Terrapin X Delta Cut Ceramic Bearing Review

Well, I thought that I would give my opinion and impressions of Terrapin's bearing. First off I'd like to say that the only other bearings that I've played with were onedrop 10 ball flat steel bearings and the CLYW 10 ball flat steel bearing that they have recently begun to use in their throws. This is how I decided to try a terrapin X delta cut. Both the steel flat bearings were fine but I keep a yoyo in my pocket at all times and throw while I'm on break at work in the cabinet shop. All the dust seems to cause me to clean my bearings more often. So one day I decided to use some mineral spirits we had laying around and clean it, blow it out and I stuck right back in and started throwing, no lube. I really like going dry with my bearings, after that I play all my bearings dry. This caused me to consider ceramic bearings since they recommend you leave them dry, and since that is the set up that I prefer, naturally I should get one to try it out. And decided to go with the delta cut to see how the v shape affects play for me. And if you were wondering, the delta cut is a V because a V is almost an upside down Delta greek letter. V= Δ. Delta cut does sound better than V cut to me...

About the ceramic aspect…

 For those of us who enjoy playing dry, ceramics are perfect. If you play your steel bearings dry there is absolutely no reason you should not at least try a ceramic. High price? yes. But I feel that it just may be worth it. If you take the risk, perhaps you will feel they are worth it too. They are smooth and highly unresponsive. And despite what people may say, they are not loud. They sound like a steel bearing fresh out of the lighter fluid. I think the first night that I had it there may have been a few moments of a grindy-ish noise but it quickly eased back to normal. I have longer spin times now, and my yoyos don't spin out so quickly anymore either. How much of this is the V shape and how much of this is the ceramicness of it is unclear to me. I ordered a flat terrapin X ceramic bearing to try out to test this and once I am familiar with it I will post a review about it. Speaking of the V shape...

About the V shape…

 Now this is my very first "concaved type" bearing. The V shape does an excellent job of keeping the string to the center of the bearing. And honestly, it has to contribute to my longer spin time by keeping the string off of the pads so well. Some people say that Concavedness, or in theis case, V shapedness, would make suicide tricks more difficult. Unfortunately, at this time I am not able to give an accurate vote in either direction. I am not a suicide baller, and I won't pretend to be one to sound cool on this forum. I am however, working in that direction. I really was a huge fan of the Delta shape until this happened. The Red triangle. Going into a red triangle, the string gets held and begins to wrap around the bearing EVERY TIME. This prevents the triangle from opening up big, which makes that cool red triangle rejection-ish suicide move much more difficult. And I only just began working on that trick, but I really like that trick and having that Delta shape there impedes that trick significantly. So I think it is safe to say that when multiple layers of strings pulling from different directions are in the gap, The delta shape begins to fail.

So in conclusion…

 The ceramicness of this bearing is phenomenal and I am blown away by it. Please give them a shot if you are debating to pull the trigger on one. I don't see how you could regret it. This V shape however, despite how much I like and admire the concept, is not for me. I have not given up entirely on the non-flat bearing though. Perhaps the ever so slight Terrapin X wing cut would perform better under red triangle conditions? OR perhaps a U shaped concavedness? Only time and further testing will tell. Also, I just thought as I was typing this, I should try using a slightly thinner string before I fail the Delta cut. I used Fat kitty for the entirety of my reviewing process so perhaps a normal kitty string would not clog up the bearing so badly when going into the red triangle?

The V shape has nothing to do with the string snagging during a red triangle suicide.

If the string is “following” the bearing and wrapping around it, it is not fully unresponsive for whatever reason. Maybe some ceramic dust is in there and causing responsiveness? Not sure. But it needs cleaning. Profiled bearings will either be neutral to or will promote NON-SNAGGINESS during that kind of maneouver.

Yeah what Greg said, it shouldn’t follow the bearing unless it’s being slightly responsive. It also might be the way you’re doing the trick. You have be careful, especially with triangles, that you don’t slide the yoyo towards the knot of the triangle. Since the string doesn’t slide that way, it’ll roll itself up on your bearing which can cause an unintended bind. For example. If you have a simple triangle in front of you, and slide the yoyo towards your throwhand, it’ll bind up, almost every time.

I enjoyed your review, I am interested in Terrapin Bearings and they seem to have either come down in price or something has changed about thelm.

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Glad you like 'em. Thanks for the nice review…

I was having this problem earlier with a trick and I figured it was just the way it worked where you had to be careful. But reading through the thread it also mentioned a slightly responsive bearing… so is it technique or bearing or maybe a little bit of both.

(sorry to thread hiijack, but since we’re on topic)