Hello all.
This is a little “recommendation” and a little “does it matter” topic.
Do bearings make a difference to an average yoyoer? I’m intrigued by the prospect of spending less than 10 bucks for a pack of 6 centering bearings at everyone’s favorite rainforest store, but it got me thinking. Do bearings get better as you move up the price scale? Do you have a favorite bearing? Point me in directions
It does kinda depend on why you are buying them, and also your skill level. Different shapes of bearings will determine how many strings can be loaded into the gap, as well as how snappy the response is. This is determined by the depth of the bevel. You will also have to factor in if you care if it’s a true string centering bearing or not. Center Trak bearings do a good job of keeping the string away from the walls of the yoyo, and allow for more string loading, but it is not a true string centering bearing as at its deepest point it is still flat, meaning that the yoyo will process (rotate) on its axis a bit.
If you are a newer player you may want a bearing that will stay on plane. You may also want a bearing that will complement the kind of tricks you are doing. This means looking at deeper bearings, like KonKave for example, if you want to practice complex tricks that load lots of strings into the gap; or looking at more shallow bearings, like VIP, if you want tighter binds at lower RPM.
If you are a more experienced player, the kind of bearing you get will depend on your preference, as you won’t be worrying necessarily about absolute performance.
NuroVolt went over shape stuff pretty well. In terms of quality, most bearings are good enough. Some bearings are blessed and exceptionally quiet and smooth. This is pretty rng though like some of the best bearings I have were super cheap and just lucky. NSKs are good and pretty consistent but are also really tight on most bearing posts like tighter than most bearings. I tried a bunch of bearings and haven’t found any that are consistently blessed which is annoying but yeah most are definitely good enough. The OD 10 balls are pretty good and consistent also. They can be crunchy sounding for a sec but if you play through that, they are pretty smooth and quite but also flat lol I enjoy flats sometimes bc they are fun but yeah just not the best performing shape. Just cop the cheapo set and most will probably be fine. I know multiple ppl that bulk ordered a ton from ali for super super cheap and that works fine for them. Not worth questing to find anything better imo lots of the 10$+ bearings I tried have been disappointing; not bad but not exceptional or anything. One day i did test all my bearings and there were like 5/50 that spun exceptionally well like smooth and quiet, but those were all from random manufacturers so I don’t know.
There’s a thread just the facts or something that does pretty good at covering this topic
i think Henry’s thread is the one you may be thinking of
