i just bought a new set of bearings and put some lubrication on 'em. but when i put them in my wheels and spun them they make a little grinding noise. i don't know if this is normal or not but any help would be appreciated.
What kind of lubrication did you use? It sounds crazy, but with some bearings, if you used motor oil (as in 10w/40 or whatever) you can actually ruin your bearings. I killed a set of tensor bearings this way a while back. Same thing too, bad grinding noise and they kinda seized up a little too. They'd still roll, but not very well at all. Once I figured out that plain old OIL can be bad (which I still can't believe), I've just been sticking with Bones Speed Cream because I don't want to have to think about it too much.
Do your bearings still have their shields on? You might want to pop those off to let the excess grit out rather than trap them in there to create some sort of build up. It could also help to ride them again since lubing up bearings basically resets them to a new state, in which case you just need to simply break them in again. And like other posters have mentioned, Bones Speed Cream is a great recommendation for bearing maintenance. Bones have been making other quality skate products for a while now, so I'd definitely go with what they have to offer rather than something else that wasn't made primarily for skating.
