Howdy spinners, new to the forum. Anyone willing to chime in about bearings? Before posting this I splashed around in the Maintenance pool & guides first, found a REALLY old (2010) thread about it, so what’s the current scoop? I’m interested in any performance boost by swapping in different bearings for the stock ones in my models. For the last couple of years I’ve been throwing:
Magicyoyo Purple line - concave 8-ball
Magicyoyo Node - concave 10 ball KK
Duncan Exit 8 - concave 8 ball Dif-e-Yo KK
All I’ve heard is that more balls = longer smoother spin. I could always use more balls. Is the upgrade worth it, or is improvement negligible?
mostly negligible, to be honest ive had more issues with 10-ball bearings than 8-ball ones. (except one drop flats)
however, going from a kk to a center-trac or flat bearing will slightly increase the effective gap width, so you can make minor adjustments to the response this way.
NSK platinum or gold all the way. I prefer curved or ds over center tracks. I have been using them for a long time without fail. I run them dry, no lube. I always use an air compressor to clean them when needed.
bearings are bearings. as long as it spins and isnt gunked up in need of cleaning you’re fine. ppl learned, played, and competed with pretty sub par gear for a long time. these days time spent practicing will trump time spent on gear and it’s not even close. esp if you’re a newer player impo id avoid the gear trap. it’s easy early on to get hyper focused on gear and it just isn’t worth it
Dif e yo konkaves are the best bearings imo. Keeps your string in the center, has great spin time, can handle multiple wraps without unintentionally snagging (unlike center tracks)
NSK isn’t worth it. Why spend 25$ on a bearing that makes little to no difference when Dif-E-Yo is the original konkave and just as good if not better at 8$ a bearing.
To mirror a bit of what has been said and add just a tiny bit of perspective. The amount of difference from one bearing to another is negligible. No matter what you pay for a bearing, you can still get a dud… and the dud percentage doesn’t improve a whole lot with the dollar amount spent. Here’s the perspective, few things suck worse than paying a premium price and getting a dud. So factor in how much you wouldn’t mind spending for a dud.
I bought a bunch of konkaves from Hollywood Modern yoyo. They’re a little spendier but they are already tested and confirmed to be good bearings. I also deshield every bearing for ease of cleaning (dust and cats, I clean bearings constantly) but those konkaves from HMY always clean up fast and stay quiet unlubed for a long time. Gonna probably buy more at Nats if they have them again.
This is fair it’s either buy a bearing that is probably good enough or buy one that’s been tested. Still sadly even tested they can have imperfections that breakdown.
It’s worse on dead stock items as the factory oil can dry up after so many years sitting on a shelf.
It was steel, so I think it was a V1 Ripper, the V2 has the nylon cage. Either way, I definitely spun it way faster than I knew was safe. It was a slow day at the shop, and that bearing had been problematic.
There really isn’t an “upgrade” from a yoyos stock bearing unless you’re going flat > centering or like, responsive narrow spec > wide unres spec. Also depends on what you’re trying to “upgrade” into or for. Doesn’t make sense to upgrade to an unres bearing if u want a responsive to be nice and tight lmao.
You can buy the nicest batch of NSK’s, DS Plats, and Pixels, and the difference they make when you’re new to the hobby is basically the aesthetic. After a point, if/when you get good enough, then you may notice a difference and get a preference, but generally speaking, for the vast majority of yoyoers, all you need is something that spins good, clean, and long.
