Beginner roller skating
One Drop of Oil. Not Two.
Cleaning a bearing is simple and the trap is at the end. Wheel off, bearing out, shields off, soak in isopropyl alcohol, brush, dry completely - then one or two drops of oil and no more. Extra oil doesn't run smoother, it collects dust and leaves the bearing dirtier than before you started. You'll know if you got it right by ear: a clean bearing spins long and silent, a dirty one sounds like gravel. Still gravelly? The clean wasn't thorough enough. Do it again.
Cleaning a bearing is a simple sequence and there is one trap in it, right at the end. Wheel off, bearing out, shields off, soak in isopropyl alcohol, brush, and dry completely before anything else touches it.
Then: one or two drops of oil, and no more. This is where it goes wrong. More oil does not run smoother. It collects dust, turns into a paste, and leaves the bearing dirtier than it was before you started — so the reward for being generous is doing the whole job again sooner.
You do not need to guess whether you got it right, because a bearing tells you by ear. Clean and correctly oiled, it spins long and it spins silent. Dirty, it sounds like gravel.
Still gravelly after a clean? The clean was not thorough enough — usually the soak was too short or the bearing went back together before it was dry. Do it again rather than adding oil to quieten it, because oil on top of grit is how a bearing gets destroyed instead of serviced.
Keep going: this is one section of the full Roller Skating for Beginners guide — sizing, gear, stopping, and where to skate, in one page.