So I recently encountered someone who thought that the bearing system I use for my wheels is “junk”.
Why? Well, because he attempted to make one and failed.
He has to, and I quote, “remove it every other week to keep it working correctly”.
I have not had to do this with any of my wheels. Not with my Fast Tracks or with my homemade ones.
The design I use is the same as Fast Track/Spinzone Global’s design. They have had GREAT success with it.
Their wheel is probably the product they sell the most. And their Treadmill uses the same bearing system.
But the design is junk because this man was not able to properly make it.
He, obviously, did something wrong…but won’t admit it.
He thinks that his SINGLE (failed) attempt trumps everyone else’s successful attempt(s).
His claims are that, and I quote, “it’s a shitty design to wrap a bolt in teflon tape to hold the bearing on the bolt”.
I clarified to him that the teflon is to make the wheel spin more silent, not to hold the bearing on the bolt (Whatever that means. I mean, where’s the bearing going to go?).
He later said, talking about my husband: “If he approves of wrapping teflon tape to protect a bearing, perhaps he don’t understand the whole practical part of the game!! XD”
And I clarified, again, that it’s to make the wheel more silent.
First he says it’s to hold the bearing on the bolt, he gets told he’s wrong, and then, suddenly, he changes his tune and says it’s to protect the bearing.
To me it seems like he was making it up as he went.
He also said at the beginning: “Prolly works real good with no more than 2 gliders using it..”.
Because, as we all know, every single person who bought a wheel from Fast Track/Spinzone Global only uses their wheel(s) with no more than two gliders. Yep. Haha
I’m not sure what he means by “to hold the bearing on the bolt” but I figured I’d post here why I believe he is wrong.
The only thing that I can think of that he means by holding the bearing on the bolt is that, if you sand down the PVC, the bearings might be loose and move around the PVC tee.
While that could happen on one side of the PVC tee, the teflon is NOT used to keep them in place.
Here are some photos to help you understand.
If he’s talking about the extra tape: As you can see on the first photo, the tape is where the bearings go and, as you see on the second photo, it continues inwards towards the center of the bolt.
There is no tape on the tip of the bolt and there is no tape where the nylon spacers are.
The top bearing could move towards the tip but that’s not really an issue because the lock nut will be very close to it. So it won’t actually be able to move around.
Look at the photo just below this. They had to use loctite to hold one of the lock nuts in place because they couldn’t tighten it more. If they did, the wheel wouldn’t spin. That’s how close the lock nut is to the bearing.
The bottom bearing could move from its intended location beside the ledge towards the back piece of the lid. But the nylon spacers prevent that from happening.
Basically, that extra tape that’s still white and thicker serves no real purpose. It certainly does not keep the bearings in place since the bearings can’t go further in, where the extra tape is, because the little ledge inside the PVC tee prevents it.
If he’s talking about the part of the tape that is directly under the bearings, well, it obviously won’t keep the bearings in place since it will flatten down once the wheels get used.
You can see the difference on the tape that goes under the bearings vs the extra tape on the first photo posted. Especially on the bottom extra tape (beside bearing 2).
The tape that goes under the bearings is thinner than the extra tape.
Of course, the difference will depend on the amount of tape you put initially. If you put a pretty thin layer, there might not be any difference.
Fast Track has been making wheels for years. If they actually intended the tape under the bearings to do that, they would’ve found out that the tape doesn’t do it and they would’ve found another alternative by now.
Oh, wait. They did. The nylon spacers prevent the bearing from moving. But they still use the tape. So, obviously, that’s not its purpose.
If, like us, you don’t sand down inside the PVC tee so that the bearings slide in you have absolutely no reason to worry about the bearings moving around. 🙂
Or maybe he means the teflon holding the bearing on the bolt as in using the teflon to fill up the size difference between the hole of the bearings and the bolt. So that the holes are in contact with something all the time. Because it’ll…? I’m not sure…
Anyway, kinda like making a thicker surface that would fit perfectly through the bearings, instead of leaving a tiny gap like the 5/16″ bolt does.
But that would be dumb since, as I said and showed, the tape will flatten.
Now, by protecting….the only things I can think of by that is that the tape could prevent the bolt from scratching inside the hole where it passes or, possibly, galvanic corrosion.
However, I don’t think it actually does prevent either because the tape is very thin and it flattens out.
Maybe the people from Fast Track do think the tape does lessen or delay the scratching or corrosion. And maybe it does a little bit.
But why would they focus on the scratching and/or galvanic corrosion and not on the fact that water can easily enter and rust the bearings?
If they were worried about the bearings being compromised, I’m sure they would change their bearing system to a completely sealed one where water cannot enter and rust the bearings.
I know making a completely sealed one would be very hard and/or expensive. But I imagine they would at least add something to make water entering the tee and reaching the bearings a little harder. I know I would.
That’s what leads me to believe that neither of those things is the original intended purpose of the tape.
We put our first homemade wheel using this bearing system without the tape and noticed that after putting it, the wheel was a little quieter.
So my husband and I use the tape to make the wheels a little more silent. Because, as I’ve said, we don’t believe the tape will prevent scratching or galvanic corrosion.
But that’s us.
And we could be wrong. Maybe Fast Track puts it for other reasons.
Maybe Fast Track does put it to “protect the bearing” and/or “hold the bearing on the bolt”.
But the man is still wrong about something: The design isn’t junk.
Whatever the original intended purpose by Fast Track for the tape, the fact of the matter is that the design works.
And if the man is so sure of himself, why did he change from “holding the bearing on the bolt” to “protecting the bearing”?
That change is what makes me believe that he just, plain and simply, doesn’t like the design because he wasn’t able to properly replicate it and was looking for random things to criticize.
Unless to him “protecting the bearings” and “holding the bearing on the bolt” are the same thing?
It would’ve been great if he had just responded with explanations instead of with short sarcastic remarks and a feeling of superiority.
Update: The man has since bought Fast Track wheels. (I believe a Treadmill as well.) 😂😂😂
I guess the design isn’t as bad as he says, huh?
He was just unable to replicate it and can’t admit his incompetence. 😂
I mean, why would you pay for something that you think is junk?
(Can you imagine if he wasn’t aware that it’s the same bearing system as the Fast Track wheels and then when he realized it he was all like “Shit! This is the same system I said is junk! Damn. I guess it’s probably not junk after all.” Or maybe he’s still too stubborn and still thinks it’s junk because he couldn’t replicate it. 😂 Funny to me either way. 😂)
Tsugie's Sugar Gliders 