Just got a YYF CTX Bearing in the mail. Man its quiet! Was wondering if anybody had any experience on break in period on this. Its super responsive at this point.
i am not representive, but the two CTX i owned were broken from beginning or got bad shortly after usage. all in all , i can`t even consider YYF CT or CTX mediocre, because about 50% work ok, the other 50% are bad.
but maybe you are lucky, because when quiet they seem be lubed what is strange because normally they ship dry, or just slightly lubed.
about “break in” there are also differnt opinions. i for myself consider it non existing. my bearings work their way they are meant to work by the way i lube it, not how long they are in usage.
I’ve had the opposite experience with CTX, all of mine play well. Break-in time on them will vary. You can try adding a very small drop of thin lube, and just play the bearing until it’s working as you like. Or if you don’t want to bother with that, cleaning the bearing is usually a faster option.
All of my CTX have been high-quality.
However, well over half of them required an EXTENSIVE break-in period. This is because they are (as I’m sure you guessed) factory-lubed. And factories don’t care about unresponsiveness. 
If it’s not breaking in, sometimes you’re better off giving up, cleaning in the solvent of your choice, and re-lubing. I’ve done that a few times after my patience finally wore out. When I re-lube with Gorillius Lubricus (?) I have break-in period part 2… but then the bearing is awesome.
thanks for the tips! ill throw for a bit longer and see if it becomes unresponsive before i get into cleaning it.
Gyro flops are supposed to help.
The one that came in my gray Yeti took 2 years to break in. No joke.
Truth. My baseline is… 30 minutes of play including many gyro flops, and if it’s not hinting at breaking in yet (the string “chases” a lot still) then it’s either clean or commit.
Lately I’ve been committing, but sometimes I wish I had just cleaned…
It’s more fun to take the time and break it in with some yo-yos. I put a CTX in a hat trick that I got recently, it plays responsive right now and I think I prefer it haha.
I clean every bearing i get straight out of the bag. The only one I didnt do that to was a YYR DBS GOLD. If its responsive, clean it. No reason to wait longer than you need to soak one in cleaner (i use acetone) to get that baby dead unresponsive.
so you just throw the bearing in a dish of acetone and let it soak?
Yoyolazar, yes. Or mineral spirits. Or lighter fluid. Or 90%+ alcohol. Or “green” de-greaser solution. Lots of different solvents you could use.
Dust – because of the glorious smoothness and silence of just breaking in the existing lube.
Greg, how long do u let it sit in solution for? And to dry b4 putting back in yoyo just spin it on a pen or something?
An effective solvent just requires a few moments of “swishing it around” in the solvent to clean off enough of the existing lube. Shaking or vigorously stirring in mineral spirits for 10 seconds is probably enough, but of course doing it a bit longer isn’t going to hurt.
I personally usually spin on a chopstick to dislodge as much solvent as possible, and then ALSO let it air-dry for a while. If I had an air compressor with a moisture trap, I would use that. But I don’t. If you’re going to spin it (or at any stage of the process, really), take precautions suitable to whatever solvent you’re using.
ANywhere from 20-30 seconds to a couple minutes max if they are really really bad. Pure acetone does its job quickly, and as long as the acetone is clean, it should evap with nothing left behind. I put some on a mirror and there was nothing left begind, so i stick with that. Spin dry on tool, or what ever.
Acetone is cheap and super effective, do not use nail polish remover. Also be careful. that stuff will strip paint, varnishes, and the like without batting an eye. also the fumes are SUPER flammable so dont use it near any flames or sparks. For realsies.
And in general acetone is one of the nastiest of the solvents, so exercise care. Research all the common precautions (avoid skin contact, etc).
about 15 seconds in acetone and its dead unresponsive…just popped it in my czechpoint and its great!
Awesome!
Suh-Weet! ;D