Hey all,
I got into yoyoing about 5 years ago. Like most people, I started by binging tutorial videos and obsessing over what gear to buy. I made the mistake of picking up a responsive yoyo because a lot of tutorials insisted that’s the way to learn. There was a ton of talk about how hard binding is at first, but honestly, I had the opposite experience. The responsive yoyo made it really hard to learn tricks as it was constantly returning when I didn’t want it to or losing its spin.
Thankfully, I also bought an unresponsive Shutter at the same time, and I switched over to that almost immediately. Learning to bind for both front and side throw was one of my first “tricks,” and I never looked back.
I also picked up some thin lube early on, both YoyoFactory and YoTricks brands, and followed the usual advice: tiny drop on a pinhead, that kind of thing. But every time I used it, the bearing felt sluggish and way less satisfying to throw. I also really like the raw sound of a dry bearing, especially in a metal yoyo, so the quiet, dampened spin after lubing was disappointing.
What really pushed me away from using lube was how long it took the bearings to recover. It usually took about a week of daily play for them to feel “right” again. Eventually, I just stopped lubing completely. I’ve been using the same Yoyo Factory Center Track bearings in all of my yoyos ever since, with zero issues. I clean them regularly using the paper triangle method and they’ve held up great. The only exception was one Topyo yoyo that came with a messed-up bearing straight out of the box, but I replaced both my Topyo bearings with YYF ones right away anyway.
Ironically, the worst performing bearing I have now is the one in my original Shutter, the only one I ever tried to lube. I never tried cleaning it with lighter fluid or anything, but it seems like the lube just permanently gunked it up. Almost like the lube mixes with small particles and makes the bearing dirty permanently.
So I’m curious if anyone else had the same experience?
I’m just a casual, I do it for fun, but I still play nearly every day. I’ve got 7 yoyos in rotation and try to keep them all in use. Every one of them still runs the same bearings they came with (or the ones I swapped in day one for my Topyo ones).
Feels like a lot of the advice I got early on was either overcautious or just plain wrong. At least for my personal tastes anyway. I was really expecting my bearings to have failed long ago and I have about 10 bearings brand new sitting in a little plastic case just waiting. Would love to hear if anyone else went through something similar. And just what peoples thoughts are on the topic, bearing maintenance, etc.
~<3