u/CosmicallyUnlucky

I just cleaned the stock bearings on my skates for the first time since I got them (factory new). The stock bearings had so much bearing grease it was unbelievable, and of course they had attracted tons of dust and hair that needed to be cleaned out. I used to skate about 10 years ago and I couldn't recall ever seeing that much grease on my bearings back in the day. I followed the Bones Speed Cream manual as closely as possible, which said to remove all the previous lubricant in addition to all the other crap in the bearing. I've already tested, lubricated, re-shielded and reinstalled my bearings but I can't help second-guessing myself with the sheer amount of grease I removed...I did the right thing, right? I wasn't supposed to leave all that grease packed in and lubricate around it, right? There was so much grease that now I keep having anxious visions of myself friction welding my bearings and faceplanting at the rink because I took it all out and replaced it with the thinner Speed Cream lube...

For as long as I’ve been playing DF, pretty much everything has been “solved” and explained. I can easily look up which rock is heavier than the other, how water pressure works, how many eggs an alligator lays, etc.

No guide on which dinosaurs show up in which biomes, so might as well pick one at random based on vibes. I get a keleken across my screen and not only do I not know anything about kelekens in DF specifically, I realize I don’t even really know what they are outside of video games. Now I’m learning about new kinds of dinosaurs and having to guess how they might behave in game. It’s really fun to be able to experience the game with completely fresh experiences and no established wisdom of the community meticulously documented to serve as a well-worn field guild. I’m the unga bunga dwarf in year 5 seeing a giant bird eat my alpaca for the first time and screaming “I WANT TO CATCH IT!!”

I'm about 4 months now into my relearning-to-skate adventure and starting to get curious about switching up wheels. My current skates are the off-the-shelf Chaya Cappuccinos, which run the Chaya Spectrum 78A/62mm wheel. I don't have a particular goal in mind right now with skating beyond general skill building. I love to scissor skate and I'm learning to get more comfortable with transitions, skating backwards, and one-foot skating.

I only skate at my local rink, which is literally a huge old warehouse that's been repurposed. Their floors are concrete with what I'm assuming is an epoxy coating, HOWEVER there are some pretty significant cracks/seams in the floor. They're big enough for me to feel when I'm skating, but not big enough that I'm afraid to skate over them either. It's kind of a strange situation where the upper layer of the floor has a nice smooth finish but the floor itself has some issues hah.

So I'm mostly curious about:

a) Will a smaller wheel like a Radar Energy 57mm help with footwork, or will I just be more likely to wreck on the uneven floors without the extra height to help roll over the cracks?

b) Any general suggestions for hardness levels to look at? I'm kind of thinking maybe something like an 84A, as I suspect anything in the 90s will be expecting a very nice smooth wooden floor that I simply do not have access to. But at the same time, I'm worried that hybrid wheels might still be too hard for this floor.

c) Any specific wheel suggestions?

d) Do I care about "rebound"? Can someone ELI5 what rebound is, or is it just marketing?

Basically title. We hit up Kuhlmann's, Root Seller and Sunstar last week looking for trees. Everyone is selling larger caliper stock, probably around 5-7 years old. I know that's what the average person wants but I'm looking for younger stocks like whips or <3yr old trees. Are there any nurseries in the Edmonton area that specialize in that sort of thing, or will pull younger stock for you if you ask?