Update on our sponsored riders

We'd just like to say, "Congratulations Schaeffer!"

We are very proud to announce that our little skate-wonder,

Schaeffer Mclean, aged 5,

has been made an official team rider with Route One Active,

the Uk's largest independent street store.

We have been sponsoring Schaeffer for some months now & are thrilled that other companies also recognise his talent. See Route One's article at
http://routeoneactive.blogspot.com/2009/01/introducing-schaeffer-mclean.html.

We are also proud to sponsor Kyle Decot, a 22 year old rider from Columbus Ohio, USA.

You can see more about Kyle at at http://www.kyledecot.com/

If you'd like to join our sponsored riders, why not get in touch with us?

The Joys of Ice Fishing...

Having recently returned from a trip to Sweden (200km north of the Arctic circle) I've been keen to see how other people have enjoyed the unique art of ice-fishing.

For those who are uninitiated in the ways of ice-fishing, you drill a deep hole in a frozen lake (laboriously by hand in my case - no posh power drills for me!) & then hover over your hole nervously twitching your line, with a rod that you may have stolen from a passing garden gnome, until you catch something. After about 10 minutes, the temperature being about -30 degrees centigrade, my hole had frozen over & I had to go through the 'hole' process again!

I was a bit underwhelmed by the experience to be honest (although, very sadly, I was impressed by how smooth-running the bearings in my rod were), so was keen to see how other bloggers had fared, as people seemed so enthusiastic about ice fishing I was sure I must have missed something...

I was pretty amused then, to find the following from Illinois, USA:

1. Park your car in a safe placeGet ready to...retreive your mate's car - he wasn't so sensible!Then help your mate who's dropped his skidoobefore finally sitting down to fish!And, after a tiring day, return to the safety of the car park...

I think that my conclusion is, ice-fishing can prove an expensive hobby!

Should you ever need any replacement reel bearings, why not visit us at http://www.smbbearings.com/index.htm for information on our high spec reel bearings and our EMQ2 low vibration bearings, with oil lubrication, which spin freely and quietly.

The next big thing?

Meet (imagine the drum-roll please) "The Magic Wheel"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1OGHuGSPAw

The design dudes are going head-over-heels for this new invention that combines a skateboard, a scooter, and a bike wheel, but we can’t decide how we feel about this thing! Apparently you can get up to 20 mph on the wheel, if you pump your leg hard enough.

Has anyone tried one yet?

What did you think?

And lastly, can we have a go?!

Rollerblading, Brunei style & solar powered rollerblading chariots...

Check out this guy hanging out at one of Brunei's favourite skate spots, having fun on the half-pipe with his friends.


Thanks to http://www.surkrew.com/ for this amazing image!







Also this week, we thought you ought to meet Bob Schneeveis, the inventor of the Solar Powered Walking Chariot (not a joke folks, actually true)! See it in action here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45ZquJIolvY .






















Bob is a brilliant and eccentric character who studies nature and then turns it into sustainable, solar-electric vehicles and gadgets… Bob also donates his time to students studying robotics, and certainly gets our award for being the truest of nutty professors! Check out how the solar powered engine drives these legs and rollerblades in such a powerful, human-like fashion…amazing! This astounding rollerblading contraption actually has a lot of kick to it and is capable of covering all kinds of terrain it seems.


I bet this thing gets through a lot of bearings...

The Art Jeweller strikes again...

Thanks to our favourite Jeweller in St Maartens for the following shout, we are honoured to be featured!

Making Small Screws and a Bearing Housing
This is a short Hidi ( how I do it ) on how I make some screws and a small bearing housing for a spinning ring. A Hidi on how to make a complete spinning ring can be found here. I order the bearings from SMB bearings in the UK at http://www.smbbearings.com/. In this Hidi I am using a bearing with a 6mm flange and a 5mm diameter and a bore of 2mm. If you go check out SMB's website, they got all the schematics of the various type of bearing available.I start this Hidi with the screw making part first. I use only bench tools, no lathes or milling machines.I bought a tap and die set from Rio Grande. It is quite nice, adequate for the job and costs about $115.

For the full report, visit Hans Meevis' blog http://hansmeevis.blogspot.com/ . Thanks Hans!

Catching up with Schaeffer

Our 5 year old sponsored skater, Schaeffer, has posted up details of his trip to

King of the Groms, USA.

Check out his tour diary & more pictures at:

http://routeoneactive.blogspot.com/2009/01/king-of-groms-2008-write-up-by.html

Snow business!

With all this cold weather, now is the perfect to mention that we can re-lubricate bearings down to a staggering minus 80 degrees centigrade (should you fancy taking them on a trip to the Arctic circle with you).

We can also lubricate up to a maximum of +288 degrees centigrade, for those of you who fancy more tropical applications. Lubricants are critical to bearing performance, as they reduce friction, inhibit corrosion & dissipate heat. The lubricant will also affect maximum running speeds, temperature, torque level, noise level & ultimately, bearing life.

Thanks to www.bbc.co.uk/oxford we can bring you some pictures from the locality, just to prove that we are very excited because WE HAVE SNOW! There has been some very silly behaviour going on here ("Surely not!" I hear your cry), with snow-throwing & sculpting of dubiously shaped snow figures. We won't feature those for legal reasons...

Roller-blading & inline/skating bearings hints & tips.

Check out this advice from London Skaters for novices, or "gumbies" as you are affectionately known! http://www.londonskaters.com/how-to-top-ten-gumbie-skating-mistakes.htm.

The advice included covers:

• not bending your knees enough


• pros & cons of cheap vs good skates for beginners


• practising more on your good side than your weak one


• not practising at all


• choosing the right practice location

When you've got all that down, we can help you replace the worn down bearings in your blades/skates from all the practice that you've put in!

We have used our extensive experience and knowledge of miniature bearings to produce three types of roller blade & skate bearings to satisfy the most demanding specifications. Our two most important design criteria were high performance and value for your money. Once you've got your replacements, we can also advise you on how best to keep them clean & re-grease them.

See http://www.smbbearings.com/Skate_bearing.htm for more information.

For anyone who hasn't got their hands on Street Gears yet,

you've got to see this little gameplay clip from YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUmJyb7_psA

So cool!

Tillman the wonder dog!

You know how news programmes often try to make you smile with a cute animal story?

Well, we here at SMB Bearings Ltd are no different! Thanks to http://myamazingfact.blogspot.com/, we can bring you Tillman the skateboarding bulldog...

The 3-year-old dog has become a worldwide star after his owner Ron Davis posted a video of Tillman skateboarding on the internet, which has been viewed by more than 4,000,000 people. “He absolutely loves it and just whizzes around.” said Ron.

All we can say is, we want a Tillman too!

RC Model Bearings

We can offer high precision, smooth-running, noise & vibration tested replacement bearings for all type of RC models.




We can also offer a bespoke re-lubrication service, to get the absolute maximum RPM from your RC model bearings.



We are currently researching ceramic hybrid bearings (ceramic balls held in a steel bearing) for RC models; we'd be interested to know what you think of hybrid bearings' performance in your model - are they living up to the hype? Do let us know, we'd love to hear your comments.

RC enthusiasts, check out this video on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCByYDwt5vE
We've not seen one that big before, ooh-er missus!!

Bearings in Jewellery

We have just been talking to a jewellery designer, Hans Meevis, based in St Maartens & were thrilled to see images of what he uses bearings for in his jewellery. Visit his blog for more fascinating designs: http://hansmeevis.blogspot.com/ .

Skate news at SMB Bearings

Need to replace your skate bearings? See our article at http://www.smbbearings.com/Skate_bearing.htm,
we take the mystery out of the techie stuff!
See who we sponsor & maybe add yourself to our list?

This is Schaeffer, our 5 year old sponsored skater:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EooQUR9w57w
How cool is he?!

We've really been wowed by http://allhandsondecks.blogspot.com/ - see one of their custom design decks above...

Also this week, check out a great website:

http://actionsportsblips.dailyradar.com/skate/

It lists the Web's most popular Skate news, videos, and blogs.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Relubrication of Bearings

A very Happy New Year to you all!

Today's post is all about:

Cleaning and re-lubrication of

open, shielded and sealed ball and roller bearings.

We offer a full re-lubrication service for either our own miniature bearings or customer supplied bearings. We have many years of experience in degreasing and re-lubricating stainless steel, chrome steel, and hybrid bearings with customer specified lubricants. Every day, our customers require specialised lubricants designed to handle everything from food safe applications to low torque conditions. We regularly supply our bearings or your own bearings with:
dampening greases, dry lubricants, food safe greases, high temperature lubricants, low temperature lubricant, slow torque lubricants, molybdenum disulphide coating, perfluorinated lubricants, radiation-resistant lubricants, vacuum lubricants, waterproof greases.

Manufacturers are rarely interested in small volumes of bearings with non-standard lubricants so we have equipped ourselves with the facilities to help you. We have a range of degreasing methods to clean all bearing surfaces before using proprietary lubrication equipment to apply your choice of oil, grease, a dry lubricant or return the bearing with no lubricant applied at all. Whether you need a specialist to relubricate high-spec instrumentation bearings or find a cost-effective way to lubricate deep groove ball bearings, we have the equipment you need. We are able to check the quantity of grease in each bearing so we can provide very accurate grease amounts whether you require a low, normal or high grease fill.

As a trusted supplier of miniature and stainless steel ball bearings in the UK, our experience with different types of customer-supplied bearings is comprehensive. We have the technical expertise to handle cylindrical and needle roller bearings to plain spherical bearings, along with corrosion resistant, thin section, electric motor bearings and miniature ball bearings from the UK and abroad. We have the equipment to relubricate not only open and rubber sealed bearings but also those bearings with non-removable shields.

We can advise you on best choice of bearing lubricant for problem applications. If you are involved in testing or R&D, our in-house ultrasonic bearing degreasing and bearing re-lubrication facility enables us to supply bearing samples at short notice. If you are experiencing lubrication related problems or you want to know more about our bearing relube capabilities, please ask.

We keep a wide stock of oils and greases We have no minimum quantity so if you require one bearing or several hundred bearings with a lubricant of your choice, talk to us.

Ceramic Bearing: SMB Bearings

Ceramic Bearing: SMB Bearings

Season's Greetings

From us all at SMB Bearings Ltd,

A very Merry Christmas

&

a Happy New Year!

We look forward to meeting up with you again in 2009;
we will be back into the office on 02.01.2009, see you then!

We do all kinds of wheel bearings!

Check out our catalogue here!