groove using your pin. It should click into place and sit flush. If you’ve bent the C-ring slightly during removal, straighten it carefully before trying to reseat it.