Have you thought about this before? The title is vauge, this post will include cheapo pads, as well as gunky responsive bearings, not just “cheap in price” ones.
OD Benchmark V
vs
CLYW Bonfire
Bonfire setup is a gunky, responsive, and slightly crunchy Magic Yoyo Bearing.
Benchmark V setup is a Terrapin Wing Cut Ceramic, lubed perfectly, quietly, and 100% unresponsive.
Which would play better? I guess this doesn’t apply to cameras as much as I thought…
No one wants a responsive metal yoyo anyways, they usually hurt your hands, Benchmark wins?
Discuss this further, Id rather have a benchmark with a better bearing than a cruddy one in a Bonfire.
If I’d have to choose, I’d choose to have to pay for a bearing upgrade on the bonfire than a yoyo upgrade on the terrapin X
Overall, I think you’re not stating the problem like I understood it from the title. What you’re describing is more “Broken bearing, expensive yoyo - mid-range yoyo, expensive bearing”. It seems to me we’d actually be interested in whether or not an expensive yoyo with a cheap bearing (let’s say the Bonfire you mentioned with an 8 ball MYY lubed perfectly) would fare better than a cheap one with a premium bearing (let’s say PSG with a Terrapin Wing Cut Ceramic, lubed perfectly, quietly, and 100% unresponsive).
Such a discussion would actually lead to an interesting, at least to me, question: How much of a difference does a bearing make? If it would make a sizeable difference, people on a budget might choose to enhance their current setup with a bearing (thus paying only a fraction of the price of a new throw altogether) or decide to pass on upgrading the bearings on their existing 2 throws and save up a bit more to get a new yoyo instead.
I think the Bonfire with the cheapo bearing would perform better than the PSG with a premium one. For me shape and weight distribution of the throw seem to make the bigger difference. Only when I want to push a certain throw to the limit would I think of upgrading the bearing.
I agree with tzighy’s assessment as well as his conclusions. Even a cheapo bearing that’s well-maintained and clean is “good enough” to allow the yoyo to perform as designed. On the other hand, the marginal improvement from the premium bearing can’t radically transform the cheapo yoyo… it will still only play as good as its design.
So far, you guys have completely missed what BC meant.
He didn’t say you could fiddle with the yoyos. He meant, you play them as he described the yoyos given and the condition they are in.
So, let me change the wording for him, somewhat, for clarity.
You are given the two yoyos to evaluate: The Bonfire with a poor condition bearing and a Benchmark with an excellent condition bearing.
You can’t alter anything but maybe put on a new string on each. You play each Yoyo for an hour straight, ‘as is condition’.
You try every trick you know, with each, during your ‘hour each’ torture test’.
Would your conclusion be that you could get ‘more performance’ out of a Bonfire with a funky bearing or a Benchmark with a Sweet bearing?
…let me put it one other make believe way… You enter a Contest. They supply the yoyos. It is your turn to go up on stage for a 3 minute Freestyle. When you make it up onto the stage, they have put 2 yoyos on the floor in front of you: a funky bearing Bonfire and a first grade bearing in A Benchmark.
Which Yoyo would you reach for, to make the best of those next 3 minutes?
No, I didn’t miss his point. I knew what he meant. It just wasn’t as useful a question as the updated one in tzighy’s reply… we were both still “riffing” on BC’s original question rather than answering it directly.
Why is the original a less than useful question? In BC’s own example:
Bonfire setup is a gunky, responsive, and slightly crunchy Magic Yoyo Bearing.
Benchmark V setup is a Terrapin Wing Cut Ceramic, lubed perfectly, quietly, and 100% unresponsive.
Isn’t it self-evident that the Bonfire is going to play like poop? The bearing is flat-out responsive on the Bonfire. It’s not a real question until the scope is changed as per tzighy’s reply. Then it becomes interesting.
A Ferrari with a slipped clutch (or insert other mechanical failure here that doesn’t totally prevent the car from operating but severely impairs its performance)
Id go for the benchmark with the better bearing. Im so sick of crappy responsive bearings that are so loud and dont spin very well even when clean. Terrapin wing cut all day
In another case, I consider concave bearings MUCH better than flat bearings. So if I had the choice of Benchmark with a Trifecta over a bonfire with an 8 ball flat I’d probably prefer the benchmark.
But that’s just me, why some people think flats are as good or better than concave bearings is beyond me, but everyone has their own opinion.
I’ve been wanting to get a Classic, put a ceramic KK and irpads in there just for laughs, and maybe a twisted gray matter string
Now HERE is a man who misses the point as a matter of course, yoyodoc.
Frank John… I really don’t know how a man as smart as you seem to be can so very often miss the mark. It astonishes me. It has something to do with your absolutely bent perception that any bearing conversation not immediately and explicitly saying, “Yup, Terrapins are the best!” must naturally be saying the opposite.
Read what I said again. It had nothing… NOTHING to do with bearings that are “just good enough” being “OK with me”. The point somehow divided itself in the space time continuum and went both through your legs and over your head at the same time, completely missing every part of you.
As my point pertained to bearings, it was about this:
cruddy bearing vs. bearing → the non-cruddy bearing will win! It doesn’t matter much how good the yoyo is, the cruddy, crusty, responsive bearing will severely affect your play experience.
cruddy bearing vs. premium bearing → the premium bearing will win! It doesn’t matter much how good the yoyo is, the cruddy, crusty, responsive bearing will severely affect your play experience.
In the scope of things, comparing a cruddy bearing to ANY OTHER BEARING within or exceeding playing parameters just doesn’t make sense. It’s a no-brainer that nobody will choose the cruddy responsive crusty bearing no matter what yoyo it’s in. What I was saying is that the comparison that’s actually interesting is “acceptable bearing” vs. “premium bearings”. And that’s where you can jump in and make your pitch that you so often make.
For the love of god, at LEAST take the time to understand what people are saying before you try to argue with them. And before you try to argue more or make a smart comment, let me try my best to circumvent you: The only acceptable response here is either no response (you’ve got every right to not bother yourself with this conversation) or “oops, yeah, my bad.” Anything else is a joke.
Bearings will often define the playability of a yoyo. Different bearings can change the amount of vibe a yoyo has, the feel of the yoyo, and can make the yoyo responsive, so a crappy bearing will have a large toll on the yoyo. In fact, if I was in a scenario where I could not change the bearing, I’d choose a FHZ with a decent bearing over the Bonfire with the gunky, messed up bearing. This is backed up by that fact that a certain post on Facebook about a CTX Center Trac bearing in CLYW yoyos started a 170+ set of replies.
I’m going to leave out brands and models because it doesn’t matter.
I think an interesting question would be something like this: two yoyos, one high end and one not. Two bearings, one high end and one not…
A group of players of various skill levels play both yoyos several times with the bearings being changed for some sessions without the knowledge of the players. After each session, each player is asked to describe what they think they know about the bearing… Hopefully in a way that doesn’t reveal the point of the test.
It may not be relevant to the OP, but it would be interesting. I would bet that the effects of a lesser bearing would be harder to detect on a high end yoyo (except the sound, maybe they should wear headphones and listen to something besides the bearing! Haha)
