It is always great to have a longboard according to your riding style. Cleaning the longboard parts on a regular basis increases the life of your longboard and it also helps the longboard to stay functional. A longboard with an unclean deck, rough wheels, and non lubricated bearings can not perform according to your expectations. You might think it is challenging to keep the longboard clean but we assure you it’s not difficult at all. Our suggested method (by Andrew Norris) of cleaning all longboard parts is easy to perform and provides satisfactory results to the longboard holders.

Cleaning Longboard Deck

First of all, you need to use the best skate tool to unscrew longboard trucks, wheels and detach them from the deck of your longboard. Once you have the deck in your lap, make use of a nylon brush or a stiff bristle. Create a mixture of soapy water and heat it a little. Now, dip the brush inside the soapy mixture and scrub slowly over the dirty part of your deck. This dirt or mud comes onto your longboard when you push your longboard by placing your feet onto some muddy surface. Keep scrubbing in a circular motion until all the dirt is removed. 

It is obvious for the deck’s underside to get dirty. Dip the sponge into clean water and wipe the downside of the deck from top to bottom. Most importantly, don’t forget to clean out dirt from the trucks’ attaching position. Now, you need to let the deck get dry. As soon as the deck is completely dried, you will be ready to go for another exciting ride.

Maintaining your longboard’s deck

If the deck stays in the sun, water, or stays muddy for a long time, the sturdiness of the deck decreases, and increasing the chances of the deck getting cracked or broken. Of course, nobody wants to see his/her longboard getting cracked. So, whenever your longboard gets wet due to any reason, make sure you dry it out completely. Once it gets dried under the sun or fire, keep it under a safe cover. If it is possible for you to spend something on the best longboard backpack, do it because a backpack keeps the longboard safe from the external atmosphere as well as lets you carry the longboard easily.

Cleaning Longboard Wheels

The easiest part of cleaning a longboard is to clean the wheels. All you need to do is to detach the wheels from trucks with the help of skate tool. Get the bearings out, remove small stones stuck inside the wheels, use a magic eraser or mixture of dishwashing chemicals, and dip all wheels one by one into the mixture or magic eraser.

Keep all these parts inside for at least 10 minutes. Now, use a soapy mixture to rub the dirt off the wheels. Rub it with a little more effort so that all the mud gets cleaned from the wheels. Now, it is time to dry them out. Reinstall the bearings if they are also clean.

Maintaining Longboard Wheels

All longboard wheels will definitely stop working after using them for a certain time without maintenance, but we are here to suggest some tips on how to increase the life of the wheels of your longboard. The exception is understood, but if you want the wheels to stay functional for a longer run, make sure you skate on smooth surfaces rather than riding on rough terrains. 

People who usually slide a lot should avoid power sliding, because it changes the shape of the wheels automatically, making them non-functional within days. Another important thing that our pro riders have recently observed is that you should use relative types of wheels according to your riding style. For example, if you use the cruising wheels for sliding purposes, these wheels will wear out within a couple of rides. 

Due to the wheels’ offset, one of the wheels gets non-functional quickly. You need to keep changing the places of the wheels at least twice a week if you do longboarding every day. Changing the places of the wheels will not let any of them stop performing up to the mark; hence their life increases. However, if you haven’t replaced older ones with the newer set of wheels for the past 4 months, and you see that the wheels under-perform after a whole lot of care, you should go for the best longboard wheels.

Cleaning longboard bearings

NOTE: You can follow the following method to clean skateboard bearings too. 

Firstly, pull out the rubber sheet covering the bearings inside the wheels. Make sure you do not put a lot of effort into pulling it out because it can easily damage or break the bearings. If there is no availability of any special bearing cleaner, make use of kerosine oil or natural spirit. Whatever the mixture you are using, make sure you rub it completely around the bearings.

Also, cover all the surfaces of the bearings. The next step is to rinse the bearings with alcohol or rubbing. Dry out the bearings by availing compressed air. You must use the best lubricant for bearing to make your bearings completely lubricated. Put the rubber shield back after the lubrication is done and make sure to place the bearings where they belong.

Maintaining the longboard bearings

The performance of bearings plays an essential role in defining the smoothness and speed of your ride. If, during the ride, you feel that the bearings are sticking or underperforming, stop there instantly, and find out what is the problem that is happening. If you have ridden twice in a couple of rainy days, make sure to bring the bearings out, clean them up, give them the oil they need, and reinstall them, so that they keep working according to your expectations.

FAQs

How to clean a wood longboard?

Multiple materials are used in longboards construction. Therefore, we have to be careful when clean our deck. A wood made longboard can be cleaned with the water but does not work well for long times. Half of the cleaning process gets completed when you clean the grip tape properly. To do that, you will need a brush or a sand paper that can clean the tape as deep as possible. Simply rub the sand paper thoroughly on the grip tape.

How often the longboard should be cleaned?

How to clean longboard does not mean you just have to wash the deck only as trucks, wheels, and bearings also need improvements. Therefore, different accessories require maintenance in different durations. Wheels and bearings should be washed after every 2 months if the environment near you is not too rough. To keep the longboard sharp and responsive, make sure you clean it after one month.

How long does a longboard last?

If a board is being used continuously in cracked and rough surfaces. The rider may need to either upgrade its accessories like rollers, bearings, and trucks or invest in a brand new longboard after 6-8 months. In other words, it depends on you that how do you keep and how much do you use your longboard.

Final Words

Keeping a longboard clean and fresh means you will save your budget from buying a complete new setup. The only way you can achieve this goal is to learn the process of “How to clean longboard” which has been made simpler than ever by BoardsOnTop and Andrew Norris. Go through the procedures of cleaning and maintaining longboard deck, wheels, and bearings. The visual presentations have also been included for your satisfaction. Clean your board and bring more joy to your rides.