There’re many posts about weights of bearing/axles and I’m trying to add more data points.
Most of my “generic” bearing (pixel/yyf ct/kk from some high end c3 yoyo) weight around 1.90 ~ 2.00g, with shield on. Removing the shield takes ~0.1g off
The NSK bearing (DS) is around 2.10g KK/CT ~ 2.0g so the DS version is ~ 0.1g heavier than the regular ones.
The dif kk with ceramic ball is only 1.79g (with shields on). I used to think it’s a waste of money, but I guess I was wrong. It provides a similar smoothness as the NSK, but is 0.3g lighter.
The full ceramic bearing (from AliExpress/Sochi) is around 1.52g. They are pricer & louder but 0.4g lighter than the regular bearing.
Also, cheap bearings tend to be heavier. I weighted some of the cheap bearings from some low end magic yoyo (that you can get from Amazon), and they are all around 2.1g.
For axle, a regular 10mm SS axle is around 0.6g, however a titanium 10mm is only 0.36g. For 8mm, SS: 0.50g, Ti:0.26g
To me, on some yoyos I couldn’t tell the difference between different bearings at all.
However, there are some yoyos (especially some light weight bi metals) on which 0.2g difference of center weight feels pretty obvious.
I never really understand the theory behind this but my guess is for plastic yoyo, the weight is more evenly distributed so they are more maneuverable and thus feels lighter?
That’s right, but furthermore the “lightness” is almost all from your memory of the throw, which is where the power of a yoyo is felt most, as it’s unwinding.
Less-powerful yoyos (like a plastic, usually) put up less resistance to unwinding, as they have less rotational inertia. So, they unwind more quickly, and that makes them feel light.
So you can effectively eliminate ~0.6 g in center weight with lighter options. My thoughts are that I probably would never notice, but im thinking that in some yoyos weight reduction at the absolute center of the yoyo could be noticeable. Id probably consider messing around with this if I were a competitor with a yoyo already selected as favorite and just looking to make it marginally better.
Frankly I can’t see that an item (axle & bearing) weighing .05% - .1% of the total weight has a perceptible affect on the feel/performance of a yoyo regardless of it’s placement. Sounds like a case of OCD to me.
