Terrapin X bearing review – 6x13x5 Steel, and C sized Steel/Ceramic - By David

Yo-Yo Reviews
1

Thanks David Feher… John

First impressions:
Well, where shall I start… When it arrived int he small envelope, nobody could tell, that I’m so fortunate, that I can have two from these insane things. It comes from John in a small nylon case, and there are points, that you can tell if it’s Steel or Steel/Ceramic. The „S” and the „S/C” are shiny, and for my surprise, you can’t find the small groove in the middle.

In use:
Yeah, everything fine, put in my Enigma the Steel one, and the S/C into my New Breed. First throw: pure amazement… The Enigma comes with a very very good bearing from the ILYY guys, but this thing is even better. Not so noisy, and believe me, spins forever. I don’t really have a trick or even a combo, what can’t be don from one throw. As I said, no noise, no need to lube i tor clean, it comes dry, and John advices not to clean it, or just in distilled water, or just blow it with compressed air.
After weeks of playing, no sign of being worse or noisier than when I got it. It spins for so long time, just needs to be broken in.
So, I’m pleased to use the Steel, but hey! I have an S/C too… First throw with my New Breed was amazing. It’s a bit noisy because the ceramic balls in it, but guys… Don’t tell me that you mind it if it spins forever…In my opinion it just needs a bit longer time to be broken in.
So after all, there is a small groove int he middle of every single piece made with a CNC machine. You can’t really see or feel it, but trust me, in use, you will feel the difference. I counted it, and from 10, 9 times the string was int he middle of the bearing.

Final thoughts:
Don’t really know what type of magical things are used by John, to make these things, but he makes it very well. If I’m right, he does some chemical black art treatments on them, that’s why he doesn’t recommend cleaning.
They are tested on very high speed, so you can’t go wrong with them. I can just advise John, and his little babies. Once again I’m really pleased to use it. Can’t find an other bearing like it. I really love them.

Thanks John!
David Feher

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When are you going to compare bearings to other popular ones? I know you are in with terrapin but honest vs compos are great. I honestly think my wing cut ceramic is the best bearing I own but its not the best for me just yet since I’m not to the point of always throwing a perfect throw;therefore, I still need a track to center it some of the time. That said I truly believe terrapin products are well worth the money for sure, but as a community we need comparisons that you never give.

Don’t take my comments the wrong way as they aren’t meant to put you down in any way for praising what I think is a great product. But there are a lot of times you question other products to compare yet you don’t buy them to see for yourself. It’s not like they are expensive ($20-30) times two or three for fair comparisons. I have no doubt about terrapin bearings and their quality but people like yourself that have access to pretty much all of them at all times could atleast pick up some of the others just to either prove they are superior or just flat out report the differences.

It’s great knowledge that could be shared with tons of people and wouldn’t hurt the sales of your connection in any way because people will buy them for their own unique qualities. I am extremely new to throwing but can tell the difference in quality bearings very easily so am sure most all experienced throwers know what they are getting when purchase a terrapin.

Some throws may actually be better suited for me with a wing cut ATM but others may stay more stable with a good center groove etc… Like the Hyperion for example. It’s pushes the boundaries with stability a lot more than the chief or ricochet so having a good groove actually helps when throwing it. Even though I’m a newb my wing cut suits me perfect with the chief and wouldn’t throw it with any other bearing that I’ve tried so far.

Like I said, I hope I didn’t come across as rude being that this is only texts. I hope that you understand that your reviews actually help and would be better with a wider variety of comps.

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I would think reviews posted by the original author rather than the marketer would be in order.

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Huh. I still don’t quite get your comment.

So you don’t believe his experiences but rather think he’s pasting posts? I thought most of his post seemed genuine but guess I could be totally wrong.

He is always asking or questioning about comparisons to tarrapins but never buys other bearings to give his own thoughts. I think his reviews/thoughts on the bearings are of much help and greatly informative, but he surely has the ability (cash) to make them even MORE informative! But I do understand his position as being part of the camp but that shouldn’t make a difference. Bearings are all unique and comparing them won’t hurt his camp’s sales because his camp has a proven track record for quality. “One knows what they are going to get!”

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I see no problem with quoted text being reposted. It’s not like he can link back to the original post, since the mods will probably delete the link anyway, since it will most likely be from another forum. A simple quoted google search would probably yield the search the source. Just too much flak imo.

6

Yep, you are correct…

7

So after reading about Terrapin X I decided to buy one of the Ceramic wing cut bearings.

My first impression was that I liked the very gentle way it centers the string without getting weird binds like other centering bearings. I also was getting better spin times.

But lets be honest here I did not get any thing like and I quote “This bearing will sleep a yoyo for over 3.5 minutes when simply rolled off your hand. No Throw at all!” I got about 15 sec. with no throw on a few different yoyo’s. Format:C, CLYW CLIFF, Cascade… Maybe you could make a video on how to get a 3 minute spin without throwing the yoyo.

But now that I’ve had the bearing for about 2 weeks it has started to play extremely responsive. I haven’t used any lube or anything for that matter. I tried some compressed air as directed by Terrapin but no luck.

The idea behind spending $20+ on a bearing is that it will last longer then 2 weeks.

8

To get it to sleep from a drop “string tweeking” skill is required, as people do in sleep competition.

TX S/C bearings come totally unresponsive, as you play them the ceramic balls polish the steel races,
they require cleaning. Just spin it in acetone and it will be better then new and quieter too.
Ceramic bearings last 5 times longer then steel.
Please feel free to PM me for any further information.

9

I’m not a fan of the extra step of maintenance, and I’ve seen most Terrapin X S/C customers raise the same complaint. Maybe an info sheet when it ships?

HOWEVER,

I have to admit that it’s absolutely true. I had the same thing happen, cleaned the bearing, and it is indeed quieter and spins longer. Still dunno about the 3.5 minutes, but it’s a good bearing (now).

1 Like
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Despite the Terrapin X claim of no break-in period, I don’t find this to be 100% true. My experience has been they don’t really require any more or less maintenance than any other bearing. If I have to clean something after a bit of use, it’s like breaking in a new engine of a car, where getting that first oil change is really critical. There’s be so many times where I’ve had to clean new bearings due to crud, grease and other junk in the bearing, even on yoyos costing over $100. I find with Terrapin X bearings, I don’t have to deal with the break-in period of the bearing itself, but rather the Dry Play to completely work itself through, which doesn’t take that long.

If I’m playing a regular bearing(not a Terrapin X), those need to break in. Once they break in, I clean them.

When I get new speakers, if I can, I will run them for anywhere from 24 to 96 hours non-stop to break in the drivers by driving white and pink noise through them. Stress testing amplifiers helps discover issues SOONER rather than later. Most of my new gear will get a 24 hour power-on test. While my methods aren’t perfect, they are fundamentally sound.

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It means I would rather see a direct post by one Mr. David Feher.
Would seem more legitimate to me.

12

I too would like to see them getting 3.5 minutes with the string twist method without throwing it

13

after a tricky break in period on mine, I can get just over 3 min by tweaking the string

14

Takes a bit of skill. Glad you over 3 min.
For the most part most can not get that on a hard throw with regular bearings.

15

Great review! Terapin bearings are really high quality bearing in my opinion.

I can even get Protostar with CT to spin for 1.5-2 min just by droping the yoyo. I believe Terapin should be better than just 3min right?

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that;s just rolling it off my hand, not throwing, with a good throw and some string tweaking I can get close to 10min

17

If you would take the time to Google Terrapin X bearings you will find it,
along with a bunch of others.

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Whether the original review can be found through Google isn’t really the issue. It’s not that we doubt that someone else actually wrote that, but if they want to post it here, they can register an account and post it. Otherwise, we can find it through Google ourselves, or just else just rely on the reviews from users who do post here.

The point of having a user review section is that we can get a broad sampling of what other players think, and get an idea of the overall experience people have had with a product. Some people will like it, some won’t, and some will be fairly neutral or just describe it without necessarily expressing a preference. When a company itself is copying reviews to this forum from users who don’t volunteer the reviews here themselves, then it is no longer an impartial sampling. It’s the reviews the company has approved and decided to use to market its products. Taking various positive reviews from around the net and pasting them into YYE, while leaving the negative or neutral reviews and consumer complaints alone, gives a skewed perspective of the overall consumer reaction. That’s why it’s hard to treat reviews that are conveyed to us through the manufacturer as anything more than marketing.

2 Likes
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Well I can say they stand by their product and even contacted me for instructions on how to get a replacement. I didnt take any action at all but had a PM after they read about my defective bearing in a post.

I just wish people that are experienced would do a real bearing test for every bearing and post it.

I frequent an audio science forum quite regularly and we have just about any scientically competitive test for all products stickied. I know spin time alone isn’t that great of a factor in our hobby but it is one thing that can be tested quite easily.

20

I have been critical of fjh in the past, but this time I see no problem. The review probably came in by email, and there was no illusion that it is anything BUT marketing. All companies use positive reviews for marketing. Expecting this person to create a yye account just to share a positive thought isn’t realistic either.

As for impartiality… Good luck with that! Sure, many reviews are meant to be impartial, but for the most part the reviews we see here are, “I love it, get one!” There’s an automatic bias that happens when we spend our dough. We subconsciously either don’t want to admit wasted money or are angrier than need be when we are mildly disappointed. Sufgice it to say… I will find any number of lesser-informed one-sided reviews here that don’t get slammed. It’s all about context, and the context here is marketing.

I guess I just don’t see marketing as a dirty word.