Maintenance
The most obvious maintenance steps you can do are
Avoid riding on Heelys in
wet weather and on sandy or muddy ground - the wheel bearings are
sealed but damp and grit will eventually get into the bearings
and cause rusting, squeaking and seizing- After unintentionally getting your Heelys seriously wet or dirty, remove the wheels and wipe/dry them as appropriate, as well as cleaning out the wheel cavities, before reinserting.
However careful you are though, if you skate a lot, you'll eventually start to be dissatisified with your wheels, which will perhaps make a noise or provide significant rolling resistance. This means that the bearings are wearing out. Now, the official Heelys site gives instructions for mechanically-minded people on how to re-grease the bearings, but
- most people won't have the time or tools for this
- a re-greased and tightened bearing, however well done at home, won't last as long as a brand new factory-sealed bearing
Thus I demonstrate below how easy it is to change your Heelys wheels. To start, visit the official Heelys wheel guide and find out which set of replacement wheels you need. In our case, I was tracking down a double-set for my daughter's Rebel:
Having ordered these from your local supplier (see the Google ads around this site for ideas), double-check they're the right ones before slitting open the pack.
Using your thumbs (preferably) or the wheel/sole-saver removal tool (if you're weak thumbed!), remove the old wheels:
Assemble the new wheels, taking care to get the small/large wheels in the right order on each shoe:
Bang them into place and check they roll ok. Job done!
it's worth keeping the old wheels - Heelys wheels are expensive and the old ones will have some life left in them. If you have a disaster with one of the new ones (God forbid), it'll be the work of a minute to pop back one or more of the old ones to tide you over, etc:
