The most important part of a 3CV are the wheels, the bearing and the brakes. When you ride a 3CV you put the most pressure on the inside of the two back wheels. You will therefore see more wear on the inside of the back wheels. The front wheel  will wear more evenly. But we all have a “preferred” side, so one side of the front wheel will show more wear. For right handed riders the front wheel will probably wear more on the left side. To increase the wheels lifecycle and it’s performance you need to regularly rotate them.

 

Rotating wheels:

1.   Loosen the axle on both sides with an Allen wrench .

2.   The axle consists out of one long hollow axle and a smaller screw. Next to that there is a washer between the frame and the bolds on the outside and a wheel/ frame spacer on the inside. This spacer has the wide side to the frame and the narrow side to the wheel and bearings.

3.   When you are rotating the wheels you can clean the bolds, washers, spacers and wheels. When the wheel is out of it’s place you can also clean the 3CV frame and brake-pads.

4.   When you rotate the wheels it’s best to change them from the left to right and vice versa. When replacing the wheels make sure the most worn-out side is on the outside.

5.   Everything nice and clean? Then you can put the axle back in. First put a washer on the axle and than push it trough he frame. Put on the spacer, with the wide-side first and then push the wheel over it.

6.   Between the to bearing on both sides of the wheel there is another spacer. You need to align this spacer with the bearings to push the axle trough. A bit of fiddling with a small Allen wrench or another small long object will help. When the axle it through the wheel put on the second spacer with the small side first and push the axle trough the other side of the frame. Both on the bold with the final washer and tighten. ( it is sometimes hard to get all part in the right place and it al seems a bit narrow, try to unwind the front fork this will help for the front wheel and for the back wheel align everything and then push it all in place.

 

Cleaning the bearings

A lot of discussions have led to a lot of different methods of cleaning your bearings. Since there is already so much told about this on inline skate websites I have some links that will help you cleaning your bearings.

 

Articles About Cleaning Bearings
*  Cleaning Race Bearings by Michael Byrne (Bont.com)
*  If Bearings Could Talk (FaSST.com)
*  Article by Tim McCary of Weber Sports (Stormpages.com)
*  Clean 20 Skate Bearings in 30 Minutes (LondonSkaters.com)