The Beginner's Guide
To Advanced MFB Custom Construction
To Advanced MFB Custom Construction
Most Recent Update
8/2/12: Tip Height article posted!
Link: Tip Heights
Overview
Welcome to the Beginner's Guide to Advanced MFB Custom Construction! In this thread, I am going to be uploading several articles about more advanced topics in Beyblade construction for the BB-10 metagame. All these articles are drafts, and I'm posting them in the Advanced forum to get them peer-reviewed to make sure they are fully correct so that I'm not spreading false information to other members. As such, please nitpick and question everything I write! I want to make these the best articles they can be, so I'm open to all critique.
If there is anything that somebody points out as potentially not being correct, I'll add "**" to the front of the title name and a spoiler explaining a given user's concerns. If something is shown to be outright wrong, I'll remove it entirely.
These articles are all quite long, and as such it takes me awhile to write them. However, I do have several that I've started working on already that I will post once they're a bit more complete. I'll update the OP of the thread with a link to any new article I write, and I'll change the title of this thread to reflect the most recent articles added.
I hope you enjoy these articles, and I'm looking forward to critique!
Table of Contents
Upcoming Articles
- Center of Gravity
- Weak Launching
- Tip Height
- The Science of Scraping
- Movement Patterns
- Wheel Diameter
A Primer on Weight Distribution in Metal Fight Beyblade
Today we're going to talk a little bit about weight distribution and we're going to see some effects it has on a Beyblade. While I am a physics minor, I'm not going to go into great detail about the science behind all this where I can avoid it; rather, I'm going to post my observations in Beyblade with as many examples as I can provide, as I feel it would be easier to understand.
I will only be discussing the MFB generation of beys, as I do not know enough about the earlier generations to do them justice in this article.
We're going to talk about three kinds of weight distribution:
1) Outward Weight Distribution
2) Inner Weight Distribution
3) Even Weight Distribution
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Weight Distribution vs. Center of Gravity
Before I discuss the specific types of weight distribution, I need to define what it is and how it is different from center of gravity (a topic for another post):
Weight distribution is how much weight is focused on a radial axis from the center of the Beyblade. That is to say, say you were looking at the top of a Beyblade and you drew concentric circles emanating from the face bolt. You might have one circle that is the size of the face bolt, one that is the size of the clear wheel, and one that surrounds the outside of the Beyblade. If you looked at how much weight is focused around the outside of each of these circles, you would find out about the bey's weight distribution. A Beyblade with centered weight distribution would have the majority of its weight focused around the face bolt, whereas a bey with outward weight distribution would focus as much weight as possible around the perimeter of the bey. A bey with even weight distribution has no real focus of where the weight is; in other words, it has roughly the same amount of weight concentrated in the center as along the middle and outside of the bey.
The center of gravity is the point in the vertical axis where the weight is focused on the bey vertically. To think about this, imagine you were looking at the side of your bey and you drew an imaginary line from the center of the face bolt down to the center of the tip. Along this line is the center of gravity, whose position on the line is determined by how much weight you have at the top, middle, and bottom portions of the bey.
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Now that we have an idea of what weight distribution is, we're going to dive straight into the three different kinds of weight distribution, examples of each, and their uses.
Outward Weight Distribution
Outward weight distribution is the most commonly talked about type of weight distribution due to its importance for stamina-type beys. To have an outward weight distribution, a part has to focus as much of its weight as far from the center of rotation as possible. Here are some examples of parts that do that:
- Regular Face Bolts/MF-F: By using these two types of bolts rather than other Metal Faces, you are putting as little weight in the center of the bey as possible, allowing the Beyblade to maximize the amount of weight focused outward. This is why stamina types and a few attack types use regular faces instead of Metal Faces (see the section on the Flywheel Effect below).
- MF-L: While having any metal in the center of your bey (which, in MFB, is basically your face bolt) goes against the idea of an outward weight distribution, it is worth noting that a MF-L, which uses the metal plate and plastic core, certainly has more outwardly-distributed weight than MF-M, which uses the plastic plate and metal core. If you want an outward weight distribution and some extra weight, MF-L is one of the better choices.
- Cancer/Gasher: These two clear wheels are widely known for how much weight they focus around the outside of the clear wheel as they do. This is what makes them so popular for Stamina types for reasons I'll explain below.
- AD145: Because of this track's shape, more weight is focused farther from this piece's center than a normal 145 track. This trait has made AD145 a very popular stamina track.
- Phantom: This metal wheel is one of the best examples of outwardly-faced weight distribution. Its PC core, which comprises the entire center of the wheel, is completely plastic, allowing all of the wheel's weight to be distributed along its outer metal frame.
So what does having an outer weight distribution do for a Beyblade? There are several things:
Flywheel Effect
First, and probably most importantly, Beyblades with a lot of weight around their outside experience what is known as the Flywheel Effect. This phenomenon is where the Beyblade actually keeps itself spinning due to its own angular momentum, which increases the bey’s stamina greatly (particularly at lower spin rates). This property is why it is recommended that stamina types focus so much weight around their outside, and why wheels like Phantom (and to a much lesser extent Burn) have such good stamina. This is also why stamina types don't use Metal Faces, as that would put more weight in the center of the bey and, thus, decrease the bey's ability to abuse the Flywheel Effect.
Of course, the Flywheel Effect isn't the only thing that makes a bey have good stamina, but it is a very important part of the puzzle that makes up most standard stamina customs.
Attack Movement Pattern
Attack type Beyblades often want to focus weight around the outside of the bey because beys with outer weight distribution move faster around the stadium than those with inner weight distribution. There are a few good examples of this:
First, many people used to debate whether or not attack types should use Metal Faces, as although they increased the attack type's overall mass, it slowed them down because of the extra weight in the center. Nowadays, however, it is almost mandatory for attack types to use Metal Faces just because defense types have gotten much heavier.
A second example of outward weight distribution on attackers is the use of GB145 (a track I'll talk about later) on Flash; while most people use tracks like S130 on Flash to give Flash a better chance against short foes, some use tracks other than GB145 because they find GB145 somewhat harder to control. Because GB145 focuses a lot of weight around the outside of the bey at high spin velocities, it makes Flash move very quickly and, sometimes, unpredictably.
From my experience, I have also noticed that attack types with their weight focused around the outside of the wheel are more likely to skip the tornado edge instead of catching it and stalling, which can be considered a good or bad thing depending on the custom. In the same vein, if an attack type begins to tornado stall, it seems like attackers with an outward weight distribution apper to be more likely to slip over the tornado ridge and stop tornado stalling, which again can be a good or bad thing.
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Centered Weight Distribution
* Aside *
It is worth mentioning now that centered weight distribution is much more important in the earlier generations of Beyblade. In fact, there is a bey custom type called "Compact" that specifically centers weight to perform well. Check out the article on Beywiki for more information:
http://wiki.worldbeyblade.org/index.php/Compact
This is just an aside, as like I said in the intro I'm only covering MFB.
The extreme opposite of outward weight distribution is centered weight distribution. Instead of focusing weight around the outside of the bey, to make a bey with centered weight distribution one needs to put as much weight as close to the center as possible. It is actually a bit more difficult to center weight in MFB compared to other generations of Beyblade because very few parts are designed for this. Because of this difficulty, instead of giving a few examples, I'm going to list the relatively few pieces that effectively accomplish creating a bey with centered weight:
- MF/MF-H: These two parts are the most obvious (and most important) parts to use to create a centered weight distribution. As I mentioned earlier, the center of the bey in MFB is basically the face bolt. Thus, by using one of these two pieces, you're putting an extra 3-4 grams right in the middle of your Beyblade. Metal Faces of some fashion are basically mandatory for centered weight distribution.
- MF-M: I'm still not sure what gives you a more centered weight distribution, MF/MF-H or MF-M. By just looking at a MF-M (plastic plate, metal core), it looks like it fits the bill for centered weight perfectly; however, like I've said a few times now, I am starting to think that the entire face bolt is the center of a Beyblade, so I personally think that it's better to use MF/MF-H to center weight. This is just my opinion, though; if you're looking to center weight on your bey, try MF, MF-H, and MF-M out to see what works best for you!
- Pisces: This is my personal favorite clear wheel for centered weight distribution. While it may not be the best (I can't honestly tell for sure), I've been getting the best results with it by far. If you look at the shape, Pisces is very thin around the edges and then gets very thick at the center, which is a perfect shape for centering weight. Unfortunately it is somewhat light.
- Other Clear Wheels: Here I'm going to list more clear wheels that have a weight distribution that is roughly centered. I have to give credit to Th!nk for many of these:
*Giraffe
*Lynx
*Susanow
*Uranus
- Jade in Defense Mode: It was hard to find a wheel that specifically focuses a lot of weight around the center because most wheels do just the opposite. Jade, however, does fit the bill when in the right mode. In defense mode, the metal balls are brought closer to the center of the wheel, and the vast majority of the weight is already focused on the inner disk rather than the outside of the four wings. This gives Jade in Defense mode a very centered weight distribution.
So, how is centered weight a good thing? There are a few reasons:
Higher Maximum RPMs
If a Beyblade has centered weight distribution, it will maintain fast RPMs for longer at the start of a battle than one with outward weight distribution. Note that this is only at the start of the battle and, importantly, that the increase in the bey's speed does not (necessarily) equate to more stamina. This trait is important for certain customs that rely on the fast speeds to perform well, though there is currently no truly competitive custom in MFB that needs to take advantage of this fact (due more in part because there aren't many pieces for centering weight than any other reason).
Better Balance When Hit/On Tall Tracks
Beyblades that have centered weight distribution also have a somewhat higher degree of defense because it is more difficult to knock a centered bey off balance. However, most of the pieces in MFB that have centered weight distribution are also quite light, and thus this greater defense is lost in most combinations.
One of the more unique traits I have observed with centered vs. outward weight distribution is that tall beys (ones with tracks like TH170 and 230) that have centered weight distribution have an easier time regaining balance when knocked off-kilter when compared to tall, outwardly-distributed beys.
As an example, when Phantom Cancer 230D gets knocked off-balance, it will start leaning on D’s slopes and begin to move around the stadium (and lose stamina), and it has a difficult time picking itself back up. On the other hand, MF-H Jade Pieces 230D will, when knocked off balance, eventually go back to spinning on D's tip after scraping for a little bit thanks to the centered weight distribution. Again, this does not mean this custom has better stamina (far from it); it just means it keeps its balance more easily.
This trait, like the higher RPMs centered customs have, has yet to find a place in competitive customs thus far.
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Even Weight Distribution
Now we are down to the final type of weight distribution, and that is what I'm calling "even" distribution. Evenly distributed Beyblades have their weight spread out all over the bey, meaning they have a lot of weight on their outside, middle, and center. Typically this is considered to be a negative trait, as you don't get the stamina and attack patterns of outwardly distributed beys, nor do you get the high RPMs and overall balance of beys that distribute weight around their center. What is left is typically a poorly-balanced, low stamina Beyblade.
Here are some examples of metal wheels with even weight distribution:
- Dark: Dark's weight is kind of all over the place, which is one of the many reasons why it is considered to be an outclassed wheel.
- L-Drago Destroy/Guardian: Neither of these wheels is balanced well at all. Like Dark, they have weight all over the place instead of being focused either around the perimeter or center. If it wasn't for the fact that these wheels spin left, both wheels might have been overlooked.
- Wing: If you look at the metal core by itself, it seems like the wheel has most of its weight focused around its outside; once you add the metal frame, however, you see that the ring on which the three wings are attached causes a lot of weight to be put closer to the middle of the wheel. What results is a relatively poorly balanced (yet very heavy and low-recoil) wheel.
Like I said before, evenly distributed wheels excel at almost nothing compared to their outward and center distributed brethren. That isn't to say an evenly distributed wheel is necessarily useless as long as the wheel has some other defining aspect that makes up for its lack of balance (like L-Drago Destroy/Guardian spinning left and Wing being heavy and having low recoil).
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I hope this will serve you well as an introduction to how weight distribution affects a Beyblade so that you can put the knowledge to work in your customs! This is the first of many articles I’ll be doing on what goes into making a MFB custom; hopefully I’ll have some more articles up about Center of Gravity and the properties of Clear Wheels soon! Until then!
Life After Death
When you are either using or are staring down a spin equalizer, one of the key factors towards whether you win or lose is how much "Life After Death" (LAD) your Beyblade has. In a battle, as long as your bey is still spinning, you're still in the fight; LAD is the ability for your Beyblade to perform complete rotations even after it has fallen over. As already stated, this comes into play the most in battles with spin equalizers, as those contests usually come down to a single rotation. It is also a desireable trait in general, as having good LAD can be the difference in whether you win or lose stamina battles and/or when your Beyblade gets destabilized. It is even a key component in how certain customs work, like when MF-M Duo Cygnus 230MB starts spinning at extreme angles and picks itself back up after Duo scrapes.
So, how do you add some LAD to your customs? There are several parts that you can use, the majority of which I'll cover here. If you want some extra LAD for your custom, try using some of these pieces and see if they work for you.
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Metal Wheels
There are some metal wheels that have natural LAD without any help from the rest of the custom they're found on. These wheels all have several traits in common which I'll go over here.
First, to have good LAD, a wheel needs to be completely circuclar. This is important because the weight distribution of the wheel needs to be even rather than two-sided or something similar. An easy way to think about why this is important is to think about those carnival games where you spin a wheel and it stops on a certain prize. You know how you can rig those games by putting extra weight on one side of the wheel, making it more likely the wheel will stop on a certain prize? This is the same principle for LAD: if the wheel isn't completely circular, the heaviest part of the wheel will naturally try to rest on the floor, whereas a circularly-distributed wheel will instead continue to roll around.
Second, in order for the wheel to actually roll, the metal wheel has to be flat and smooth where it touches the floor once the bey falls over so that it is able to take advantage its the round shape. The best example I can give is of a wheel whose underside is NOT smooth: Fusion. While Fusion is indeed circular, the bumps on the bottom of the wheel cause Fusion to not roll once it has fallen over. This is in contrast to the wheels listed here like Scythe that are indeed flat and do roll once they scrape the floor.
Third, the wheel's radius in relation to the rest of the custom must be appropritate (which I'll define here) in order for the wheel to actually touch the ground once it has fallen over. Wheels with small radii like Duo need to be on a track/tip combination that is also small in radius in order for the wheel to be able to roll on the ground. If, for example, you are using R145 with Duo, Duo will never touch the ground once the bey has fallen over and thus will not actually help with LAD.
Fourth, it can be beneficial if the wheel overhangs the track a bit. This goes back to the last point that was made about the wheel needing to touch the floor when its Beyblade falls over. If the wheel overhangs the track, it can be more likely to touch the floor before the rest of your track/tip combination.
To recap, traits of metal wheels with good LAD include:
* Round shape
* Flat on bottom
* Appropriate radius
* Overhangs the track
Here I'll list the wheels that have good LAD by themselves; if your custom is using one of these wheels, it will have good natural LAD already provided you aren't using a track/tip setup that gets in the way.
Duo
This wheel exemplifies natural LAD. It is, admittedly, rather small in radius, so it won't give LAD to tracks wider than it like most gimmicked 145 tracks. On smaller tracks like regular 145, AD145, 230, and on shorter tracks, Duo provides amazing LAD thanks to its completely round shape, circular weight distribution, and the amount it overhangs the track.
Death
Death is another great wheel for LAD. It has a nice, wide radius, it overhangs the track a good bit, and it is completely circularly balanced. While it technically isn't perfectly round on the bottom, it's certainly close enough.
Scythe
This is an interesting wheel for LAD. It has many positive traits, namely its circular balance, track overhanging, and flat bottom, but its large width is both a blessing and a curse. It is so wide that it will give customs LAD that wouldn't have it when using small wheels like Duo, but this width also makes Scythe tend to stop spinning faster once it has fallen over (especially on short customs). Thus, it's tricky to judge this wheel's true effectiveness, but it does have natural LAD without a doubt.
Basalt
Basalt satisfies almost all the conditions for having good LAD, but its natural imbalance does make it want to stop spinning faster than other circular wheels. In practice, however, this imbalance isn't terribly noticeable, and thus it still exhibits good LAD. It is very small in radius, however, so the track/tip setup it is on must either be very thin or very short for it to work.
Hell
This wheel requires some explaining. Hell by itself is horrible for LAD, but BD145 in Boost Mode is pretty darn close to perfect. Boost Mode BD145 is perfectly round, flat, circularly balanced, and it will always be the part that scrapes the floor when it falls over. Since you can only use Boost Mode on Hell, Hell gets a spot on this list.
Earth
While Earth is heavily outclassed in basically every regard, it does have a totally circular shape and thus has decent LAD. Earth is worth mentioning since for bladers who only have access to Hasbro parts, this might be their only option for a metal wheel with natural LAD. Still, the other wheels listed here all have better LAD (and are better in most every other regard as well).
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Tracks
What if you're using a metal wheel that doesn't have natural LAD, but still want to add some to your combo? Well, don't fret, as there are some options for tracks and tips that can help you out.
Here, I'm going to discuss two tracks that can greatly assist users of metal wheels with poor LAD. Note that these tracks don't give true Life After Death to a Beyblade; rather, using them only helps the bey spin a rotation or two more than Beyblades that don't use them. An example of a track that would give true LAD would be BD145 in Boost Mode, but I've already covered that.
ED145
The idea behind using ED145 for LAD is that once a Beyblade using ED145 falls over, it will lean on the wings of ED145 and keep spinning thanks to the track’s free-spinning gimmick. This certainly works well with metal wheels with smaller radii, but for medium and large wheels the metal wheel might still make contact with the ground. This is certainly a weakness, but ED145 is a relatively easy piece to get compared to the next track I'm going to discuss, making it an attractive option especially for Hasbro bladers.
TR145
This track is made for giving LAD to wheels that otherwise have no business spinning once knocked over. It has a lot going for it: it's heavier than ED145 (not by much, but every bit helps), and the fact that it is fixed helps in ways I'll discuss soon. TR145 is predominately circular with three rollers that jut out slightly from the circle. Because they are rollers, they allow the Beyblade they're on to spin once toppled over almost as well as if the track was a complete circle. The rollers are also very important because they can cover problem areas on a metal wheel's underside if said wheel is three-sided. For example, one can align the track so the wheels cover the rubber on L-Drago Destroy/Destructor/Guardian or the parts of Gravity that hang down further, thus preventing those parts from scraping when the bey is tipped over. This gives TR145 a distinct advantage over ED145 as while TR145 completely prevents these problem areas from scraping, ED145 might still allow the troubled spots to hit the floor since it is not fixed. However, it should be noted that because it is fixed, TR145 is not as well-balanced as ED145 when put on metal wheels that are not three-sided.
In closing, here are the main draws and weaknesses to each track:
ED145
+ Can be used on non-three sided wheels without much imbalance
+ Offers arguably more defense than TR145 against low attackers
+ Much easier to obtain than TR145
- Only offers notable LAD to wheels with small radii
TR145
+ Heavier than ED145
+ Blocks problem areas on the underside of a metal wheel
+ Can be used on almost all wheels regardless of radii
- Not as well-balanced on non-three-sided wheels
- Harder to get
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Tips
So, let's say you've already got a metal wheel and track in mind, but still want to add more LAD to a custom. Do not fret, as there are a few tips that do the job quite well!
RDF
This tip has a truly awesome shape. Because it is so tall and its plastic ring extends so far down, RDF resists toppling over like no other tip. This gives it great LAD even on problem tracks like R145, as at low spin rates the bey spins on RDF's plastic ring rather than falling and allowing any other part to scrape. This tip is the only mostly-stationary tip that provides LAD, which gives it a unique niche. However, it is still a rubber tip, meaning it simply does not have the stamina or spin equalizing abilities as other tips. Its defense is certainly incredible, though, so if you want LAD on your defense custom, RDF is an excellent choice.
CF
With Zero-G came a slew of new tracks and tips that just beg to be abused in BB-10s. One of these tips is CF, which is basically a WF with a huge plastic disk around the top. In practice it performs very similarly to a regular WF with some notable differences. It is significantly heavier than most other tips (over 2 grams), but its main feature is its ability to give LAD to almost any custom thanks to the disk. When a CF-using Beyblade starts spinning at low spin rates, it leans on the disk of CF and continues to spin thanks to CF's circular shape. CF's disk is so wide that most Beyblades will not topple any further, meaning CF's LAD bonus can be applied to nearly any custom. The tip is an aggressive tip and it has some issues with scraping at high spin rates, but its ability to give LAD is almost unmatched...
GCF
...except by, arguably, GCF. GCF is almost the exact same tip as CF, except its tip is XF-sized and its disk has gear-like notches instead of being completely circular. The tip behaves in the same way as CF at low spin rates; the Beyblade will lean on GCF's disk and not topple any further. While GCF's gear shape does not grant it as much LAD as CF, this is made up for in spades by the width of the main tip. XF is a much more stable tip at low spin rates than WF, such that GCF will spin at low spin rates without falling over far longer than WF. Not only that, but GCF's gear's teeth are spaced close enough that it is basically circular as far as LAD is concerned. However, it, like CF, is an aggressive track, and it too has issues with scraping at high spin rates; these drawbacks, though, are made up for by GCF's incredible balance at low spin rates and its ability to give almost any custom additional LAD.
To recap:
RDF
+/- Stationary movement pattern
+/- Rather tall
+ Great defense
+ Provides LAD to most customs
- Rubber means less stamina and spin equalization
CF
+/- Aggressive movement pattern
+/- Short
+ Heavy
+ Provides LAD to nearly any custom
- Poor balance at low spin rates
- Scrapes at high speeds
GCF
+/- Aggressive movement pattern
+/- Short
+ Heavy
+ Provides LAD to nearly any custom
+ Great balance at low spin rates
- Gear shape not as good as full circle for LAD
- Scrapes at high speeds
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Closing Remarks
I hope this article has provided you a good understanding of Life After Death in MFB and the parts that offer this unique trait such that you will know, in the future, how to give your custom something extra it might otherwise be missing. While LAD isn't one of the most important parts of a Beyblade's abilities, it is still something that should be taken into account when building a new Beyblade custom (particularly spin equalizers).
So, with that I conclude the second article for the Beginner's Guide to Advanced Custom Construction; check back from time to time for more articles! Until then!
or something else with good LAD and low friction (seeing as bearings aren't neccessarily a requirement for zombies, just look a spiral change base, though they provide the low friction needed as well as increased LAD). Honestly, MLD does get sort of close at times to managing to be a zombie, though it still falls short on LAD grounds, it still does a very similar thing, it's just that unlike zombies, it doesn't destroy every other stamina type.![[Image: UwZsp7A.png]](https://i.imgur.com/UwZsp7A.png)
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