Bronson Raw Bearings

Bronson Raw Bearings are a "shieldless" skate bearing based on the Bronson G3 Bearing. Bronson claim that they are the first ever bearings designed for skateboarding without shields.

The Bronson Raws share a couple of features with the Bronson G3, namely:

• Reinforced nylon bearing cage
  
• "Deep Groove" Raceways (Races)
• They are packaged in Nitrogen-filled shrink wrap. Which, as per the G3 bearing, means... nothing.
• In addition to this, they also feature Tungsten Coated Races. A little bit like Titanium Coated Races, these are regular steel races with a tungsten coating - similar to a coated drill bit. We're extremely sceptical that this coating will last more than a few hours of skateboarding - especially if you run your bearings dry.

The big difference though, is they have no shields at all. This does a few things:

• It makes them very easy to lubricate. No shields to remove - all you need to do is bung a few drops of lube in there and you're off.
• It makes them sound a bit different. If you care about how your bearings sound, that's a nice extra. We'd rather our bearings kept the water and dirt out.
• It means the bearings have no protection at all from dirt and moisture. Bronson claim to mitigate this to some extent by by using a custom inner and outer race which has no shielding grooves cut in it, thereby removing a possible location for dirt to build up - but honestly, we think this really lets an otherwise awesome bearing down.

If you like the look and sound of a shieldless bearing, and you don't mind getting the bearing lube out every session, we're not going to stop you getting these... but if you actually skate in the real world, and you like to have your bearings rolling nice and fast and lasting more than a few sessions - we'd recommend that you get the Bronson G3 (with most of the same features plus super-effective Labyrinth Shielding) instead.