One Drop Flat Bearings Are Outdated: Change My Mind

Applied for in 2004. Granted in 2007. And extended to 2024.
2024 is 20 years from date of application if my calculations are correct …

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Crucial did grooved bearings many moons ago.

They were concave grooved bearings though. Did they ever do flat grooved?

My math is impeccable! :crazy_face::rofl:

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The originals were flat grooved I’m pretty sure.

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New poll. Please vote :slight_smile:

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Frank did groove A sized bearings. I think he put the grooves in himself. Was that his innovation as well?

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I love the idea of CTs but have had more issues with them in terms of quality/reliability than any other bearing.

I don’t mean to be rude, and I think it’s cool that you guys ship with something different, but if you really wanted to use a CT bearing, couldn’t you just ask for permission?

P.S. Also just wanted to say thanks for giving my school yoyo club a bulk discount a year or so ago!

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We could ship with Difeo KKs, but they are very expensive which would raise the retail price of our yo-yos. Since we honor the spirit of the patent, that’s the only place we could get “permission”.

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Maybe you could provide it as a more expensive option? (IDK how feasible that is, just making a suggestion)

We sell most of our yoyos through retailers like yoyoexpert. I’m not sure how the logistics of that could ever work and if they would ever be worth it. As we’ve stated, we focus on making sure the bearings are easy and non-destructive to remove in our yoyos so that people can choose what bearing they want. That seems to be the best way to approach it.

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I really like OD flat bearings, don’t go and change anything. I have an extra 5 pack for other yoyos that don’t have bearings half as good. I’m going back to playing yoyo now.

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TBH I have had very erratic results from perfectly concave bearings, for example on a few recent Duncans and in the past. Not sure if they are “real” KKs or what but quality wise they sure ain’t no DS in my experience!

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even if this thread was 20 years old, and you feel every possible stance has already been stated, why don’t you just avoid clicking it?

sometimes it just takes one person phrasing his opinion in a certain way to make you reconsider your stance, and that’s what discourse is about.

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Fair, earlier it just seemed like half the new comments were people complaining about how long the thread was

LOL 400 is “long”. You haven’t seen long until you’ve stared down the barrel of several thousand posts, my friend.

(Also use the “Summarize this discussion” button under the first post and get the Reader’s Digest Condensed Version of the discussion…)

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OD bearings are fine the way they are now in most of their throws. I do think, however, that it was quite odd of them to include a flat bearing in the VTWO, a V-shaped competition beast. I think it’s pretty clear that the main goal of OD was to make a yoyo that would be great for competition, and I honestly can’t see anyone preferring a flat bearing over a centering bearing in that yoyo. If they make any more competition-oriented yoyos in the future, I really hope that they at least consider including some kind of centering bearing over their traditional flats.

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Clever idea. This might be a good middle ground @da5id ↑ ↑

It would also give you an excellent reason for changing things up and opening the door to future changes, if desired.

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Flats if that’s what they want to do, but to me, it’s like selling a brand new model car without power steering.

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