Making an Odyssey play like a Surge? (Are they really essentially the same?)

Yo-Yo Mods and Maintenance
1

(The maintenance/modification questions show up at the bottom.)

I like “cheap” throws. At my skill level, with the tricks that I’m working on, I don’t notice that much difference between any two given professional metals. The variety of play seems to be much more noticeable between given woods and given plastics.

I recently bought a couple of YYJ Classics, leaving one stock-responsive and upgrading the other with a (generic) centering bearing and, eventually, silicone pads. I love, love, love playing the Classic in both configurations. While I was waiting for the silicone pads to come in, I found the dual O-ring + centering bearing setup to offer quite acceptable unresponsive play.

So, based on my enjoyment of the Classic, and with YYJ’s recent closure, I had my eye on grabbing a Surge while they’re still in stock. I ended up opting for a Yomega + YYJ “Odyssey,” since most reviews or listings of the Odyssey describe it as a “responsive Surge.”

I figured that on the Odyssey, like with the Classic, I could go back and forth between “responsive” and “unresponsive” play simply by swapping between N-sized and C-sized bearings.

When it arrived, I threw around the Odyssey stock. It played great. I think the Odyssey is better for responsive play than a stock YYJ Classic.

I opened up the Odyssey to change play styles and, to my shock, found a full-sized C bearing! The bearing seat is so deep it doesn’t look like it would even accommodate a narrow bearing without the o-rings touching. I installed two red shims. Even then, the yoyo was still very responsive. I swapped in a centering bearing. While the new bearing did make the yoyo unresponsive, the narrow gap + o-ring response still made it very difficult to keep the Odyssey spinning through tricks.

At first, I thought that people must be overstating the similarities between the Odyssey and Surge, and that the Surge must have a significantly wider gap. But the specs I have found listed on the internet seem to indicate the Odyssey is actually wider (3.71mm vs. 3.55mm on the Surge).

Does the Odyssey need to be siliconed in order to perform well as an unresponsive throw? Is that really the main difference between it and the Surge?

If I still want to be able to play the Odyssey responsive once in a while, would I just be better off leaving it as-is and ordering a Surge?

2

I used worn down pads on my Odyssey and it’s one of the best plastic ever.
I’m still debating whether or not to remove the cap because suction caps doesn’t work, the caps has to be destroyed.

1 Like
3

The way to make an Odyssey into a Surge (albeit with annoying caps) is to pull out the o-rings and plant some silicone pads in their place. The Surge does have a smaller gap than most unresponsive yoyos, but it handles multiple string layers well enough. If you’re thinking about purchasing a Surge on top of the Odyssey, I’d take a look at the Trigger instead. It’s a really good YoYoJam plastic with metal weight rings.

1 Like