Tuesday 29 May 2012

Harry Redstone's RC car racing preparation...



Our friend Harry Redstone is competing, with his RC car, in the SRCMCC's SRS race this Sunday, 3rd June, & he's very kindly shared a photo diary of some of his preparations with us.  If like me you thought you could just turn up & race your RC car, it seems we were very much mistaken!!

Before & after each race Harry disassembles his cars...



 He has to clean, maintain & relubricate all parts of his RC cars, to ensure maximum performance on race day...



We've supplied Harry with the bearings for his race cars & he says "The bearings I got are perfect for my uses - they hold up at the clutch bell where they literally spinning 40,000 rpm... bearings usually go after a single race day, but yours have lasted 3 race days so far - thats not bad going at all".


Thanks for the positive feedback Harry, it's much appreciated!!
 

"First car in bits ready for new shock oils, new diff oils and clean all bearings and oil them up!
Then to re do all that on my other car... wow I have a long week :0)"


 

  We hope all of Harry's hard work pays off on race day.


 We're really excited that we're going to go & see for ourselves, as he'll be competing just down the road from us in Swindon.  The splendid outdoor race track is located at Moredon Recreation ground, Swindon, SN2 2QJ - if you're not racing it's free entry & there'll certainly be plenty of action to see on the day.

All of us at SMB would like to wish Harry (& all his fellow competitors) the very best of luck!!




Wednesday 23 May 2012

SMB's eBay SKATE shop is now live...



We have finally joined the modern age (well, sort of!!) & opened an online skate bearings store at eBay!



You can buy sets of 4, 8 or double up & get 16pcs of the standard skate bearings or the ceramic hybrids. 

For all other enquiries, we'd still like you to contact us - we have over 2000 different sizes/types of bearings in stock & sadly we can't list them all, but we welcome all enquiries!

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Friday 11 May 2012

Introducing Harry Redstone, RC car racing nut...

SMB Bearings would like to introduce you to our young friend, Bristol-based Harry Redstone - a keen racer of RC model cars. Harry is a regular feature now at Swindon Radio Controlled Model Car Club - SRCMCC for short!


"My name is Harry Redstone & I am a rc car racer, newly started, but I've been into rc cars since I was 5 years old.  Now I'm taking it more seriously, after leaving the sport of motorcross.  I am only racing at club level at the moment but i will soon be doing the Swords (a national race competition) and other race meetings." 


Harry will be participating in the Pirate RC event in June - we're looking forward to updating you on that nearer the time.

Harry's new pride & joy - a Team Losi 4WD Buggy


Racing action at SRCMCC!
 We sent Harry some bearings for his car & he seems pretty chuffed with them "Cheers, the bearings are great - stripped my car down last night and fitted them & it took all the play out of the hubs :-) and I didn't even have to shim them".  We look forward to seeing how the bearings do longer team, as the world of nitro RC racing is a pretty hard one for your average bearing - as Harry says "Yeah, plus they're spinning at 40,000 rpm so they do take a bashing but then thats life for them :-)"


Everyone at SMB Bearings would like to take this opportunity to wish Harry the very best of luck for the 2012 race season & we'll update you on his progress really soon.


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Thursday 10 May 2012

Ian Emery, RC Heli Pilot - AHA Tring meet...

Our favourite RC heli pilot, Ian Emery, popped in today & dropped off this fantastic vid & meet report from his adventures last weekend...





AHA Round 1 - Tring



Ian says,
 "The long winter was finally over and it was time for the first AHA Competition of the year at Tring, Buckinghamshire. This year I was progressing from the Clubman’s (entry level league) to Sportsman’s (Intermediates) and having practised the new set of manoeuvres relentlessly over the past couple of months I felt optimistic about the year ahead. Little did I know that a decision had been made to cancel any competition with less than 4 people competing in that particular class.


After a nervous wait it emerged that I was the only competitor that turned up for the Sportsman’s class, so any scores obtained for the day wouldn’t count towards the final league standing. There were 5 competitors for the F3C class and it was decided that I should fly my schedule at the end of each of their 3 rounds and marked by the judges using it as a training day.


All 3 flights were completed with very positive yet constructive feedback from the judges. The only slight mishap was a heavy landing following an autorotation manoeuvre in round 2 leading to a broken undercarriage strut. Luckily I was able to borrow a spare strut to complete the 3rd round flight. Due to the poor turnout and the positive feedback, the judges and F3C pilots think that I should enter into the F3C competition for the remainder of the season. I now have 2 weeks to try and learn the F3C schedule before the next completion, fingers crossed".



Thanks for updating us Ian.  All we can say is WOW!  What a step up, no doubt richly deserved - no surprises Ian's a bit edgy to be heading into the F3C leagues though, as this is basically the qualifying stage for the British Team - it must be a bit like passing your driving test & then qualifying to race for Mclaren F1!

We're delighted to be able to support Ian with his heli bearings & even more delighted to hear from him that he's had many hours use from them so far - long may it continue :-)


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Tuesday 1 May 2012

eBay shop is coming soon...



We are delighted to announce that we are developing an eBay store, launching shortly, primarily to offer our skate bearings to our younger customers.


At SMB Bearings we actually hold over 2000 different sizes/types of bearings - see our product catalogue for more information.  For all other bearing types & sizes in our range, you can continue to order in the normal way & pay by business account, by card, cheque or by PayPal.

If you are in search of some technical help, check out our website's comprehensive technical pages to gain a better understanding of bearings & their performance.


We are always happy to talk to you if you're not exactly sure on your requirements, so please feel free to contact us if you want a bit of advice.