Gold Center Trac or KonKave Ceramic?

Which is better for play, and spins longer, and lasts longer before wearing out?

Better? Preference.
Spins Longer? Who knows. Anybody who tells you they know doesn’t actually have the facts to back it up. Suffice it to say, they both spin long enough.
Lasts Longer? Allegedly ceramic. Both will last long enough to make the question academic.

What are you replacing?

lol don’t bother with either. Buy the cheapest concave or CT bearing you can find, there’s really no difference between them all. I say this having owned massive amounts of bearings ranging from $1 to $30. Expensive bearings aren’t worth the premium and in a blind test i guarantee no one could tell the difference over a large enough sample size.

Im replacing a terrapin X that no longer spins

Unless you have reasons not to, I would contact Terrapin; they seem to stand behind their product. Then you don’t need to buy either. :wink:

I prefer the centertrak to the KK since it has the flat middle area to allow for more layers myself

Its not Terrapins fault it stopped spinning. I got some dist or dirt I guess stuck in the bearing. You can hear the “grinding” inside the bearing as it spins. If thats the right word to use. But Im away at school so im not home to clean it. So for the times being i need a replacement.

I just decided to buy 2 OneDrop 10 balls for the same price of 1 Gold Center Trac. This way I save money and have 2 great bearings over 1. and Im starting to prefer flat bearings versus concave anyway. especially after playing with a terrapin for months.

Did it ever dpin very good? I have a new one that only spins for 3 seconds from a flick.

Oh, OK. I thought you meant it was defective. All bearings need some maintenance from time to time. :wink:

OD 10-balls are great as I’m sure you know. I hate that screechy break-in period, but then the bearing is awesome.

I’ve got a gold center trac and one timei had a knot and was OpenGL my yoyo up and I guess apiece of dust flew cuz now it doesn’t work at all. If it was shielded this never would have happened. I’m kinda pissed that they don’t send it shielded.

The terrapin spins fantastically. Very loud. but very good.

I know. That’s kind of a bummer. You have to be extremely careful with it. The original CTX’s did not have shields and I got dust in it on the first day.

Clean it?

I did but it still doesn’t play as well.

You might have to be careful with what you clean it in because its gold. And DO NOT lube a gold bearing.

Gold bearings aren’t actually gold. And you can lube it if you want.

Out of curiousity, if it WAS actually gold, what’s the negative effect of lube on gold?

They are gold plated. I personally like ceramic bearings, and I do find they get notably longer spin times. I’m also curious as to why lube is bad for gold :slight_smile:

From YoyoWiki, which is admittedly not the be-all, end-all source of all things yoyo:

I’m not sure why YYE has the term “gold-plated” if it’s not true; however, I’m inclined to believe the article. Why? I suspect that actual gold is too soft for the kind of abuse the inside of a bearing faces. I feel that it would wear off quickly at the points of friction, leaving debris and severely hindering performance. However, I’ve never done a test (if Wiki is right, there’s no such thing as a true gold bearing to do the test anyhow!), so I can’t say that’s a fact.

Now the article references the flat bearing, but I strongly suspect that the Center Trac uses the same treatment process, producing a gold colour but not being actual gold.

I have heard of gold plated skateboard bearings, although only in passing. I don’t believe it’s legal for them to state that it’s gold plated without it being true.

yyf said its not gold plated nor gold on there ask.fm just like you inferred they said its too soft of a metal its a gold based metallic paint