Well I was on Instagram a couple of days ago (I don’t really like it. I never really post pictures or comment, but there’s some pretty cool yoyo pictures on there.). I was looking through some of Jensen’s pictures and I came across a picture of an H5xChief. I read some of the comments and somebody asked Jensen if he liked over sized yoyos. He said yes, but eventually they will probably have to make larger bearings for larger yoyos. I thought it was a pretty good idea. I don’t know much about physics and how it would all play out, but what do you guys think? Good idea, or not? Would it even work?
Ik that the Bigyo has a larger bearing size.
Call them F size bearings!
Oh, I never really saw that before. It makes sense for that though, because it is HUGE. I’m talking more in the area of high end over sized.
I’ve played with some of the larger yoyo’s out there. some were even custom very large yoyo’s. All had C bearings and they all played perfectly. no need for any yoyo to have a bigyo bearing other than an off-string the size of the bigyo or bigger.
I don’t really think bearing size matters.
I think it depends on the yoyo.
There’s SPR systems for a few select yoyos that let’s you switch between a C and an A or D bearing.
Sky Walkers come in C and D bearings.
There’s the Small bearing Bassalope(A) and Large Bearing Bassalope(C). I have both. I prefer C bearings, but in this case, I gotta say the A is a bit better. But, that’s opinion.
The Duncan Flipside can be played as an A or C depending on how you orient the reversible spacer.
So, we’ve got yoyos all around the same size playing on A, C and D bearings for the most part. Most off-strings are using C’s, but some use A’s.
The Big Yo is really big. It makes more sense for it to use a larger bearing. As far as pretty much everything else, they’d probably all work just fine with an A, C or D sized bearing.
Size can impact performance.
The larger the bearing the slower it would spin giving you less spin time and more friction in the bearing
It would be very difficult to bind on a larger bearing, because when you bind the string has to wrap around the bearing a couple of times for it to grab. This is why smaller bearings are easier to bind on. That’s not to say you can’t use a larger bearing, but it would be difficult. I’m also not sure of the advantages of a larger bearing.
I’m still looking for the advantage of BIG. I understand wide, which was dismissed as a novelty, but what are the advantages of Big, especially to the extent that one would need a larger bearing?
If there is a purpose, which I’m open to if someone can explain it, the idea of the larger bearing like in a bigyo makes perfect sense to create a ‘natural’ feeling throw.
A huge yoyo would’t feel natural at all. The mighty flea had a smaller bearing in it, but that doesn’t make it feel natural. I haven’t had much experience with other bearings besides size A and C, but I imagine that a different bearing size would feel odd no matter what the yoyo is. That doesn’t mean that odd is bad, but you can feel a noticeable difference.
^ unplayable with a larger bearing, it makes it a lot MORE natural 
haha true, I was just saying that it will feel unnatural either way.
Short short answer:
When you get lots of rimweight on big yoyos and/or wide gaps, kickback (which is when the yoyo pulls back toward your body on a front throw) can become an issue, particularly on regens. A larger bearing diameter (all other things being equal) will help mitigate that, because it decreases the mechanical advantage of the rimweight.
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Someone make a proto of a yoyo with a big diameter and a big bearing.
That’s the only way you’ll find out how that play.
Ya Jensen and I have talked about that a lot and how it would be neat to try.
Hspin played around with this back in 2010 or 2009 I think. I think it was called the Gorilla? It had a larger bearing, and an interesting feel. Yes, in the future I’d love to see some companies play around more with designing larger yoyos with larger bearings.
Hspin made 3 (if I remember correctly) prototypes of the same yo-yo called the Gorylla. One had an Hspin sized bearing (d?), one had a C and one had a bearing that was significantly bigger than a C bearing.
It wasn’t a large yo-yo by any means so it didn’t really tell us much about how larger bearings would perform in larger yo-yos but it was (and still is) an interesting concept. The problem was the response didn’t end up working very well so I would say definitely larger diameter bearings but width wise I think we’re in a good place (unless response is altered).
It makes a lot of sense to progress towards larger bearings if we’re making larger yo-yos. If you’ve ever thrown a yo-yo with kickback, you know it’s annoying as heck. If Elephark is correct (and I think he is, though I think gap width/bearing diameter ratio has something to do with it as well) larger bearings are a natural step forward, just like they were when professional yo-yos started using C bearings as the standard.
Here’s a quote from a different place that had these prototypes on sale a long time ago:
"The Gorylla Prototypes by HSpin
These were for sale at the 2008 World Yo-Yo Contest and we brought some back for you too. These are the Gorylla Protoypes, the 511 has an Oxy 4 bearing, the 513 has a D bearing, and the 616 has an oversized bearing that we’ve not seen. These were made to see which would be more popular with the players. So tell HSpin what you think if you pick one up. There will be a no refund policy on these and remember they are used prototypes with marks and no packaging."
It was an Oxy bearing, not a C but yeah. I wish I still had my 616, it was really novel.