Hello everyone,
as I wrote in my introduction I am totally newbie in yoyoing, so please don’t kill me if what I ask has been asked many times before
I bought my first “modern” yoyo, Yoyofactory One (in order to improve both responsive and unresponsive ways).
I started playing with unresponsive bearing, and for a couple of days everything was fine, yoyo was 100% unresponsive.
Since yesterday yoyo became suddenly almost completely responsive!
I googled a bit, and I found out that probably bearings must “break”, because probably the brand new yoyo as a lot of lube inside. And I also read that new silicon pads could make an unresponsive yoyo become more responsive.
My question is: should I just play a lot and wait for break to happen (how long could it take?), or you suggest to clean the bearings in order to wait less time?
I am not very good in manual activities, so I would not risk to damage the bearing cleaning it… my idea would be to play and wait… but please I would really appreciate your suggestion about it!
Usually if a yoyo becomes suddenly responsive as you describe, something is interfering with the bearing, so you may need to clean it. You should unscrew the yoyo and inspect it first, you may just have a hair or something you could remove without actually cleaning the bearing in solvent. Check that your response pads are in the grooves too, sometimes on a new yoyo a pad can come a little loose and rub the string.
I can’t really tell for sure. String is not really wet, but the endig part (the part around bearing) looks a bit like “sticky”: when I unwrap string I do feel it a little bit sticky.
thank you for your suggestion
I checked the bearing and I didn’t see any hair or anything like that.
Response pads look a bit protruding, i did push them a bit inside with my fingers, but I have no idea if I did actually move them or not
today evening I’ll also try to change string… btw I am using Henry’s 100% polyester strings… do you think they are good for a beginner like me?
I will let you kwno if something will change. Thank you very much!
Sometimes a bearing will get grabby and you have to clean it. If you search in maintenance section you can find lots of methods. Breaking in a bearing is when you play through the lube thinning out and the bearing polishing in a little bit, it takes a while, but nothing should suddenly make your yoyo responsive that is part of the normal break in. You probably need to clean the bearing. It’s all part of the learning curve, sounds like you are on the right track, you may have to mess around with it some, but when you get it right it may stay trouble free for a long time.
Yoyo maintenance is not hard, but it takes some getting used to.
Any 100% poly will be good for you starting out.
PS- Make sure your bearing is totally dry of solvent before you lube it or put it in your yoyo.
PSS- Lube is only really necessary for noise, lots of people run their bearings with none at all.
The response pads should be perfectly flat, and should not protrude, or be off level. If you look at the yoyo with one eye at the center at the bearing, the response pads should not be visible. If you notice the pads sticking out, then just push them back into place until its flat again.
Thank you, adhuck.
My pads are not 100% flat! I somehow pushed them a little bit more inside, but that’s the most I could do. They are still a little bit off level.
Concerning cleaning the bearing, I did it, but I was not able to remove shields, so I cleaned bearing with shields on. Maybe that’s not the way, but I had no chance to remove shields.
I used Zippo fluid: 15 minutes in it, shaking it often.
After this Zippo bath bearing turns freely and for a longer time than before.
But still, when I do a sleeper, if I try to get back yoyo without bind, if string is not in tension, yoyo comes back as it happens in responsive yoyos.
This now happens only if string is not in tension, and it turns a couple of times around bearing.
I hope my explanation was clear.
Thank you once again for your help!
If the string rolls a little when you tug it, it’s still not clean enough.
I play with protruding pads all the time and they rarely ever cause problems, as long as they are not too close to the point of almost clamping the string. With clean bearing, they should still be totally unresponsive.
Pads or strings are rarely the main cause when it comes to unresponsive yoyos becoming responsive, it’s almost always because the bearing not clean enough.
To remove shield, there is a C clip on the outer part of the shield, use the thinnest and sharpest needle you can get to pry the tip of the clip out.
First of all: thank you, thank you, thank you! You are all giving me extremely useful advices!
Despite of that, I am still having problems, and I really don’t understand if I am the problem, or yoyo is…
I finally managed to do everything as it should be done: I removed C clip and shield, I put bearing in zippo fluid (about 20 minutes), shaking often.
At the end bearing was amazing! I could make it turn with my finger for more than 25 seconds.
But when bearing was 100% dry, and I put it on yoyo, and I play for 10 minutes, it starts rolling much slower. And if I put it on a pencil, and I turn it with finger, it rolls much less (10 seconds), and sometimes it would hardly rolls for 5/6 seconds.
I did not lube it at all, just zippo bath.
Is there any chance that I was just unlucky, and I got a defective bearing?
In order to solve my doubts (as I wrote in my introduction I don’t know any yoyoer, and I can’t give bearing to anyone to check it) I ordered another yoyo, that is suggested as a good one for beginners: YYF FAST 201. I should get it tomorrow.
So I will be able to compare them, and I will hopefully understand why am I having such troubles with this bearing.
Thank you again everyone, sorry if I bored you with this problem, but here is the only place I can get some usefull advice!
I’ll let you know about my improvements… hopefully
The fast 201 would be a downgrade from One. 201 have smaller bearing and protruding starburst response which is kinda weird, I think it’s meant to be responsive.
10 seconds flick time for a bearing is plenty, and there doesn’t seem to be any problem with it at all. I’ve never had a bearing that spins for 25 seconds either honestly.
But anyway, bearing flick spin doesn’t matter and it doesn’t really translate to longer spin time. As long as the bearing doesn’t pull the string around and still unresponsive with no gritty sound, then it’s good. From there spin time is a matter of the player’s technique.
