I’m kinda new to unresponsive play, and just got myself a yyf protostar. I can’t bind this thing for nuts, and before you all say “learn to do it properly” I’m not sure it’s completely my fault.
I’ve been playing with a yyf speedmaker, and even with the gap widened with shims, it binds fast and tight (too fast at times). This seems to be the speedmakers hybrid response.
The protostar however has cbc pads. They’re really slippery. Looking inside the yo they’re actually recessed into the gap (about 1mm) rather than flush. After playing a couple of days it’s starting to bind occasionally, but usually no matter how many loops of string i’ve got in there it won’t bite. I can wind the string up fully and yank the heck out of it and it still slides fairly easily around the yo, as if it’s never fully binding. On a hard throw it’ll slip and take the energy out of the throw.
I’ve heard cbc pads can be slippery but this seems rediculous. Is it possible that I’ve got dud pads?
Hm… My pads are barely below flush level and yet I get a nice tight bind every time. It sounds like a pad problem. You could buy some new ones, and if they don’t work, I would suggest contacting YoyoFactory.
Thanks for the advice but I’m pretty sure the pads on this one are borked. I got some response after cleaning the pads with isopropyl alchohol but it’s still not quite right.
I’ve been comparing it to a plastic grind machine I got in the same order. The PGM has a similar response system, the gap is about the same, the cbc pads are slightly wider, but it should give an indication. It binds tight. When completely wound up the pgm string will not slip around the yoyo.
On my protostar (completely wound) I only need minimal force to turn the yoyo and the whole string will just slip. No bind even when completely wound up - just hold the yo, pull the string, and it unwinds. A hard throw and most of the energy disappears due to the slip. I know this as i can sleep the pgm much harder, faster and longer than the protostar. (If the protostar response system was doing it’s job it should out-perform the pgm.)
Enough folk have mentioned slippy cbc pads fixed by silicon that i’ll give that a try. The worst that can happen is I gotta scrape it out and buy new pads, but from what folk have been saying it’s a nicer response anyway. Thanks folk for the encouragement.
I’ll learn to bind well on the pgm in the mean time. That yo binds tight and predictable - do the right thing and it’ll bite fine. I can perform a bind on that most of the time now. When I mess up I know it’s my fault. Until I get the protostar response fixed it’s shelved - getting it right and the yo responding wrong is messing with my game.
The ProtoStar is really as unresponsive as it comes. The big difference between it and the Grind Machine is the bearing - ProtoStar comes stock with a center trac which makes it that much less “grabby”.
You may want to try switching the bearings between the two yo-yos and see if that helps your binds at all.
I found my Protostar had slippy binds, even with a flat bearing. But flowable silicon works very well on there. I made mine flush on one side and below flush on the other, I love it like that, made a world of a difference for me. You should give it a try.
This to me is strange. I’ve got two and neither have that problem. My son’s didn’t either. That isn’t to say that yours is fine. Try giving it more string when you bind.
Mine only had slip problems on non-backspin binds. When I did backspin binds it grabbed nicely. However, I like to do all those fancy binds, so I did the silicone mod and loved it like that.
And with a center track bearing and a gap like that, snags are still no problem, btw.
mine had that problem and it is the bearing pad combination mix. when i replaced the pads with silicone it was kinda better then i switched to a spec bearing and it binds every time
Out of curiosity I tried it out yesterday with the old bearing of my speedmaker. It didn’t really help a lot. Now i’ve got silicon drying in it. If the situation improves I’ll let you folk know.
I have a strong feeling it’s an issue with the pads. In any performance oriented engineering the variables are tightened up just short of breaking. Any minor issue with the materials is amplified by the precision tuning of the mechanics. I’m guessing that the cbc pads in mine aren’t that bad, just bad enough to cause an issue.
As for just looping more string, it’s been slipping when fully wound. There’s only so many loops you can do in a bind ;D
…
Update:
Silicon is now dry (used permatex ultra black). Tried it out. Binds firmly every time now. Thanks to all that suggested the mod.