No. Most bearings are just fine.
No. Just no. Pretty much anything beyond generic stuff, YYF Spec, YoyoOfficer, or Magicyoyo bearings are worth checking out. Stay away from those, and with proper maintenance most bearings can perform really well.
Proper maintenance is key. Really, it’s the most important thing when it comes to bearings. A $30 dollar bearing is useless if you don’t know how to maintain them properly, whereas an $8 OD 10 ball can crank out 6+ minute sleepers without breaking a sweat if you maintain it well.
I suggest sticking with stuff in the $8-10 range until you fully understand bearing maintenance. If you don’t know how to maintain your bearings, and I mean really, really know how…you’re just going to be disappointed with pretty much any bearing, no matter how expensive. And although there are videos on proper maintenance, it still takes some trial and error. That’s why I suggest sticking with some cheaper bearings until you can get those consistently running well.
Hi Fullthrottle, I appreciate you chiming in…helping me realize that there is probably something wrong with my methods of cleaning the bearings…Your expert advices are greatly invited! “6+ minute sleepers without a sweat due to proper bearing maintenance with an $8 bearing”? That sounds very impressive. I have some $8 price range bearings also, I haven’t ever seen those kind of sleepers, though.
How do you do it? What would you say is required to make my Ja-Ru Metal Tech sleep for 2.2 minutes? It has a 4 ball bearing and I can only get it to sleep for 20 seconds out of the package and 1 minute and 10 seconds after I clean it. >:( It has 40% of the balls a 10 ball bearing has so I’d suspect that I should be able to make it sleep for 40% of 6 minutes which is around 2.2 minutes.
I also have a Turbo Bumble Bee and a YoYoFactory One that will only sleep for 2 minutes that I’d like to make sleep for 4.5 minutes as well…Those have 80% of the balls that a 10 ball has.
Do you have any tutorials or written guides documenting your cleaning regimen to achieve these feats of spin, and 100% marginal gains with budget equipment? Thank you.
I don’t see switching from a normal center-trac to a NSK center-trac making any practical spin times any longer. If anything, it would be barely marginal.
I’m not sure if this has been addressed, but most of the time when people talk about 6/7/10 minute sleepers they are doing the old ‘string twist’ method to keep the string away from the response. I know when I was new I came on these forums and saw people talking about 10 minutes sleep times and I couldnt believe it because whenever I threw down my Superstar and left it it would only spin for like a minute before tilting out.
So just to point it out for those who currently may not be aware, most of these amazing sounding spin times are not referring to a standard throw-down-and-leave-sleeper, but are using a method of twisting the string and using the gyroscoping effects of a spinning yoyo to keep it from tilting and spinning out.
I believe this video explains it roughly. 
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I just did some sleeper tests.
NSK gold: 10:55
CTX: 10:05
Dif: ~9:10 but I accidentally touched the yoyo once trying to twist the string and balance the yoyo
Chinese ceramic: 11:10
Chinese steel: ~10:00
In practice tho I rarely throw combos longer than 30s so sleep time isnt much a concern, but for people who like their 1min FS in one throw (I know people who do despite it being counter productive to contest scoring) then getting a ceramic or NSK may help you nail that final bind. I personall still prefer the CTX for its smooth feeling on the string. The quietness of an NSK cant be beat tho
I will test this out this morning on all my bearings, thanks for sharing! ;D
Yes, this is the method I use. It’s not very practical for actually tricks, but hey, it’s a sleeper.
And Yoyopro, I don’t know what to tell you about those other throws with lesser bearings, because I have no experience with them. If you really want to try, you need to have the bearing completely clean, and use the string twisting method. People can get minute long sleepers with fixed axles apparently, so maybe it’s possible with those that you mentioned?
Also, check the list above with sleep times on various bearings. You can get really good times with most bearings by having a good throw and using the string twisting method. Good luck!
This. ^ Also, the yoyo being used will have a large impact on the spin times. A Yoyorecreation Dreadnaught G with a stock chinese KK will easily out-sleeper a Yoyofactory One with an NSK in it.
Really it’s best not to get too hung up on the sleep time of individual bearings, since in general use, the yoyo itself as well as the cleanliness of your play will have a generally larger impact on sleep times than the bearing will.
This ^, haha. Plain sleepers aren’t much good for anything, because it’s not much of a trick, and there are so many other factors besides the bearing in spin times. Rim-weighted low-walled yoyos, a strong and straight throw, and clean play will give plenty of spin time on pretty much any bearing.
I haven’t really had much time this morning to do much Sleeping but, I am getting to it. My Torque is already doing 5 minutes with this twist balancing trick.
OOOOahwowooahOh! ;D
UPDATE from Yo-YoPro: an 11.5 Minutes a Sleepersasens with a Golden Bearings. WOW. 
