If there are already threads about these, please give me those links instead and I will visit those threads. I have no time to search so I apologize.
Anyways. I’ve become a little curious about bearing maintenance just recently and I am wondering what’s with Terrapin products that people like. I have also heard of the DryPlay kit that supposedly makes stock bearings spin longer.
I am simply curious and I want to learn more about it. If anyone can give me links of existing threads about these, I’ll appreciate it. But simply replying here with no link is fine as well.
I like the stuff. Some people don’t. I can’t repeat some of the stuff because I don’t have hard evidence. I will just relay my own person experience.
Let me relay a recent experience. I took a new Trifecta bearing and gave it a spin via a flick: 29 seconds. After cleaning to absolutely dry(best I could tell) using a bath of mineral spirits and acetone, I got 31 seconds. Twisted Strings claim their bearings are dry. Anyhow, a difference of 2 seconds can be chalked up to the inconsistencies of my flicking the bearing, so we’ll just say I cleaned the bearing for my own piece of mind. For lack of a better term, my results are identical before and after cleaning. After Dry Play treating, I was getting 45 seconds+ on a flick. I’m using the stuff on all my bearings. Well, that’s not true. I haven’t treated most of the collection yet, but when I do, it will be Terrapin X Dry Play treated.
The Wing cut bearing give you the performance of a curved or shaped bearing’s string centering capabilities, with the freedom of movement without the bunching that the curved bearings do. I use these in my DM2’s, of which I have 3.
The ceramic bearings are permanently treated, theoretically never requiring lubrication.
I’m mainly interested on the Dry Play treatment, as I am not made of money and I can only afford what I can afford.
Speaking of which, is there a thread about removing a bearing’s C-clips and shields? I’ve cleaned my bearings before but I didn’t take out the shields. Again, I’m busy today so I can’t search sooo if there’s a thread anyone can direct me to, that’d be great.
Thank you, guys! And Chris, I will definitely check it out. I’m not usually the kind to care about bearings but since I’m learning how to play more efficiently, might as well!
The DryPlay absolutely works wonders. You have to use a TIIIIiiiiiny amount, and even then when you first flick the bearing it’s all gritty and stuck. You’re like “Say WHAAAaaaa?” (unless you watched the video or read the instructions, in which case it’s no surprise)
But then a few flicks later and suddenly there’s this brand-new sound to your bearing… a gentle hiss… and you realize “Holy crap, my bearing hasn’t stopped spinning yet… when will it stop? It doesn’t seem to be losing momentum!!!”
That said, I use it selectively. The characteristic “hiss” of a DryPlay-treated bearing bothers me when I’m playing in the 2am quiet of the house, at which time I usually bust out a yoyo equipped with a smooth and quiet lightly-lubed bearing.
The guy who sells them has refused repeatedly over the years to offer up samples to be tested -scientifically- against other bearings. Back in the days of the abec-7 wars I wanted to prove that the claims were a load of… and to also compare other options at the time, so I tested everything side by side, in a controlled way, with the yoyo actually involved.
This argument has been going on for years now, I’ve never seen definitive proof that they are better than anything else. I’ve played with yoyos that had these bearings, I had no idea until somebody mentioned it, and even then I couldn’t tell the difference between them and any other decent bearing.
Flick tests are essentially useless. You are testing the bearing without any load on it, and often not even aligned on the correct axis (most people spin them flat on their side, not vertically). A bearing that does well with 0 load on it, may do horribly when tested with the weight of a yoyo on it, and the other way around too… so flick spin time does NOT equal sleep time.
Of course it’s perfectly possible for a bearing to do well in both, so sometimes it can… but it’s certainly not enough to declare one bearing better than another.
Then of course there is the fact that any reasonably high quality bearing will perform more than adequately for our needs… an additional 5-10 seconds on a sleeper is going to make absolutely no difference in real world play… the only time it would mean anything is if you’re trying for a sleeper record.
I can’t speak much on actual facts about terrapin but I can say I was once in a similar position as you, I had 9$ left on my PayPal needed lube and already had acetone so I thought wet lube or terrapin? Well just so happens someone has explained it to me somewhat the same way of how shuffle board pucks slide with that substance on the table that allows the pucks to basically glide over the table. I figured it has to be good stuff, well let me tell you it is! I love the fact that its 5$ and come quickly! You could prolly have it by Saturday if you ordered now, and de shielding bearing is annoying but super easy if you have a super tiny safety pin, out of a push in tack, tiny safety pin, and a toothpick the tiny safety pin works best for de shielding IMO.
As far as the Terrapin Dry Play goes its amazing and I would recommend it, won’t make your bearing quiet but personally I like the sound of dry bearings lol at first when applying dry play you think really this gritty stuff works? And you get a bit discouraged thinking there’s no way, but once it’s worked in, POW STUFFS AMAZING.
Anyways, I suck at reviews so ill just CLAM up now, stuffs amazing, deshielded all my bearings even my size A bearings and added dry Play terrapin lube to them.
Does anyone know why it is that terrapin has been on eBay for ages and as soon as it stocks in the YYE shop people flocked to it? That’s weird to me
Please review the forum rules on language
Thanks,
-jhb8426-
Been thinking about these since earlier, but still not sure if it’s worth it. Unless the bearing is bad enough or purposely lubed, I don’t see any advantage of having few seconds increase in sleep time, because the friction between the string and the yoyo body is much more than the bearing itself. But that’s just me.
Heck I might actually get these in the near future, kinda curious I can say.
I, too, would love to see someone do a controlled test. This would have to include a controlled reproducible throw, too, generated by a machine rather than an arm (no matter how consistent the thrower claims to be).
Without the scientific test, there are still facts surrounding ceramic balls in bearings. Whether these translate into real benefits for the yoyoer (as opposed to manufacturer of mechanical parts) is where the test would be fun and useful. Yes, ceramic is clearly better in virtually every way… scientifically (smoother surface, harder and more durable, require less or no lubrication)! But do these scientific benefits from the spec sheet actually translate into a better yoyoing experience? And how do we measure that quantitatively rather than qualitatively? No idea.
I’m inclined to say “there is a benefit to ceramic”, if only for the durability and lubrication part of the equation. But that doesn’t mean I actually know for sure… so a test would certainly be interesting.
As for the DryPlay… no liquid and yet a slick surface. It is a fact that there will be less drag than with an oiled bearing. The coating seems to further reduce friction vs. plain steel-on-steel in a way similar to how we used to rub pencil graphite all over wooden axles to make our Cub-cars roll smoother. A flick or sleeper test may not be perfect, but a DryPlay’d bearing spins longer and smoother than a totally dry and clean bearing. That indicates that on some level, there is a reduction of friction, which will undoubtedly translate into higher longevity.
So again, though… the interesting thing will be to see whether or not a spin on a real yoyo would be impacted in a useful way. So how do you test a subjective thing with hard facts?
Let’s talk about the criteria. After all, a test is only as good as the criteria. The trouble is, you can’t have it two ways… in other words, if the argument is “Who cares how long it sleeps, if a bad throw and sloppy technique will kill your spin anyhow?” then there’s no point doing any tests at all. Period. If, however, the argument is, “Assuming good technique, more spin time equals more potential in a trick combo, and this is something worth pursuing” then you can start cooking up a test.
If you’re of the opinion that ANY decent bearing will get you through any decent combo, then there wouldn’t be a point to any tests at all.
And since tests involving practical usage (combos, string hits, wraps) would be impossible to reproduce from attempt to attempt, you’re left with… the sleeper as thrown by a machine. So the first step would be agreeing that the sleeper, as flawed as it might be for testing, is the only game in town.
To be clear: I’m agreeing overall. I’m not 100% sure there’s a benefit either. I have no facts, and I’m not really a good enough yoyoer to truly appreciate any differences. My bad technique WILL kill a spin. I, too, would like to see a test. The above doubts aren’t so much “this is the only option for testing” as “I don’t know to design a test that would satisfy anybody.”
I do know that I have some mediocre bearings that were made better by DryPlay, and I enjoy that ceramics seem to require less maintenance. On the other hand, I’m doing just fine with lubed steel bearings as well.
You have to eliminate variables. The only thing worth attempting to test is actual spin time from a given RPM… that’s easy enough. Generating a ‘throw’ is irrelevant, since the goal of a throw is simply to generate a maximum RPM.
To compare the -bearings- side by side, you have to assume a perfect throw, at which point actually doing that throw becomes unnecessary. You can simply build a setup to hold the bearing in the same way a string does, and spin the yo-yo up to a set RPM via mechanical means. This is the equivalent of having a perfectly straight, perfectly strong throw every time. Is that what happens in the real world? absolutely not, but that’s all you can test.
At the end of the day, a side by side comparison, as you said, isn’t all that important as the spin and play we get from our current bearings/yoyos is -more- than we need… however if you’re claiming one bearing is better than another, you have to be able to compare them.
I did this several years ago, when gold bearings appeared along side all sorts of insane claims… and when people were still convinced that an abec rating had any impact on performance.
The end result, comparing standard bearings (w/ and w/o abec ratings), gold bearings, mercury bearings (gold bearing knockoffs basically), ceramics, full ceramics, etc… showed that at the end of the day there was very little difference across the board.
Ceramics did bump up slightly over the others, but not nearly enough to justify the cost (in my opinion). I posted the full results on another board, but looking through their archive it seems that the post was lost in one of its various upgrades over the years… or that I just can’t find it anyway.
Over the years I’ve tested a few other ‘best bearing ever’ claims to find no real benefit to them. Some bearings are certainly better than others of course, but these days it seems high quality bearings are pretty easy to come by.
How the bearing handles tricks and such is mostly irrelevant as 99% of that has to do with the yo-yo (assuming a properly functioning bearing). Gap size, general design, response type, etc. are what determine how a yoyo ‘plays’. You could make the argument that some bearings can take the forces of whipping a yoyo around better than others, but a deficiency like that would likely be revealed in the original test with just the weight of the yoyo anyway.
As wordy as we both are, we definitely agree: in terms of performance, a simple mechanically-reproduced spin with load is the only test you could reasonably perform.
That said, there are the non-performance items such as durability and maintenance. In a “all I care about is performance” test, things like that are irrelevant. But in terms of justifying cost, they might mean something to some people.
Then there are people like me who will buy them without even weighing the cost-to-performance or cost-to-benefit ratio… I’ll just buy one because… well… “Gotta catch’em all!”
(Seriously, though… I’ll do things like add a new bearing to an order just out of curiousity, not because I need a new bearing. )
If you are just content with an adequate bearing don’t bother getting a Terrapin X.
They are done for professional competition players. The best in the world has 5.
It was fun to take my YoYo Dyno to the WORLDS. Any one else have one?
Google Terrapin X bearings and see all the reviews.
I, too, would like to see a test. The above doubts aren’t so much “this is the only option for testing” as “I don’t know to design a test that would satisfy anybody.”