I have been looking at getting a new bearing for my CLWY Glacier Express, and I can’t decide between the Teripin X bearing or the def-e-yo konkave ceramic bearing. I understand that one is concave and the other is flat so it depends on what you prefer, so just give me the pros and cons type thing or tell me what you prefer. I am also open to other suggestions as long as I can buy it on YYE and it is ceramic.
I have a four year old ceramic konkave bearing that is still one of my smoothest and longest spinning bearings. They’re expensive, and I don’t know of they’re worth $30, but you are getting an extremely high quality bearing.
I’m sure they’d both be great. Just remember that the Terrapin X Wing has only a very subtle indentation to it. Think of it as being a flat bearing that tends to prefer the center on a good throw. Whereas a konkave is a konkave.
I would personally use this as my deciding factor between the two. If you love truly concave shapes, the Dif is the way to go. If you generally prefer flat, get the Terrapin.
I’ve never had a concave bearing do they make a big difference?
Yes, to a degree. They tend to keep the string away from the sidewalls, assuming your throw is straight. If you throw the yoyo tilted they make no difference.
I only use string centering bearings. They are great. While the KK ceramic is an absolutely awesome bearing, I wish it was shaped more like a center track. It is very konkave.
The wing cut Terrapin X bearing will center the string with a decent throw and does not bunch up the strings when layers are applied.
Ceramic bearing work better for me. Not to say they spin longer or anything just the way I maintain bearings I have to do with ceramics even less. I like that.
Teripin X bearings are suposed to be good for ever or he will replace/fix them for you. So I dunno go with what you want.
No dought they are going to be at least as good as the bearing coming in the yoyo, there really isn’t a large risk in this, assuming you can afford a 30$.
personal experince can’t be beat.
Also I like flats, I have had times and yoyos in the past that I liked KK’s and such in for a bit but I have always ended up putting flats back in. Something about the way the throw and bind feels better to me.
Look at European yoyo sites and Chinese sites for less expensive ceramic bearings. They all come from similar factories anyway, no reason to pay such an obscene price for them.
You get what you pay for. It applies to everything, even bearings.
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TX bearings are not from china, I do the wing cut myself. I use only ABEC rated bearings.
The TX S/C ceramics last 5 times longer then steel bearings and never require further lube.
I’d like to point out that not only does the terrapin ceramic do everything the konkave will do for you and more but John backs his product 100% if you aren’t satisfied let him know. Terrapin ceramics are amazing imo
Terrapin x wing s/c ten ball is boss longest spinner with just enough string centering and you get to take advantage of the gap on layers
I can tell you throw well or you would not know that…
KKs greatly reduce a yoyos capacity for string wraps. If you want grooved CT are the best.
Not meaning to sound like a you-know-what by any of this… just being conversational even though it might sound adversarial, Yonut. Just wanted to say that in advance. 
Terrapin X wing-cut would handle wraps even better than a CT. Also, I don’t think CT counts as “grooved”. I always think of Crucial Grooved or Twisted Trifectas as being grooved. I could be wrong, but I thought grooved referred to the thin middle groove that holds the string’s loop perfectly in place, while CTs and KKs have a tendency to center the string by virtue of profile.
In any event, theoretical logic doesn’t support the above statement… a concave bearing should – in theory – just squish the wraps together even more tightly in the middle, allowing for more wraps than flat (which will gracefully allow the string wraps to move towards the response). I think the argument for CTs from Ben himself is that they still play a lot like flats and allow for tight binds, whereas concaves will over-emphasize the centering aspect and result in slippy binds.
It should be easily testable. Same yoyo, same string, and some sort of reproducible scenario (maybe just a simple bind and feed the front loop into the gap, seeing which one needs more of the loop before it binds?).
Greg
problem with that theroy is in practice a KK will layer string on top of its self making it so you will end with a bind/snag. Where flats or center tracs style bearings will let the string lay next to each other rather then on top of each other.
I can see how layering on top of each other can cause problems, but binding is not one of them. Binding occurs when there is friction between the strings and the response, period. If the string is stacked, I can see how it might affect the smoothness during a trick (kind of a long shot… but it can be imagined…) but not how it would cause a bind.
Yeah once they stack they roll up the string exactly the way you do when you bind.
If you are an advanced thrower you would know…