Hey all!
I was doing some research and found that yoyo bearings can be made out of ceramic materials.
Whats the benefit for that?
and is it true that there are bearings with rotors and magnets in them to keep them spinning?
You’ve never seen a ceramic bearing? Less rolling resistance. Longer spin. Results may be minute because doing something like lab testing would tell the true story.
This UK based store sold some 100% ceramic bearings. Was a warning in the description about not using it on tight bearing seats, being careful when tightening etc.
Ceramic ball bearings are designed to benefit high stress applications. They run with less friction than steel bearings and can run at higher speeds and last much longer in machines/applications that frequently wear out steel bearings. As a result, they are more efficient for some industries. Yoyoing does not come close to the level of stress where the differences are significant, though. They might help a bit if you are timing sleepers or something like that, but most people won’t notice enough difference in normal play to justify the extra cost.
Magnetic bearings exist but typically require electromagnets to control the magnetic fields, which means they also require an electricity source. It might be possible to design one for use in a yoyo, but it would probably be difficult to make it work well and you’d probably have to design the yoyo around it.
A few people have built motorized yoyos:
Having to build them around the motor/electrical supply is still a practical issue, though, so in terms of doing tricks, you’re better off with a normal yoyo. They’re still pretty cool, though.
A full ceramic bearing would be ceramic shields and ceramic cage and ceramic balls. It would be rather fragile in the yoyo.
What we call ceramic bearings are actually hybrid ceramics, where just the balls in the ball bearing are ceramic, the rest is steel.
I am also going to agree with Yossarian about most people not really seeing any real difference in play times or performance. Well, I can’t and don’t. I don’t think ceramics are a waste of money, but for me, they largely are a waste of money. I’m fine with steel bearings.
Does anyone here remember the Shield? It had a full ceramic bearing and fell quite short of everyone’s expectations. I believe even Dorothy bearing outperformed them. Personally, I love the CTs and CTXs.
Dif e yo ceramic kk = awesome
for those of you that like to gather information… here are a few links you may find interesting, if nothing else but give a clearer view.
http://www.ceramicbearing.com/ceramicbearing/ceramicbearingsfeatures.html
please note that I selected these links from literally dozens of choices. None of them talk specifically about bearings used in yoyos. But they all give a better picture of the value of specific advantages of Ceramic bearings, etc.
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mhhh … I have one shield (I reviewed it here), is one yoyo a bit particular and different pieces some really bad play and others to play well like many other yoyo.
I was lucky in this respect, but the bearing wasn’t of exceptional quality … It was a problem that single bearing, I replaced it with another full ceramic and I can tell you it is one of the best bearings I have … do not expect miracles but it is certainly not worse than the others in my possession.
I between full ceramic and hybrid I have about a dozen, both economic and expensive and I noticed that all those who have dark colored spheres are of low quality, those with white spheres are fine … maybe it’s a coincidence, but it is so …