Plain and simple question. Which do you prefer? Why? Anything from noise to spin times is fair game. Tell me all!
I prefer flat bearings, whether it is One Drop, or Spec, etc. I like the increased spin that I get with my concave, even if it isn’t too much over a ten-ball, but weird things happen when the string wraps around the bearing and it is concave.
Ay, I’m going back and forth between the Summit and Puffin. I think I’m going to end up getting the Puffin and swapping the bearing. Orrrrr just deal with it I suppose 
I haven’t played with a Peak for years and this looks a lot like it but even better. It’s just slightly smaller and lighter which is just what I would have asked for, and adds that ring like on the Chief which I’ve been wanting to try! You know this already. I don’t know why I’m telling you this. I’m, just so excited! 
:
I’ve written at length about how I think this string wrap thing is hooey… but in any event, while I love OD 10-balls for their quiet performance, I give the slight edge to CT’s for effortless spin time and fewer accidental snags/binds due to the profile.
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What exactly do you mean by this?
With a CT bearing… I like how, when you DO get one of those crazy axel knots, you can open the yoyo and the string will stay on the bearing. You can even remove the bearing and the string will stay on after the knot is out. And you don’t have to worry about pinching the string in the bearing seat when you put the yoyo back together.
Kind of an odd thing to like about a bearing, I know. But hey, it’s part of why I like centering bearings. And I know the “right” way to put a string on, but I’m lazy enough to just slip it on the bearing.
Mofoya, you get the rest of my day’s WINS for this. I so love this about profiled bearings. 
Nova: It exhausts me to imagine rehashing my opinion on this whole “strings getting bunched up in a profiled bearing” line of thought. Sorry, but I’ll have to either find one of my older threads of just hope the question goes away. The shortest possible version is: I think people repeat this because it seems to make sense and they THINK they’ve experienced it moreso than because it’s true and they really have experienced it.
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center trac’s all day. flat bearings cause too much precession for my taste. I love me a nice center trac
I will can attest to the fact that it does happen alot, I have a combo that I simply cannot do on a profiled bearing, but I can do on all of my throws that have a flat in them.
There is a reason why the vast majority of competitive players use string centering bearings. String centering bearings offer real advantages by increasing spin time, stability, and decreasing precession.
Personally, I don’t think that “string bunching” is really a thing. I’ve certainly never noticed it in any of my 5a or 1a play. It always seemed like pro flat bearing/ pro center trac bearing propaganda to me. As Greg said, it seems to always be something that “someone else” noticed, rather than something someone themselves experienced.
I prefer the Konkave bearing to the center trac bearing. To me, it seems that the center trac offers about 80% of the performance increase of the konkave bearing at a lower price point. It’s almost there, but doesn’t perform quite as well as the konkave. Try them both out though and see which you prefer.
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Maybe it’s that yoyo. Also, which profiled bearing? Trifectas or other grooved bearings I could be swayed… they actually “grab” the string to the middle. Others like KKs and CT’s allow the loop and string to move around.
Here I go…
I have found flat will grab more with multiple string layers because of the very real phenomenon of the response engaging. Response has incredibly much more friction than string layers. These “strings are bunching up against one another” claims seem like bull to me unless your strings themselves are super high-friction. I find even Kitty strings move pretty well against one another. But they do NOT move well against silicone rubber… which is what happens with too many layers and a flat bearing…
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plain old fashioned dry center trac is the best bearing you will ever use.
I prefer kk over CT. I find the yoyo rotates off axis with a CT and not a kk. Not tilt, the other axis where you have to rotate your body to “correct”
I don’t like string centering bearing mostly, and really don’t’ like them on yoyos with really wide gaps, and non snappy response.
If the gaps are not so wide, which makes the response a lot stronger then I don’t really care either way. However with most of the newer designed yoyos you get a super over the top wide gap and that just makes the throw and responding of the yoyo garbage. This aspect of yoyoing is important to my personal happiness with a yoyo so I just use flats in these yoyos.
I never really understood why certain people prefer a flat bearing over a string centering bearing except for better response/binds.
String centering bearings reduce friction, increasing spin time.
String centering bearings center the string, evening the weight, which increases stability.
String centering bearings bunching up the strings? I’ve never really understood this, I’ve had no problems.
To me, a string centering bearing seriously improves the play of a yoyo, and I honestly don’t see how anyone else could disagree.
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Flat bearings are terrible and there’s a reason only a few companies are left that use them. One Drop has a decent-sized financial stake in keeping the flat bearing dream alive seeing as how 10-balls are just huge money makers for them. They probably pay 25 cents or less for those and sell them for $8.
Gotta laugh at people talking about string bunching with centering bearings when with a flat bearing if you have a lot of wraps you’re almost guaranteed to have your string rubbing right up against the response, which is far more detrimental than any bunching ever will be.
That said i’m also not a proponent of expensive concave bearings as expensive bearings tend to go bad just as often as cheap ones. Buying 10-packs of 10-ball concaves for $16 straight from China tends to be far more practical and affordable in the long run than pampering a few expensive bearings.
Like most things in the yoyo hobby you tend to not get what you pay for when it comes to bearings.
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10 Balls for life.
Binds are nicer with flats because of easier friction with the response pads. You can’t have it both ways… it’s like saying, “Flats are great because you avoid friction but create friction”.
Like you, I don’t need longer than a 3-minute combo. I’m lucky to hit 40 seconds with any bearing at all. It’s not about combo length, it’s about disseminating correct information. The most correct information that comes out of these conversations always turns out to be: “There’s not as much difference as people make it out to be, and we all have our favourite bearings.”
Preferring KK’s (or in the options given in this thread, CTs) doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy flats, or that playing one or the other will make or break my ability to land a trick. People like to see binary opposition where there is none.