A long time ago, many premium yoyos used size A and D bearings, Hspin comes to mind most for this. When compared to size C, there is a big difference in terms of feel on the string, especially at low spin speeds. Why don’t manufacturers make small bearing throws anymore?
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Freshly Dirty has made a few D bearing models, the Canary, and the Moldy Bread. They’re supposedly working on a D bearing version of the Mod44 as well.
The a-rt Quail uses an A bearing, and the more recently released Dale uses a D bearing.
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Anomaly yoyos have been coming out with d bearing throws like the euphonious and fallen angel as well.
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I think it’s related to the rise in popularity of the standard size 19mm pads. C sized bearings sit nicely within the pads and there is very little space between the bearings and the pads which is ideal. If you have a toonie, you can see and feel the difference of having an A sized bearing with 19mm pads.
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In large I think it relates to how many players are demanding them (or not). Similar to the current swell of organics and the slew of recent and future D bearing releases this year. If enough people want and buy it, more people will dip into that arena on the production side.
A bearings are largely incompatible with most playstyles now, where D bearings make up for it with RPMs I am unsure if A bearings can strike that balance.
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Small bearing Yoyos have a very distinct feel that it seems many of the newer players don’t care for as much thus you see less of it.
That said, definitely check out throws by Sturm Panzer out of japan! They mainly create small bearing Yoyos and they all day amazing 
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G2 Respawn, Out of Hand Limbo, and Zeekio Alpha Steel use D bearings.
There are some “recent” A bearing throws, too, but a lot of them are targeted at responsive play.
- Out of Hand Burner
- Rain City Skills x Doc Pop Pop Art
- Rain City Skills x Oh Yes Yo Sk8r SB
- YYF Confusion/Confusion GT
- Basecamp Moonshine 2
- Doc Pop Weekender and Daytripper
- Core co. Alley Cat/Alley Cat 650b
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Don’t forget the FD Rooster. And the CC Warhawk. And I know of a couple of guys getting ready to release D-bearing throws this year.
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D bearings come in both 5mm wide and 4mm wide variants. The 5mm wide bearings allow fully unresponsive designs. A bearings are 4mm wide only, so they’re much more suited for responsive yoyos.
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I agree with @Hanker with the response pad concerns. I believe RSO and Sturm Panzer have their own response pads for size D bearing, but there isn’t a standard for the size.
I was told by my machinist that I would have to source the response pads by myself or order a huge amount of custom-made response pads if I would like to produce yoyos with size D bearing. I guess the cost is a major reason why companies try to avoid D bearing throws
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Exactly this. The anomaly yoyos d bearing throws have response pads that won’t fit freshly dirty d bearing yoyos. (Those d bearing pads sold by rso don’t fit anomaly yoyos.)
Sturmpanzer pads are also much much thinner than the others and are the same size as the anomaly yoyos d bearing pads, but 2 of them need to be stacked to fit anomaly’s d bearing yoyos.
There should be a standard pad size. A bearings have a standard size if I’m not wrong for the loopers and YYF mini yoyos.
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I think RSO has plans to make their D response pads available to other manufacturers. Check with @lytelvin.
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Just a different feel… more rpms and tighter binds, but your play has to be more on point…
I’ve got a D sized bearing throw that will be released in a month or so. More info on Wednesday.
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Undersized D bearing with a comfortable performance profile. You really are ticking all my boxes, I’m getting excited for this one!
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Our next releases, The Don and The Basilisk-D, will have a size D bearing and response pads.
I will be posting more details in the manufacturing official news shortly.
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Just saw the tag! To my knowledge the only manufacturer that can provide D bearing pads is YOYOEMPIRE (who has their own D bearing model).
I made my own D bearing pads though, to Freshly Dirty specifications. These are different from the YOYOEMPIRE D bearing pads.
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I actually like yoyoempire pads more than the FD size personally. I wish that would be the standard, they kinda play to the strengths of the d bearing.
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Thanks for all the suggestions the market for these seems way better than it was a few years ago. It seems like manufacturers make things C bearing these days not because its best for a throw anymore, but just because its standard and thus cheapest. Something like the Deep State would have easily been better with a smaller bearing, not to get into that haha.
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The Popstar would have been better with a smaller bearing. I think it would play better overall.
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Interesting. Please explain! I find it hard to tell any difference at all though. The only difference is the outer diameter which is 1mm narrower for the YOYOEMPIRE pads. This was what they did for me when I prototyped with there. They have the same inner diameter and thickness.
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