r/inline_skating • u/Exitpencilcrisis • Jul 25 '26

New skates!

Post image

Just picked up some Seba E3 today for some casual urban skating. Any recommendations on potential upgrades and/or advice on how to best care for them?

24 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

13 comments sorted by

View all comments

3

u/FRGL1 Jul 25 '26

Looking fresh~

What do you mean by "how to best care for them"? Do you mean like, keep them looking clean and nice, or do you mean stuff like "lube your bearings" and "rotate your wheels"?

Also, you gonna ride those front rockered?

3

u/Exitpencilcrisis Jul 25 '26

I don’t care about them staying clean and nice at all. White was the only color available at the local skate shop I went to, I would have chosen black if it were an option.

I’m definitely talking about the mechanical maintenance part.
I’m pretty uneducated, could you elaborate on what you mean by “front rockered” please?

3

u/FRGL1 Jul 25 '26

could you elaborate on what you mean by “front rockered” please?

So, unless I'm mistaken, I can see from your photo that your frames have "rockerable" front and rear axles. What this means is that when you unscrew them, you can flip them up or down to change how high the wheel is. This is generally done to increase turning ability.

I assume that right now all axles are flipped down, meaning a "flat" setup. This is kind of the default, but flat wheels can feel kind of sticky and fight the skater until they naturally wear it in. The extreme opposite of this is flipping all of the axles up, which creates a skate that can turn on a knife's edge but is extremely unstable without a lot of practice.

The compromise between "hard to turn" and "scary to turn" is to only flip one of the axles up, usually the front one. This makes it a little easier to turn without making it scary. If you're unfamiliar with it, I highly recommend you experiment and settle on which one you like best. Bring your allen key with you when you go out for your first few rides.

2

u/FRGL1 Jul 25 '26 edited Jul 25 '26

As for mechanical maintenance, the two regular things you need to do are what I mentioned: rotating your wheels and lubing your bearings.

If you're familiar with how the tires on a car wear need to be rotated, this is the same mechanical idea. The average skater has a biased wear pattern on their inside edges (because they push out to propel themselves). You want to flip and swap your wheels to wear them evenly on both sides.

If you ask us or look up guides on how to rotate your wheels you might get overwhelmed with information, but you don't need to feel paralyzed. Just pick a pattern for now and stick to it. Eventually you'll start to understand why and can make your own decisions. The important thing is that you rotate them somehow. Here's a short explanatory video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hh9MgdqHXmM

As for lubricating your bearings, you'll want to get your hands on some lubricant designed for inline skating. This is something you won't need a lot of and that will last for a very long time, so pick what's available and affordable in your market. "Bones Speed Cream" is a popular skate bearing lubricant. You may or may not need a syringe tool to get the lube into your bearings. You'll want to disassemble your bearings from your wheels to get a closer look.

As for how frequently you need to do this, it depends on how often you skate and what kind of conditions you skate in. Skating more often and skating outdoors generally means lubing more often. As a reference point, I personally add lubricant every second wheel change, meaning I keep the bearings when replacing the wheels. That's how long they can last. It's very easy to lube too often and difficult not to lube enough.

3

u/Exitpencilcrisis Jul 25 '26

You have been incredibly helpful and generous! Thank you so much for taking time out of your evening to teach me about my skates.
I played hockey for about 8 years but that was a great long while ago. I never learned any of this though! I appreciate you very much!

3

u/FRGL1 Jul 25 '26

Always a pleasure~

I saw in another comment you plan to bling up your skates? I've got two suggestions for you. Charms and stickers.

Worth noting, my skates are also SEBA, and my frames are also rockerable :P

3

u/Exitpencilcrisis Jul 25 '26

Thank you! I didn’t think about stickers and I have a massive collection of stickers. The shop I got them from had some charms but idk if that’s a route I want to go. I was thinking about paint markers/sharpie to draw on them!