I’ve probably been yoing off and on for twice as long as most of you have been alive, so I’m probably half as good at it! :-/
Anyway, lately I haven’t been into it as much, but I always have a couple with me. A YF 555 with hubcaps in my manbag, along with a bunch of spin tops, and a YF G.5 in my pocket. That will give you an idea of when I was last buying yoyos…
I recently bought “World on a String", and got excited about yoyoing again. In that movie I noticed a little piece of string sticking out from Jensen Kimmitt’s yo finger. It looked like a little loop. Then I saw it again on someone else. Is that a “new” thing? I tried to search for it…
2nd stupid question. On a trick learning site, they always recommend a yoyo for the tricks, and they have “pro packs” available on all of thier yoyos. In these pacs for string trick yos are some thin lube, which they claim are necessary to protect the life of your bearings. I always run my bearings dry, and thought you had to in order to have them be unresponsive. Is that wrong? Are there new lubes that are different? I certainly have worn out my share of bearings, so if I can lube them, that would be great.
First, welcome back! Now, the first question. I always tie a slipknot, then pull the string through. I’m assuming the little loop that you’re talking about is just the excess string from the slipknot, but instead of being where you won’t notice it, now it’s on top of your finger and easily visible. And about the second one, I always run my bearings dry as well, unless it gets really loud or something, then I put as little lube as possible on it. The lubes that they sell are probably very thin (I use One Drop’s V4M lube), and that might be a new development. To lube them, I just take a drop and put it on a flat surface, then dip the side into it. You don’t want the entire drop, that’s too much and it’ll take forever to break in. Hope this helps!
I barely lube my bearings and if I do then it is to clean them out when there is dirt in them (the dirt causes them to be responsive or snag sometimes) or when they’re just really loud (but even then, I mostly just put up with it). If you lube a bearing then it will be responsive for a while but it then goes back to it’s unresponsive state after a while. I’ve only used YYJ thin lube and Yomega lube but I’ve heard good things about One Drop’s V4M. Don’t think it should matter much (you could probably find some improvised lube at a local hardware store anyway).
I always run my bearings dry without lube. It’s not totally necessary. By the way, nice 555 g5! You don’t here much about classics like that nowadays with all these fancy new bi- metals and extreme V shapes out.
I’ll probably just keep running my bearings dry. I’ve always just cleaned them with 91% isopropyl when they seemed dirty, and considered them toast when that didn’t work.
As to the string, I had thought it might just be the uncut end, but it looked like a loop of string from what I could tell. Guess I won’t worry about it. Can’t say I liked the look of it anyway.
I’ll probably look into a new yoyo or two after getting rid of some. I pulled some out, and some are pretty nice, but a lot had cotton strings! I changed the strings and pads on some, and I like the Eetsit, and original Hitman so far. My fav used to be the Oxy 4, but I wore the bearing out, and I don’t know where the spare is. I had put a Koncave in the G .5, but it’s worn out too. I guess a bearing order is um, in order.
I usually do a tiny drop of lube after a cleaning, seems to prolong the life of the bearing and maximize the time before I have to clean the bearing again. One of my yoyos got its bearing cleaned and lubed back in September. I haven’t had to touch the bearing since, yoyo plays great.
Excess string - I’ve been lazy when I pull out a new Kitty String. I use the string at full length and most of the time don’t bother to cut off that half-inch of excess string that sticks out. It doesn’t get in the way and saves me a step of having to dig out a multi tool.
I recleaned some of those bearings that weren’t working, and found some valve oil, which is very thin. Most of them have come back to life nicely. I’m using 91% isopropyl, as I don’t like messing with caustic chemicals. I’ve now read however, that lighter fluid is relatively benign, and I know it’s preferred over alcohol…
Anyway, I’m having fun learning and practicing on the yoyo again, and have acquired some nice new throws! Also, I’m appreciating fixed axle play lately.
Alcohol is perfectly fine-- you can continue using that!
I always lube my bearings, mainly for quiet and smoothness rather than performance (a dry bearing in good condition will always spin longer). I use a syringe (with needle) because you can squeeze out the tiniest of drops and apply directly to the unshielded bearing. 2 tiny drops, then play the yoyo for a while. If it stays unresponsive the whole time, you’re at a crossroads:
Awesome! Lubed bearing and it’s unresponsive.
Hmm… could still add more lube here… make it even quieter!
#2 usually means to cross the line into responsiveness, but then you break it in before too long.
By the time you’ve added 3 syringe-drops, you probably could have just used one full drop straight from the bottle, but I still prefer the incremental lubrication.
That extra string loop is for the birds. Looks ridiculous. Cut your excess string after making the loop and be a happier man. (“You kids get off my lawn!!”)
Hey a new idea. How about using the excess string to do tricks? I mean the string is still attached so that should be allowed for 1A comp. Of course you’ll probably need longer string.
This seems fun.
