Your wheels play a critical role in your skating ability. It's your direct contact to whatever surface you are playing on - whether that's sport court, wood, or even concrete. Rink Rat wheels are designed to provide you with the maximum grip, speed and durability wherever you play.
Over time, it's normal that your wheels wear down with use. You'll notice when they begin to wear down as they can loose their grip and sometimes even their shape if you play on an abrasive surface like concrete.
Luckily, it's a relatively quick process to replace your wheels and it should take only 10 to 15 minutes to get your your skates rolling like new.
What's Needed:
-
A hockey skate tool, or Allen key
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Bearing Removal Tool (like this option from Junk skates)
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A fresh set of wheels!
How To Change Your Roller Hockey Wheels:
- Once you've gathered all the tools needed the first step is removing your old wheels. You'll do this by using your skate tool, or allen key, and removing the bolts on your chassis. Some chassis require tools on both sides, while newer chassis usually only require one tool for removal.
- Once all the bolts are removed from the chassis, the wheels can easily slide out from their place. We suggest using this as a chance to inspect your bearings. Over time, build up can happen inside the bearings that cause them to spin a little slower or even potentially freeze up. If your bearings are showing sign of wear, we suggest checking out our Rinkster bearings as replacement options.
- If your bearings are still in good shape, it's a good idea to use a clean towel to wipe away any rink dust or grime that may have built up on the outside of the bearing.
- The next step would be to remove the bearings from your old wheels. You can use a bearing removal tool to punch out the bearings.
- Now that all the bearings are removed, you can get ready to install them into your new Rink Rat roller hockey wheels.
- First you'll want to install the bearing in one side of the hub of the wheel (be sure to have the internal side of the bearing facing inwards). Then you'll want to add in the spacer before capping off the other side of the hub with the second bearing. Make sure that the bearing is pressed all the way into the hub so that it sits flush with the wheel. Otherwise it may get stuck when trying to slide the wheel into the chassis. Repeat this for all 8 wheels.
- Once all the bearings are in place, place the wheels in their proper slot on the chassis. Some skates have a Hi-Lo chassis system where it takes larger wheels on the back of the chassis.
- With the wheels all in their appropriate places, you can secure them to the chassis using the axel bolts. Be sure to tighten them well, but being cautious not to strip the axel bolts themselves.