I am having issues with 2 of my yoyos, which are in theory my 2 ‘best’ yoyos by most peoples standards. I am pretty experienced and I understand what effects the responsiveness of a yoyo: bearing/lube, pads, trick smoothness, but I’m stumped.
The two yoyos are a clyw avalanche and a yyf skyline, but the avalanche is my main concern. Its responding when I’m in the middle of just about any trick. I have cleaned the bearing and let it completely dry and it temporarily seemed to fix the problem, but after 15 mins it gets loud and gets a little more responsive. I can’t go around cleaning my bearing every 15 mins and really, it shouldn’t affect it that much. I normally use a little thin lube, but its completely out of the question in this case.
The main difference between these 2 and the rest of my yoyos is that they have flowable silicone and they don’t have center trac bearings. I siliconed the skyline and the avalanche comes with flowable. I have heard of silicone being grabby for a little bit, but i’ve had my avalanche for 4 days now and there’s probably well over 10 hours on it and my skyline is about 3 months old. Both yoyos seemed fine when I first got them, but it seemed like after a certain point they got worse and worse.
I have switched out the original factory bearings for center tracs thinking it may just be my preference, but it seemed to make it worse, like the angled edges were directing the string into the silicone even more. I have center tracs on my northstar and rockstar and have had no issues with them at all.
I’m concerned because its only these 2 yoyos and not my others which get similar treatment.
I guess my question is has anyone run into a similar problem and does anyone have any advice. Its to the point that I don’t even want to throw my brand new avalanche because its mangling my hands.
If so you are welcome to send them in to us to take a look.
Odds are it is still likely to be the bearing then anything else. Try opening the yo-yo and spinning the bearing with your finger. Does it spin freely or does it feel stuck or anything? How long does it actually spin for in seconds when you flick it? Versus a center trac do you have any other bearings to try in it?
The bearing spins great after its been cleaned, but then after a couple minutes it only spins in a short burst. Normally my other bearings will last quite a while before they need to be cleaned…but these only last a few minutes.
Is it possible that flowable silicone maybe wears differently and gunks up bearings easier than the rings?
I’ve been meaning to get more bearings so I think I will just purchase a couple different ones and see if there is any difference. Now that I think about it, its possible that the center trac I replaced it with may have needed to be cleaned and in my frustration just didn’t acknowledge it.
replace the bearing then. Also, lube is what keeps it clean better. I don’t have lube ATM, and every time I clean my 10 ball, it takes about 6 days to get something in it (I play deshielded)
how long have you had it? SOunds like teh Response and the bearing are both in the Break in stages. and will do that. I say deshield the Bearing clean it really good. put a drip of lube in it. and play it. for a good few hrs. I bet it clears up.
My avalanche grabs at times as well but I think it’s from the silicone. It might need to be broken in more or it is too old and there’s junk chipping out of it and it needs to be replaced.
What it sounds like to me is that some excess silicone may have gotten onto either the outer ridge of the bearing well or the response groove. Take your thumbnail and run it along both of the ridges surrounding the response groove. If you see any silicone specks flaking off, then that’s your culprit. Also make sure you examine the bearing well itself and make sure there’s no silicone boogers floating around in there as well. If this is the problem, re-doing the silicone job will do the trick just fine.
