Curious what the community prefers regarding bearings! Center track, hybrid, ceramic, etc.!
Thoughts? Experiences? Opinions?!
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Interesting topic, I will follow interested as I am horrible with bearing, I destroyed at least 60 of them from when I started yoyoing, I do not know what to do to keep them up and running properly, tried thousand cleaning method they all become responsive again.
About the type, I found the ceramic the worst ever, no benefit at all except a very short life span.
I do like centre track and concave and I use them in all my throws, I wish I can try a grooved one, it seems an interesting one but them seems out of stock everywhere, not a fan at all about the flat.
8 balls and 10 balls is not a huge difference but I noticed 10 balls spins a bit longer but not that much to make them too different.
Even between brands I have to be honest I did not noticed big differences, I tried couple of brands and spent even 20$ on one single bearing just for the sake of try it, it did not worth at all.
I know some people buy them cheap in bulk and some other prefer the branded ones, everyone his own I believe, in my case the Yoyofactory one are sort of a standard, they work until they do not work anymore, simple as that!
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My setup choice will be DS economy and platinum by yyr, second option is the ctx.
DS bearings feels like concave with extra steps but the platinum version was the best due to its low maintenance (no need to clean it with the lighter fluid and lube).
CTX if I need to widen the gap feel of my string if I play multiple string layers.
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MR85 
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Nsk clean and dry, everyday. Perfect year after year
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I’m curious as to how you’ve brought any bearing to end of life, let alone 60 of them. Are you physically damaging them?
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I literally have no clue how this happen, for most of my life I lived in Sardinia where it is unbelievable humid (imagine in the night even if not raining you can see the fences or cars dropping water and doing puddles on the floor) plus all this humid have a high grade of salt in the air as I live close to the beach (I am from an island) so I do not know if this can be an explanation.
Also when I clean them probably I do something wrong, sometimes it can happen a tiny piece of string inside or something like that and become responsive so it is the horrifying time to clean them.
I clean them with the zippo lighter fluid, dry on a piece of towel spin them with my thumb on a screwdriver and for one or two days them are fine and then back to responsive.
I never try to touch the bearings until they become responsive, I do not even think to take them out the yoyo until become very responsive, so all my setups are pretty much stock (at least the bearing is untouched).
Probably I do something wrong in my cleaning routine or I do not know but you have to take in account that I play a lot of hours and in different conditions also outside and I use the strings for very long time.
I am a mess taking care of my throws, always been more oriented on tricks than all this stuff
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Are you putting lube on after cleaning? The lube is what makes them more resilient and last longer, not the cleaning. I rarely, if ever, clean my bearings with a solvent. I use canned compressed air and paper to clean gunk out of them then just add a pin drop of lube and I’m good to go. I still have bearings I bought 3 years ago but that still work just as well as the day I bought them. I think, especially living in a humid climate, lube is very important to a good maintenance routine.
On topic, One Drop flat bearings are my favorite. The quality can’t be beat and they’re so smooth and quiet. I also like feeling superior to others that can’t stand them (that’s a joke). Original Throw concave, YYR Platinum DS are my favorites for when I want maximum performance out of a throw. Also can’t go wrong with a good center trac. I guess it really depends on the yoyo and how nice it plays with it.
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I’ve pretty much tried em all and nothing beats DS for centering, and OD 10 balls for flat. I won’t use anything but those in my main throws.
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My fav throws run pixel bearings.
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I have a little stock of pixel bearings. If I don’t like the bearing any yoyo comes with I’ll usually just throw a pixel in there. Not a bad cheapish bearing.
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I used DS for some time but I found pixels to be the same quality at a lower price.
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I’ve been having insane luck with Magic gold 10 ball bearings for the last several years. I feel like these are a hack for the price; unbelievable.
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YYR DS, VIP, G2 Ripper (super smooth 8 ball CT), and OD10 are the 4 bearings I buy and use.
I do not like Grooved Concave bearings. I find they do a great job centering the string for sleepers, but keep string bunched up on one side or the other during tricks, leading to snagging in my experience.
NSK bearings are a step above in terms of smoothness and spin times, but I’m not sure if the performance delta is worth the cost delta ($6-11 vs $20)
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I have a ton of grooved bearings because they ship with most G2s and I dont like them lol. Theyre a great bearing (smooth, quiet) but I dont play them. Maybe we can figure out a way to get you some?
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I used to think premium bearings were a waste of money and mostly placebo when compared to the bulk bearings you can get off of AliExpress. But my Hydrangea yoyos all came with NSK platinums… and honestly they’re just better. Somehow you just feel like there’s less friction on the spin, they stay quiet and don’t have a crunch to the spin. I like them a lot, I’d never buy them on their own though.
Echoing Brandon’s sentiments on grooved bearings, they’re the only type of bearing I just really don’t like playing, for the exact same reason.
I’m really not picky though, whatever comes with the yoyo is good enough for me. Would prefer to not play flats in general though, but they’re whatever. I don’t hate flats or anything, I’d just prefer to not use them.
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This brand has caused a lil drama here in the past but Lotus actually does make the best bearings I’ve used. The Supergroove XD’s are just ridiculous they spin forever. I can immediately feel the difference in a throw after putting one in. I’ve never really experienced that with any other bearing brands I’ve tried. Kind of expensive though.
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Lotus concave “Superscoop” are my favorite. YYF center-track have served me well also.
Oh and also the C3 bearings are excellent.
Ivan
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Thanks so much Bran, but I believe your judge about them, I will try to get my hands on some oh those YYR DS or NSK if I find them in Europe, also everyone thanks for the advice, seems like those ones are highly appreciated by lot of you!
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Since there’s so much talk of lighter fluid in here and none of acetone just wanted to pipe up and say 100% acetone is the best solvent to clean bearings. Lighter fluid leaves residue. Lube is not required on a clean bearing and more often than not will increase responsiveness either by using too much or just by making it easier for dirt/debris to stick.
While there are some cheaper bearings that do negatively impact the feel of play, most bearings that come with a reputable brand will be all you ever need. Sinking money into fancy bearings is wasting money better spent on new throws IMO.
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