As a lot of you know, one of my drug dealers…I mean skate hardware vendor… @psychotiller, has bamboozled me into a rather massive Surf Rodz addiction. I’m a huge fan. PT’s mounts are incredible and never fail. That coupled with precision quality trucks…it’s not hard to see why I like them so much.
I’ve spent some time figuring out spacers & bearings for Surf Rodz trucks (both RKP & TKP since both use multiple lengths of 10mm axles). This doesn’t take into account that you get spacers with the axles when you purchase them from SR directly, @psychotiller also includes spacers with his SR truck kits as well. I just found myself in a circumstance where I needed axles and spacers and bearings as I had he trucks but none of the aforementioned parts. This post contains the results of that research.
Let start with requirements. With an 80mm axle you will need 30mm of total spacer for the correct fit for each axle. You will also need a 10mm spacer between the bearings in each wheel. After searching, this is what I have found to be available and quickly sourced as of 09/17/18.
Surf Rodz 10mm x 10mm spacer Kit $16.00 pack of 4, $4.00 each
Khiro 10mm x 10mm Longboard Skateboard Bearing Spacer $5.95 pack of x4, $1.48 each
aluminumspacers.com 10.2mm ID x 16mm OD x 10mm Long Aluminum Spacer $1.27 each and aluminumspacers.com 10.2mm ID x 16mm OD x 30mm Long Aluminum Spacer $1.37 each
The Surf Rodz spacers are solid and beefy, good spacers to use but very expensive per piece. The Khiro spacers are usable but the OD is less than that of the SR spacers and generally don’t look as good or feel as solid. The aluminumspacers.com spacers are as solid as the SR spacers and much cheaper.
Here’s a cost breakdown for a complete build using a single set of Surf Rodz trucks (x2), assuming 80mm axles (subtract a single 10mm spacer per axle if using 70mm axles).
The cheapest method is to use x4 30mm & x4 10mm aluminumspacers.com spacers
QTY | PRODUCT | COST EACH | COST SUBTOTAL | COST TOTAL |
---|---|---|---|---|
4 | 10.2mm ID x 16mm OD x 10mm Long Aluminum Spacer | $1.27 | $5.08 | |
4 | 10.2mm ID x 16mm OD x 30mm Long Aluminum Spacer | $1.37 | $5.48 | $10.56 |
The next cheapest is using Khiro 10x10 spacers.
QTY | PRODUCT | COST EACH | COST SUBTOTAL | COST TOTAL |
---|---|---|---|---|
16 | Khiro 10mm x 10mm Longboard Skateboard Bearing Spacer | $1.48 | $23.68 | $23.68 |
The Most expensive is using SR 10x10mm spacers (as in ridiculously expensive).
QTY | PRODUCT | COST EACH | COST SUBTOTAL | COST TOTAL |
---|---|---|---|---|
16 | Surf Rodz 10mm x 10mm spacer Kit | $4.00 | $64.00 | $64.00 |
Now onto bearings. I am not a fan of the bearings that Surf Rodz sells. The 1st set I got from them are still going strong. The 2nd and third sets had defects. One set was slightly larger than 22mm OD so press fitting was difficult and resulted in a lot of rolling resistance. A couple out of the other set did not roll well from the start. So I went on a search for 10 x 22 x 6mm bearings, this is what I found.
Surf Rodz 10MM Bearings (AA3-130-A1) $10.00 for a set of x8 bearings + shipping
FastEddy 10x22x6 Rubber Sealed Bearing 6900-2RS $9.99 for a set of x10 bearings + $2.99 shipping
10 Pcs 6900Z 10 x 22 x 6mm Single Row Sealed Deep Groove Ball Bearings J5M7 $3.27 for a set of x10 bearings + Free shipping
Here’s the cost breakdown.
QTY | PRODUCT | COST EACH | COST SUBTOTAL |
---|---|---|---|
8 | Surf Rodz 10MM Bearings (AA3-130-A1) | $1.25 | $10.00 |
8 | FastEddy 10x22x6 Rubber Sealed Bearing 6900-2RS | $0.99 | $7.92 |
8 | Chinese MGF 6900Z 10 x 22 x 6mm Single Row Sealed Bearings | $0.33 | $2.64 |
Regarding quality, I’ve already covered the SR bearings. The FastEddy bearings were the best quality and I’ve been using for a couple of weeks now with no issues. The Chinese MFG bearings are surprisingly good. I don’t mind a sealed bearing, a lot of people do because the resistance is slightly higher. I did a WH test between the 2 sets and there was no discernable difference, the calculated value showed .014 WH per mile usage more on the Chinese MFG bearings, but that is well within the margin of error as no ride is ever completely the same.
This isn’t all of the 22x10x6mm bearings that are available, but they are the ones I could get my hands on quickly and weren’t aircraft grade at $60 each :).
In closing, I hope this little bit of research will help you decide to buy Surf Rodz trucks as they are arguably the best precision quality truck for esk8 on the market, specifically within the price point.
EDIT 1 The reason Muirskate has the Khiro 10mm spacers is because I asked them to get them. This was before I bought spacers from aluminumspacers.com. So when they got them in stock, I went ahead and bought them. They are great for wheel spacers though as the OD isn’t really important for that installation.
EDIT 2 Another user was looking for axle info, so I’m gonna post it here as well just in case someone ends up here looking.
10mm x 100mm Shoulder Bolt - Length M8-1.25, Class 12.9, Black Oxide Alloy Steel Socket Head 10mm x 80mm Shoulder Bolt - Length x M8-1.25, Class 12.9 Black Oxide Alloy Steel Socket Head