Looking to swap out some bearings/response pads

Yo-Yo Mods and Maintenance
1

I’m looking to swap out a couple of bearings and I’m just kind of curious as to what you guys would suggest. I am fairly new to yoyo and I have a YYF Grind Machine, YYF SuperNova and a C3 Token. The Grind Machine is great for when I’m learning tricks, SuperNova is more for when I’m practicing at home and finalizing tricks and the Token is for me to carry around all the time when I am out shopping or hanging out with friends so I don’t have a large yoyo on me.

I’m not a Japan style yoyoer and I tend to learn more tricks in the vein of Jason Lee, Guy Wright etc. I have some performance lube that I put on my throws about once a month with heavy use but the SuperNova’s bearing just doesn’t seem to sleep quite as well or play as unresponsive as my other throws. I plan on getting new response pads but there seem to be so many options.

My question is, what should I swap out my SuperNova’s bearing/pads with to make it sleep longer and make it behave less responsive. I was looking at a few of the ceramic bearings, concave bearings and I believe they were called “winged” bearings. Are any of these really as different as their descriptions and people that are sponsored by their brand make it seem? I’m sure my abilities greatly hinder the performance of the SuperNova but I still figured I would ask on here because you guys seem to know. I don’t really want to dump a bunch of money into a gimmicked product.

2

All three use C-sized bearings. This is good.

Now, you state you are new. Trust me on this, looking to swap out bearings and/or response pads will not do much to improve sleep times. Only time and experience and practice will increase sleep times. Also, the SuperNova has a history of the bearing being tight to the bearing seat, so it may be a pain to remove. The Grind Machine will have the spacers tight to the bearing, so again, you’re going to have trouble getting to the bearing. The Token ranges from loose to the bearing seat to snug and nearing a bearing puller to remove it, but nothing special.

I’m suggesting the following:

$9, get yourself some 100% pure acetone from a hardware store. If you can get something smaller, then get less and spend less. Then also get yourself a small glass container with a chemically resistent lid to place the acetone and bearings in for cleaning. Mineral spirits and lighter fluid are also widely used. I prefer acetone.

Clean your bearings out properly. If you must use lube, dip a needle or long pin into the lube, and touch that tiny gathered bead to a ball in the ball bearing and then spin. Repeat no more than once. Seriously, that is all you need, and the repeat is often not necessary.

All your symptoms point to bearings needing cleaning. Trust me when I say that a cleaned bearing AND improving your throwing skills are all that you need right now. I’ve been down that road not too long ago and getting better bearings did NOTHING to improve my game. Only hard work.

But if you want to buy new bearings, I won’t stop you. I’m just telling you that buying new bearings isn’t going to help address your problems unless you have bad bearings. At the same time, let me say this:
I think the SuperNova has a CenterTrac in it. I don’t care for the SuperNova, but I would stick with the CenterTrac, including the new 10-ball CTX bearing, which should be smoother and/or quieter.
I think the PGM comes with a flat. It’s your choice what to put in there.
The bearing in the Token is a flat and is OK. If you wanted a flat bearing, get a YYJ Speed bearing to save money or a One Drop 10-Ball. I found this yoyo works best for me with a flat bearing. I did not care for how it played with any shaped or grooved bearings.

Another choice might be Terrapin X bearings. Lot of choices, including my favorite being the wing-cut 10-Ball bearings, which have a slight cut, giving you “centering” performance while maintaining flat bearing freedom of string movement. His prices tend to be extremely reasonable and I’ve had nothing but amazing results with his bearings. They also come Dry Play treated, which is also currently my choice for bearing lubrication/treatment. This is also why I use acetone because you must use acetone as part of the treating process.

Again, I am recommending bearing cleaning. I think that’s your best option for now.

3

As Studio42 said, the bearing sounds like it needs cleaning.

There shouldn’t really be degrees of unresponsiveness. A bearing in good working order for a 1A unresponsive yoyo (like the 3 you have) should be unresponsive, period. When you throw a hard sleeper and then hop the yoyo up a bit, the string should not start to “chase” around the axle. Even if it chases but rarely causes a return to your hand, that’s still not good enough! It shouldn’t be chasing at all.

If it is, the bearing most likely needs cleaning, and after cleaning if the behaviour persists, it MAY be a bad bearing. 95% of the time it is going to be the clean factor, though.

As you do this, try installing the bearing with NO lube first. Make sure it’s good and dry after the cleaning, install it, and check for responsiveness. If it’s unresponsive and you do want a bit of lube, use the technique Studio42 described. Even with that tiny amount, you may need to break in the lube a bit… I either just play normally or if I’m impatient I’ll throw some Gyroscopic Flops which seems to help for some reason.

4

Alright, I’ll try cleaning the bearing. My sleep time really isn’t that bad, I just assumed that a better bearing would help the learning process because of my slower play style. The GM is very very unresponsive and I think that is good and I was more worried about the token and the SN. I’ll clean out the bearing and let you guys know how it turned out. Do you guys think the response pads should be ok or should I swap them out with the replacements that came with the yoyo? I have played with this yoyo for about 3+ hours a day since the day that I got it (which was about 2 and a half months ago).

5

If your binds are coming back OK, then your pads are fine. At the rate you’re playing though, I would suggest buying replacement pads to have handy and/or get some flowable silicone. Based on what you say your rate of play is, you’ll be needing replacement response pads fairly soon.

Not to confuse the issues further, but I do recommend experimenting with bearings in yoyo to see what you like best. However, for now, it’s just a waste of time and money.

6

Those response pads should be fine. If I’m not mistaken, the supernova comes with a spare SPEC bearing. You can use that as well.

7

I would recommend picking up a few budda bearing whipple’s they have a great price and play great

8

Try cleaning the bearing. If that doesn’t work, the yyf yellow consistent pads should work well. As for a bearing, the buddha flat or whipple are excellent. A dollar cheaper than the standard flat 8 ball yye bearing, and the buddha flat is a flat 10-ball, and the whipple is a V-shaped 10-ball bearing, which centers the bearing. So if you like flat bearings, buddha flat, if you like string centering bearings, get the whipple, both of them are the same price so it’s all preference. If you want a longer spin time the whipple would probably be a better choice since it centers the bearing and won’t rub on the side as much.

9

A great thing about the Whipple vs. the Ripple or Crucial Grooved is that multiple string layers get out of the way of each other a bit more elegantly. The “V” isn’t as pronounced as pictures make it look. An all-around excellent bearing.

1 Like
10

4 packs of most Buddha bearings seem to go for anywhere from $15-20 for 4 bearings together.

Not a bad deal!

11

Is this standard? My supernova did not come with a spare bearing.

To the OP if you are wanting to try out bearings there are a few I like and will recommend

  1. General-Yo A.I.G.R bearing General Yo – YoYoExpert

  2. One drop 10 ball One Drop 10 Ball Bearing – YoYoExpert

  3. Buddha bearings (I like the whipple and the ripple you’ll have to google to find them I am not certain where to buy them as I got mine from a friend he had them extra)

I like he trifecta I just feel it’s a little bit expensive over the 3 above, but if cost is no issue then I’d definitely recommend it .

Also when swapping out pads you will want to get all the adhesive off from the prior set of pads or you might find your new pads having and adhesion issues or they might stick unevenly in the groove, also with some of the response pads there is a thin plastic ring that comes off and sticks in the groove you’ll also want to make sure you get that removed as well.

I’ve not found a simple way to remove the adhesive, I used good off and some good elbow grease to get everything out of the recessed area, but I did this on a raw yoyo I don’t know if good off would have taken off any anodizing or not so I a not recommend doing this on an anodized yoyo until you’ve first googled or tried it on a tiny spot on the yoyo some place that wouldn’t be so noticeable Incase there was an issue.

12

Yes, at least with the 2012 supernova. It should come with a spare bearing, an extra pair of response pads, and a multi tool.

13

mine is the 2013 it only came with the plastic box and nothing more.

14

Snafu, You have been extremely helpful in all of my posts and every post that I have seen you reply. I don’t know if I can thank you enough for all of the help that you provide

15

Thanks, but honestly I can only say its because of those that have helped me here and things I’ve picked up on the forum that allowed me to be helpful. And I’m glad to be able to pass along some snippets of what I’ve learned from the great people here. :slight_smile: glad to have you on the forums. I don’t know everything, but if you ever need anything feel free to PM me and I’ll do my best to answer and if I can’t answer right away I’ll track down someone that can.

Cheers to sharing knowledge.

have you decided on a bearing? And tried to change your pads? If so what is you choose and how did the replacement go?

16

I went back to the original (unlubed) bearing that came with my Supernova and it is already spinning MUCH better. I haven’t changed my response pads yet because for the time being they are still working fine. I guess my SN’s responsiveness issue was caused by the bearing. I’m going to try and give it a good cleaning and see how it works after that step

17

Great to hear your issue was easily addressed, a good bearing cleaning will work wonders.