Skateboarding is a recreational activity that is generally popular among youths for a long time before. The skateboard is sports equipment with a narrow wooden board with wheels on its two ends. The skateboarder moves with the board by pushing it from one foot while keeping the other one over the board. You can perform the different activities while flipping it or jumping from it, having both feet in the air.
A new skateboard is a very mint condition. However, the new board contains bright and shiny art, wheels, and trucks. After some days, it will wear down, and you cannot avoid this condition at all. I will try to help the skateboarders like you understand and learn some DIY tips and tricks to maintain and repair your favorite skates with this post. To keep your board in good condition, you have to:
- Avoid skateboarding when it’s wet or rains.
- Maintain your bearings.
- Store it in a dry place.
- Replace parts when needed.
- Sand down chips and splinters.
- Clip grip tape that peels off.
- Avoid too high temperatures or extreme cold.
- Please don’t throw it around.
Skateboard Maintenance:
If you maintain it correctly, you can increase the board’s lifespan and its hardware as well. Always check the new board truck axle and a wheel that came flying off. Occasionally inspect all the parts of the skateboard, especially all the nuts and the bolts. Maintain the following think carefully to get a better skateboard for a long time-
- Be Careful While Tightening the Trucks
Sometimes you need to lose the trucks or tight it. But you need to check them regularly. Too much tight can damage the bushings, which will impact the performance. While hurting the bushings, your board may feel dead and unresponsive. How do you know that you tighten your truck too much? When you cannot see exposing two threads of your kingpin, you must understand that your truck is too tight.
- Clean Your Bearings After Every three Months
You will find enough dust and dirt on your bearings, so you need to clean them at least after every three months. Just open the bearing and soak them in alcohol or nail remover. Shake them, and the dirt will come out. After cleaning them, dry them with a paper towel and tap and shake them to remove the remaining dirt. After dry, ultimately add some Bones speed cream or silicone lubricant.
- Replace the Bushings When They Dry Out
After some time, the bushing will wear down. After that, there is a tendency to losing their effectiveness. You may see the cracks or crumble or squished bushings in the dry bushing. Too much hot and cold temperatures can make them wear down very soon. So, try to avoid this condition to keep your board last for a long time. Considerably too much moisture can decrease the lifespan of the board. You can hear very squeaky sounds when your board becomes dry out. BY putting soap shavings and just some candle wax inside the pivot cup can fix the problem. If this process doesn’t work, you need to replace them as early as possible.
- Replace the Grip Tape
Sometimes your skateboard is ok, but your grip tape wears down quickly. This situation occurs depending on the condition of the weather where you use the skateboard. In that case, someone likes to replace the whole skateboard but don’t need to do it, replace the grip tape, and enjoy skateboarding. It’s not hard at all, follow my instruction, and you can do it independently. By using a Stanley knife or razor blade, you can peel off the tape.
By the way, you can take a hairdryer and put it in the hottest area. Then take it near the tail or nose and make sure that the grip tape warms up quickly. Try to continue heating the grip tape. The glue becomes warm-up and losing and its cohesion, so you can easily pull up the grip tape. Your deck might look a little bit sticky from the residual glue by doing this process, but that doesn’t create any problem. You can do this same process for the next grip tape.
- Try to Avoid Extreme Weather Condition
Too much heat, cold, and rain will affect the condition of the skateboard. The deck will be soaked and will lose its pop. Over time being, it will cause delamination. A deck is producing by several maple blocks of wood. So, with the contact of the extreme weather, your deck’s epoxy glue will dissolve. Thus the layers of the deck will separate, and you need to replace them. So, to avoid this condition, don’t skate in the rain. Like the deck, the bearings also don’t like water. Water will help your bearings to rust quickly because it dissolves the lubricant, which can keep your bearings spinning. Rusting will form, and your baring will create noise. Don’t through your baring if you clean them occasionally and apply proper lubricants, which will make your bearings last for a long time.
In the same way, water also cause your bolts and screws to rust. Bolts and screws are very cheap but don’t keep them under the rain for a long time. Hot weather will damage the wheels and bushings quickly because it contains more sand and dust. Keep it in your mind that when bushings become hot, they deform quickly. Like this, too much cold weather might freeze up your bushings. This will decrease the performance of the skateboard.
- Store the Skateboard in a Dry Place
Remember that you don’t store the skateboard around the floor, and don’t leave them in the too cold or too hot place. Make a skateboard rack and put them in a secure location. But don’t keep them in the trunk of your car, there the board will also get warm or moist.
- Repair the Razor Tails and The Chips
You can repair the razor tail and chipped decks on your own rather than buy a new deck. Use the special glue and thus, you can glue chipped or split layers. After that, let the glue dry. If you want a long-term solution, then hit the same spot again, and there’s a good chance that the chipped piece of wood will come off again. For the razor tail, you can sand down the tails by using some tools, which will make the deck lose a small bit of pop. This is not the permanent solution, you will able to skate the next 1 or 2 weeks more, and after that, you have to replace it.
- Check the Hardware Frequently
Make sure that all the bolts and nuts are attached to your trunks tightly. When they stick out a little, there is a risk of damage to your shoes and even the deck. Check the shoes’ nuts; otherwise, the wheels will come flying off, and your truck will fall apart.
Some Tips to Prevent Your Skateboard From Breaking
- You can prevent the sudden breaking of your skateboard by landing tricks near or on top of the bolts, which can attach to your trucks. You can use the rails to give extra support, but it is not the real solution. It can protect the graphics but cannot prevent breaking permanently. Sometimes you can see that if the deck is not at the right level, it will break down. If the deck is strong enough, you can prevent the board from breaking. But you have to pay more to get a strong deck. For this purpose, you may buy a blank deck, which is cheap and robust as well.
- Don’t sleep over the skateboard when you have wet shoes; it will decrease the grip tape’s durability. And you cannot avoid this situation.
- Try to avoid the glass. If you ride through the broken glass, it will stick into your polyurethane wheels and cause your wheels to chip. The deck wheels will wear down quickly, and you cannot feel comfortable while riding on the deck.
- Always try to buy useful deck tools; these tools will last for a long time. Try to use the spacers between the two bearings; it will prevent your board from damaging. When you tighten the nut, the dirt will come out quickly.
- If the skateboard gets wet, try to dry it as soon as possible. Remove all the board’s hardware and let it completely dry in your garage or the sun. Make the sound more clear and then join the hardware again.
How to Repair a Skateboard?
By following the quick tips, you can repair your skateboard quickly.
- If the Deck is Not Balanced
In that case, from the very beginning, you need to remove the wheels and trucks. You have now immersed the deck in water for about a night. After one day, take it out of the water and then place a heavy and flat object on it for the next 24 hours. By following this way, you can solve your problem.
- If the Deck is Chipped or Cracked
Remove the old grip tape using a razor or a hairdryer, and then clean the deck’s surface. Now you can easily see the cracks. Buy an epoxy from hardware stores and apply it to them; leave it for a day and let it dry. Take sandpaper and firmly use it over it, and clean it again. Now use the new grip tape, and then it will complete.
- If you Repair the Trucks
With the help of a crescent shape wrench and take off the kingpin nut and the washer and process it while rubbing the bushing. After that, detach the hanger from the pivot cup and add some amount of soap to the pivot cup, and thus you can reassemble it again.
By the way, without any confusion, skateboarding can bring a lot of fun for the boarders. It provides very challenging experiences to the player’s imagination, dedication, confidence, and durability. By maintaining and following the simple tools and techniques that I already discussed here, you can take care of your skateboard and increase your life span.