I’ve been seeing quite a few tri-material yoyos lately. By this I mean yoyos made out of aluminum, SS, and plastic. I’ve yet to try one, but they seem a little gimmicky, to me. I get that they may offer some protection against damage, but is there anything else that they offer, that bimetals don’t?
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Which yoyos have you seen using tri matrial
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Pretty much everyone makes one, Yoyofriends, Offset, C3, etc.
like this thing… terrifying…
for me, one of the many “supposed novelties” that no one will soon miss.
oops… this is just two materials but the concept is the same!
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It’s less novelty and tweaking weight distribution on a yoyo. With the plastics having different mass and strength properties than the metals you are able to adjust the width and diameter while still keeping the majority of the mass of the yoyo where the designer wants it for a specific type of performance.
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While, like I said, I haven’t played a tri-material throw, but I’m skeptical of your argument. Polycarbonate is about half as dense as aluminum and a sixth the density of SS. I can’t imagine why adding a little bit more SS to the rims wouldn’t accomplish, pretty much the same thing as installing an extra PC rim.
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Using plastic can add signifiant width/diameter while keeping weight distribution in a more typical range. This would be a factor in oversize designs.
I guess it could add some durability by replacing thin Al walls/rims (on a mono metal) with a more substantial plastic component that weighs the same. This only makes sense if the more diffuse weight also benefits the design.
Personally, I don’t find PC or POM more forgiving of hand contact than blasted metal, but that is a selling point.
I’m sure novelty and fashion are a factor in some cases.
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The same old story that’s been going on forever… years and years ago, C3 released the Berserker… a yo-yo made of anticorodal aluminum (6061, 6082, I don’t remember now) with ergal aluminum rims (7075), that is, an aluminum body with aluminum rims!!! 
Pages of discussions were wasted on the difference in density of the two alloys and how weight distribution could be optimized like never before… blah blah blah…and then!!! Have you ever seen any more yo-yos made like that? Have they ever been missed?
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I have the contrast and contra beta and other than the feeling in the hands I haven’t noticed anything too much different in play.
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Paging @MarkD, he talked a bit about this @ the design workshop he did @ Nats and can explain way better than I can
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IIRC, G2 Council is AL6 w/ AL7 rims. The density difference between the two may not significant enough to justify the extra complication.
The difference between the AL6/7 and PC/POM is
much larger. And almost everybody is making tri-materials or yo-yos with plastic rims.
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Almost everyone makes them because almost everyone needs to invent something new to sell something. What a polycarbonate outer ring can give you, in terms of weight distribution, is what a half-thick aluminum rim, a quarter-thick titanium rim, and a six-thick SS rim can give you. Then, as for the placement of the greater or lesser weight, where it should be placed, whether more external or more internal, whether a wider yo-yo plays better than a narrower one, we can open up a world of discussions… For me, it was enlightening and shocking the first time (and every subsequent time) I threw the YYJ Phenom… but in any case, a plastic ring inserted on the outside certainly doesn’t change things. It would be too easy.
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From a utilitarian perspective, I don’t see a benefit outside of extreme designs where thinner metal simply isn’t a practical alternative.
But these are toys. Nonsensical engineering choices and novelty (and making sales) are perfectly valid motivations (IMO)
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but in fact I didn’t say that they are wrong to make them… just as many people bought the Berserkers, many will buy these too… good for them, I will not be, today as then, part of the group (and that doesn’t say anything 
)… but I was only trying to answer, as far as I can tell, the question posed at the beginning of the discussion.
I didn’t get the impression that you were saying it was wrong.
Of the few that I do own, the plastic doesn’t seem to add all that much. It probably doesn’t take away anything either.
Edit: clarification.
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By the way, a little curiosity OT for those who don’t know… for the positioning of the bronze rings of the Phenom, YoyoJam filed a patent (D648.810). The owner of Oxygene, when he created the Syzygy, asked YYJ for authorization to use the patent license.
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This was my thinking and what prompted my topic.
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in fact you wrote it before me, in your second message…
The short version is it’s mostly for fun/aesthetics.
For very extremely wide/large yoyos you do want a plastic rim in some cases, but for performance/cost on normal sized yoyos you want less complication, not more.
For yoyos that bang into each other a lot, a quieter 2nd material can improve life for your ears significantly.
The note about using a 1/2 thickness (or 1/4 or 1/6) is valid, but also consider than thin rims can be uncomfortable to hold, and even feel sharp. This is more of a problem for thin steel edges, and much less so for aluminum outer edges, since aluminum is a nice middle density. Totally possible to solve without adding a 3rd material, though the appearance of it might not match what the designer is trying to achieve.
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Thanks for your thoughts!
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