So my birthday was this weekend and I got an old yoyo model from a friend (the Yoyofficer Crayon), which is supposed to be unresponsive. However, it’s been acting very responsive, and will return when I give it any slack as long as it’s not spinning too slowly. I cleaned the stock flat bearing and put it back in to see if that would do anything, but it didn’t. I haven’t replaced the response pads b/c they don’t seem to be the issue.
I still think that because it’s an old model and has been sitting in a box for a while it’s just grown to be responsive, but I also think the weight contributes to the responsiveness (it’s undersized and 67+ grams). The fact that there’s a flat bearing probably does it too (I play with grooved and center track 99% of the time). And while it’s been really fun to fool around with it while it’s responsive, I’d rather leave the responsive metal play to the Moonshine and play with this throw as intended. I feel as though there’s some technical variable that I’m forgetting or missing though that’s making it responsive. Any advice? Thanks!
Try swapping out the bearing.
Switched out the bearing, made it less responsive. However it’s still acting up just a bit; from my description of the issue, is there anything that stands out as a variable which could really affect responsiveness?
What did you clean the bearing with? Did you add any lube after cleaning? Do the response pads sit flush, or do they stick out a bit? Finally, when you switched bearings, did you take one that was playing unresponsive in another yoyo?
I ask all these questions because I’ve lived all of them causing a yoyo to be responsive. I’m always surprised at how little thin lube it takes to make a yoyo responsive. When I clean and lube a bearing, I use acetone for cleaning (don’t know how old you are, but, be aware, acetone is nasty stuff), and a fraction of a drop of thin lube, applied using a safety pin. I spin the bearing a bit on a pencil, then reassemble the yoyo. My test throw is a regular front style throw, and, I give the yoyo a pretty good tug (like you would give a responsive yoyo., but with a lot more force. I watch to see if the string. Is just hanging around the bearing, or if it starts to wrap (or if the yoyo wraps the string and comes to my hand). If the string wraps even a little, I will throw a few sleepers and reevaluate. Sometimes a few throws help “break in” the lube - maybe evenly distribute it more evenly? If this doesn’t get the string to hang on the test tugs, I reclean the bearing and try again using less lube. https://vimeo.com/182670550