santrobyn Re: TX 10 Ball testing
Ok, I have given them quite a bit of testing.
They feel quite smooth on the string. I ended up using them in a new yo-yo that has been sent for review, a GZR Burnside. I figured the best way to stress test the bearings was to use them in a 70 gram yo-yo.
I will not lie, at first I hated them. They were too loud. Then they started to grow on me, they did something I am not use to in a bearing, they got quieter as I played them. I am use to the inverse happening, needing to clean and lube a bearing after extended play.
The spin times are there in every sense of the word, these are some high quality bearings in their own right. Construction wise, I am a big fan of the ribbon cage used to hold the balls in place. Those always feel sturdier in the long run. I have had crown cages fail due to a hard impact with a table or the floor.
I will say honestly I could not tell any difference between the wing cut and flat version. The cut in the Wing is so shallow that it really does not hold the string in place or keep it centered. In this case that works to your advantage, I am not a fan of string centering bearings. They cause the string to bunch in strange ways. Both of the bearings you sent allowed the string to move naturally across the surface of the outer race.
Overall they are some quality bearings. Thanks for letting me test them for you. Let me know if you need any more specifics and if the feedback is helpful. At this point I would say they are ready for primetime.
-Chris
Another point of view from another forum
Terrapin X line of bearing. They are a centering bearing that is more like the old Crucial grooved bearing than the KK. What the Terrapin X does have in common with the KK line is that it is offered in both stainless steel and ceramic flavors and they are offered in pretty much every size you can think of. I have used C-Sized steel and ceramic bearings, D-Sized Ceramic, and 6x13x5 metric ceramic bearings from this company.
One of the main pluses of the Terrapin X line is that each bearing that I have tested has had incredible spin times. Now I am by no means being scientific when it comes to testing the spin time, I do not have a machine that will exert the same amount of force on each bearing and then record the spin time on a spread sheet. All I am doing is putting the bearing on a chopstick and giving it a spin with my thumb and then eyeballing the result. From what I can see, they are out spinning my cleaned General-Yo and 10-Ball bearings by about 30 seconds. Not a huge amount of time but it is there. The other main plus is that each Terrapin X bearing has a shallow groove cut into the center of the bearing similar to the Crucial groove. This groove does aid in the centering of the string, keeping it away from the walls of the yo-yo, reducing friction from the string hitting the sidewall. I find this setup to be better than the KK setup because the string will still slide left or right allowing for better wraps in the gap where a KK will bunch up after a couple of wraps.