The height of the bearing post is the deciding factor when figuring out which yoyos can take a slim bearing. It’s a 50/50 shot really, and you won’t know until someone tests it out.
For most you don’t need to do anything but pack the bearing with grease and presto. Responsive.
I can’t speak for the Shutter but I do know that some yo-yos that come unresponsive can’t be converted to responsive due to the spacer sizes. Meaning, if you install a half spec bearing, the yoyo won’t tighten up all the way so the bearing is sitting in the seats causing a gap the string can get caught in. The two I’ve tried that didn’t work are the Skyva and Aurora, but I’m sure many others won’t work. It is possible the spacers can be changed (not certain on this) but now you are talking about more parts to purchase just to make it interchangeable lol. Worth mentioning at least.
Yeah, so that explains what happened a few days ago. I decided to see if any of the throws I had could become responsive by swapping the bearing for a slim, and maybe putting in a smaller axle.
For a quite a few of them, it actually worked! Not great, in some cases. But not terribly, either. If you were super dying for a responsive Atom Smasher, you can totally put a 8mm axle in with a Half SPEC and it’ll throw it responsive. It’s response was actually pretty dang good, too. It vibes something awful, though. Nearly a constant blur. But it had OK sleep times, and could do tricks, and again, a pretty snappy response.
On one of my metal ones, though, it did not work. The string slipped behind the bearing, which had never happened to me before, and left me very confused for a minute. I’m not sure I know what you’re talking when you say “spacers,” though. I’m guessing you the mean the where the bearing sits? The bearing post/seat…thing?
Man, these thing have so many more named parts and bits than I ever thought possible. I figured it was: right half, left half, axle, bearing, MAGIC!
To explain the part I was talking about, see the pic below. The part the axle goes into in this pic (red line). If you were to remove the bearing from the yoyo completely, then screw the yoyo together, there would still be a gap between the two halves caused by the spacers. If these two spacers are wider than a half spec bearing, it will create a gap that the string will fall into. Some yo-yos come with wider spacers than others. Hope this helps explain.
@FullSpectrumDad have you seen the recent magicyoyo drop that is here on YYE ?? I know for a fact that these yo-yos are convertible and they play both unresponsive and responsive very well.
The V3 was one of my very first metal yoyos and it definitely performs well !!! Its stability, power, and smoothness is definitely noticeable so it makes a great learning yoyo. Also it’s pretty undersized so it has a nice compact feel in the hand. Plus you can choose some pretty cool colorways as well.
The crystal is DEFINITELY a great plastic throw !!! Its one of my favorite plastics in my collection. This yoyo is sweet, it has a nice powerful spin and can handle pretty much anything I throw at it. The fingerspin area is pretty good as well, even though the yoyo is glossy I find that finger spins are pretty easy to hit consistently as long as you guide your finger to the center of the cup. And it makes a great edc for just throwing casually or teaching other people how to yo-yo. Also the colorways for this are awesome !!! It shines really nicely in daylight and you have many colors to choose from.
I think that both of these yo-yos are a great choice to try out. Plus they’re very inexpensive and it’s easily replaceable in case something happens to them. Just keep in mind that responsive bearings sometimes go dry and it’s a good idea to keep them lubed from time to time. I hope this mini review helps you out
That part of the yoyo is called the ‘bearing post’ - Not a spacer. That’s probably where any confusion came from.
Thanks for the clarification.
Yes, but where does MAGIC go??
Thank you for the picture, that is what I thinking of. I didn’t know it was called a bearing post either.
@Yoyogeek15 No, I haven’t seen them! I didn’t even know there was a recent MagicYoYo drop. I’ll take a look and see if I can find them. I did get a Crystal recently to give it a try—it’s got a great response, and a surprising sleep time with the slim bearing in. I’ll swap the bearing later today and give it a real test play.