So I got a b-grade YYF KEdge in the mail the other day and it’s very quickly becoming my favorite throw. It is ever so slightly bigger (diameter) than I’d like…but I’m adjusting.
The only thing that’s bugging me…is it’s not quite as snappy as I wish it was when binding.
Now I am new to yoing…so my binds aren’t that great which isn’t helping…but most my other throws are just better for me at binding. This one is a bit slippy and can take me a few attempts to get back up.
I’m afraid to add any lube to it…as it plays absolutely fantastically as it’s set up. Super smooth and long spinning and just about dead silent.
I also don’t have any replacement response pads for it.
Any suggestions? Do I just need to keep on working at my binds?
Thanks I’ll pick up some pads next time I order some stuff.
Any suggestions on which pads to go with?
The ones on it right now are a dark yellow/light brown.
Yeah not all YYF pads are made the same. Not familiar with that color but I often end up changing out the green YYF pads. IMO blue and red YYF pads are the best of what I’ve tried.
Alternatively, you could snag One Drop Flow Groove pads here at YoYoExpert. Just make sure you get the 19mm slim size, not the propriety size for OD throws.
As Coding said, though. I’d also try fatter string. Personally, I find fat MonkeyfingeR Vines to be plenty grippy.
I bought some thread a couple of days ago to attempt to make some strings of my own…once I get a bit of time to get it all figured out, I think I’ll try to make some thickish strings. I had some fat kitties and I loved them…but I’ve ran through the ones I had already.
I’ll for sure pick up several kinds of response pads with my next order too. Even if I don’t need them now, it’ll be nice to have them for the future!
You can never have too many pads laying around. Stashing up on stuff is good, especially consumable items.
Imo the 2 pads from YYF that are great regardless of situation are yellow/pink and natural. The yellows wear out really evenly, so it’s pretty much as grippy as new when used and naturals just last long. They’re not the grippiest possible, but more than enough. Blues are excellent too.
Gotta try them all
If you like to tinker and like to cheap out a bit, you could try siliconing it yourself. It’s fun and relatively cheap vs pads, but more time consuming and takes some practice to get a fairly smooth job.
I mean I guess. My experience with flowables is that it’s super grippy, at least on all the ones I have. I bet it’s the silicones I use that are kinda soft. Results may vary wildly on the silicone used though.
Same here. I’ve tried MonkeySnot and Permatex 81730. Much grippier than a lot of pads I’ve tried out of the gate.
Edit: maybe not much but definitely grippy!
Agreed. It’s also good to experiment and get comfortable with this kind of Maintenance 101 stuff. Tbh swapping pads is pretty simple and quick once you get the hang of cleaning off the leftover gunk (rubbing alcohol, q-tips, and wooden toothpicks ftw). Same with siliconing once you get the hang of it (just avoid the red RTV stuff lol).
If I met a person in real life at a contest or elsewhere and they said this to me there is no way I’d say “try different strings or replace your pads or worst of all maybe replace the bearing. It’s a new yoyo with new pads. It’s not likely at all that there is an equipment problem. I’d watch them bind and try to see what may be wrong. That’s not as easy on a yo-yo board though. @twitch77 I suggest looking at some of the very basic bind tutorials and try those binds. I’ve never bought a yo-yo new that I couldn’t bind.
But again, replacing parts isn’t necessarily good advice in my opinion.
I’m fully aware that my binds aren’t up to par and that’s a lot of what’s going on here.
I think it’s more than reasonable to adjust the yo with different strings and pads to help me out though as I’m learning.
On the whole, I agree with you @vegabomb. However, I vividly remember having a bear of a time learning to bind with a Replay Pro thanks to its wide gap. When first learning, you don’t ever get to refine your technique if your not-quite-perfect technique doesn’t work to begin with. Switching to a thicker string helped a lot with the Replay Pro. Switching to a yoyo with a narrower gap helped even more.
Now that I have much more binding experience under my belt, I can more easily manage wider gaps and slippier response, but for a beginner who is trying to master basic binding, I would recommend not making it harder than it already is and recommend they do whatever they have to in order to get snappier binds, even if that means an equipment change of some kind.
I hear you @zslane. My point is that if this was a face to face discussion I wouldn’t recommend changing parts. I’d help with the technique. As I said though that’s harder with a yo-yo forum. I think learning to bind with the wider gap and maybe thinner string will help more in the long run than putting thick pads and thick string on.
I’ll pick up some pads next time I order some stuff.
The iyoyo soft pads are very gummy!