I’m looking for a yoyo that has a great balance between, speed, power, and maneuverability.
I tend to like yoyos that have a presence on the string but are not heavy or sluggish. It doesn’t have to be super fast, but I do want it to be nimble, and the more speed the better. (Provided that it remains stable and has good spin time.)
To make things easier, let’s separate into two categories, bi-metal and mono-metal. So, no titanium and no crazy $200 plus price tags.
So ideally, I would like your suggestions for both mono and bi-metal.
If I can give you my opinion following what I like and not too expensive:
Zgrt - QI
Duncan - GTR-JS (the more expensive in this list)
Unprld - Recognition
C3 - Cyber crash 2
Those models are in rotation in my “daily bag” from a bit now (the C3 is the newest I purchased but got enough play time to judge it), those are in my opinion great products in terms of performance at a very good price
Taking out the fact that I am sponsored by them, the QI is the reason why I wanted to join the team, if you go back in the official QI post, you will see already from the specs I thought it was a perfect yoyo (for my playing style) and I wasn’t wrong, I am using it from December without stop, I even took another one because I was dinging heavily my first one, it’s really a great product.
Same I can say for the recognition, I am loving it, good diameter, feels good in the hand, fast and nimble and very stable.
For some reason I don’t know I do really like Unprld as a brand, tried couple of products and are all very amazing and most of the time at a reasonable price.
In my opinion with all the ones I wrote in the list you don’t go wrong in term of performance at a reasonable price
If you need a yoyo that goes fast and is stable as hell… GTR-JS all day long baby. Sounds exactly like what you’re looking for in a bimetal tbh.
If string presence is more important to you than speed, get a regular GTR. It moves just a touch slower than the JS but has the slightest bit more presence. Both absolutely will spin longer than you need them to, they’ve both got power for days.
There’s a Damien Puckett Power on the BST right now, it’s an excellent bimetal I think checks all those boxes (as do most Puckett yoyos - Wingweaver and Fusion are still in stock on YYE I think).
Other bimetal yoyos (in no particular order):
Anything Motion, but especially Kinetic and Accelerated
G2 Banshee SS or Valhalla
C3 Galaxy Diver
RCS Deluge is underrated imo
Throwing Sideways Epsilon is also severely underrated imo
Anything YoYoFriends, really, but the Nucleon in particular is a really good price vs. performance value
For a monometal - this is my most recent new design for Mk1 Yoyos. 7075 aluminum and pretty wide. It’s gotten a lot of good feedback from people who’ve bought one.
Bimetal: Hydrogen Crash. There is no better yoyo that you can get for the price tag. Even at $110 it’s a steal of a deal, seeing as how even if they priced it at $200 I would buy it now that I know how it plays.
Controllable enough to accommodate intermediate players like you and I but an absolute speed demon, perfectly balanced, and quite powerful for being only 63.2 grams.
I would suggest looking at @KirbyRobot 's tier list for more info as well.
For cheaper bimetals MagicYoyo makes pretty decent ones for like 40-60 bucks too
I can’t say as much about monometals because the only 2 I own are the Legendary Terrarian and the Maverick which are completely, utterly different in quality and what skill level they’re meant for. However if you are also down with plastics I would look into the Speedaholic XX or the Luftverk Plastic Fulvia. They are kinda opposite sides of the same coin. Speedaholic XX is, as the name implies, an absurdly speedy yoyo that requires skill but helps emphasize technique (what I’m saying is that it kinda lacks control). On the other hand, the Plastic Fulvia is somewhat (though not horrendously) slow but is incredibly stable and offers you practically direct control of it.
For bimetal, can’t recommend the YYF iQ enough. Fantastic throw that’s just right. For a mono, the Free Solo is great and seems to check the boxes you’re looking for.
I have the Contact and love it. I’ve heard a lot of yoyos described as “floaty”, but the Contact is the first one I’ve played that truly is. It just floats along the sting and does whatever you want it to do. Great Job!
