dark magic 2 question..

Hi all, just recently got back into yoyoing after a 10 year hiatus. I used to throw a Yomega fireball in middle school and always wished I had the more expensive yoyos. Now that I’m in my 20’s I feel kinda childish playing with a yoyo but it brings back fun memories.

I recently picked up a yomega maverick and fell in love with it’s smoothness, so I decided to pick up the dash as well and I love playing with them both.

I saw a good review on this site about the dark magic 2 so I picked up the black spade edition in the shop section of this site. When I first pulled it out of the box I was highly impressed. Then I started to do braintwister and trapeze and noticed its catching the string or something and not allowing string tricks with the narrow bearing. I don’t really want to put the wider SPEED bearing in it because I’m not to great at binds yet.

It just puzzles me that the $20 and $25 dash and maverick can do string tricks AND still be decently responsive. Does anyone know of a way to make the DM2 able to do string tricks with the narower responsive bearing in? or do I need to give up and start working on binds?

i’d start working on binds… it will be beneficial in the long run… in the mean time you could add some sort of thick lube to the wider bearing and play it like that till you get better at binds

You can still do string tricks with the narrower bearing, but it’ll take much more practice. You’d probably be best off using the wider bearing and learning how to bind. You’re going to have to eventually.

Learn to bind. It’s impossible to do string tricks with a narrow bearing. you’ll find it a lot easier that Responsive.

Welcome back man. I recently did the same thing. I was about 13 when I stopped and I’m 25 now. I know it feels weird at first, but it’s SO MUCH FUN still. I got a dash when I first jumped back in and got bored with it after a couple weeks. I haven’t played a DM2, so I’m not much help there. I just wanted to say hi.

Put in the wider bearing and loop the string around the bearing a couple of times to make it responsive until you’re more comfortable with binding. Doing string tricks on a narrow bearing is much, much harder than doing them with a wider bearing. I’d really recommend putting a lot of effort into learning to bind though, seeing as it’ll make your learning experience MUCH easier when you start getting into more advanced tricks.

My $0.02: Use the Maverick and Dash for responsive play; and use the DM for unresponsive. With a little practice, you’ll have those binds down before you know it. And we are here to help if you have questions about them. :wink:

Use the wide bearing, and lube it a bit. No need to bind then until you’re ready.

I remembered when i first bought my DM2. i was so excited, that i wanted to teach myself how to bind to use the DM2 to its fullest potential.

i know most people are saying use “lube” but honestly, do you know what that is and do you know how to use it correctly?
when i was new. i had no idea what lube was. i remember i bought some thin and thick lube a long time ago because people kept telling me to use “lube.” but honestly, i never needed it, i spent $10 for nothing. once i learned how to yoyo correctly i never needed to ever use lube.

and i assume you dont have lube anyways, since your new? i could be wrong too. xD

i think its better if you learned how to bind with the wide bearing to use your DM2 to its fullest potential. Good Luck!

The Dash and Maverick are able to handle string tricks and still be responsive due to the fact that the bearings are already lubed with thick lube. They can be made unresponsive by cleaning the bearing later on, if you want. My suggestion is that you play with the Dash and Maverick for now, and learn to bind on them. It will be easier to bind a responsive yoyo, but it helps you learn the technique. Once you are comfortable with binding those yoyos, try it on the DM2 with the wide bearing. I hope this helps!

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Hey Beefcake71, welcome back to the community of yo-yoing.

I simply want to echo the viewpoint of others, just determine you’re going to learn to bind. I know the idea of binding can seem intimidating initially and I’m not going to be disingenuous, it can be frustrating to nail down at the start. Aw, what am I talking about, I still struggle with my binds sometimes. However, here’s the truth as it appears to me from the bleachers. Learning to bind is like learning how to shift the straight stick in your Corvette. In opens up the world you were looking for when you bought the Dark MagicII in the first place. Think of learning to bind just as learning the next level trick because that’s truly what it is. Once you are binding with confidence you are well on your way to doing stuff that make others go; “OH WOW!”

Most of all, don’t get it into your head that others of the community are smirking behind your back thinking “Look at that bozo, he can’t even bind.” It’s not like that at all here. Well, there may be a few nimrods in the tent, but for the rest of us we are empathetic, remembering and thinking, “O yeah, been there, done that.” Hang in there, the more accomplished you become the more fun you’ll have.

And don’t let anyone try to tell you different, yo-yoing is an adult sport which is loads of fun!

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The shape of the Maverick is different than the shape of the DM2. As such, it can be a bit harder to do some string tricks with the DM2 with the narrow bearing. Solution: Practice!! I will go back and play a responsive yoyo(usually my 2011 ONE that I keep the narrow bearing in) and see how well I’m doing on certain tricks. Also, keep in mind the gap in the Maverick is wider than that of the DM2 with the narrow bearing.

All it takes is more practice. You will need to learn to bind, but do so when you’re ready to do so.

If you’re planning to help yourself with lube, then you need to learn how to clean bearings. If you are going to double or triple loop, that’s not as big of a deal.

Don’t rush, enjoy yourself, progress at your own pace.

I added a little yomega lube to the wider speed bearing and now it responds just like my maverick and dash…it just has like half the sleep time it had with no lube. Thanks for that bit of advice, I really didn’t think lube would make an unresponsive yo-yo responsive but it worked great. So basically any yo-yp thats advertised as “unresponsive” can be make responsive bu just adding lube?

especially thick lube. The thin lube will work it’s way out over time with play and start to become less responsive.

Lay off the binding… Just practice until you can hit your tricks with the narrow bearing in your Dark Magic.