I almost got rid of my Glacier Express because it was playing…well, horrible.
It was catching on everything. Random binds, failed regen, weird hesitation mid-combo, and the string would always rub badly on the pads. Just constant drag, like it was constantly fighting me. It honestly played badly, and I was already mentally putting it in the sell pile.
Before I did, I swapped out the stock snow tires for flowable silicone just to see… and wow. Completely different yoyo. Smooth, predictable, way more controllable, and actually fun to play. Night and day difference. The snow tires protrude out FAR too much on this particular model, as well as a few others.
If you’re struggling with yours or have experienced the same thing, try a silicone swap before you move it along. It straight up saved the yoyo for me.
More like PSA for anyone that has a similar issue with their yoyo, not just the glacier express. So many people write off yoyos because of bad or non-preferred response, when siliconing fixes the issue right away.
I feel like it’s not always obvious it’s the response that’s the issue. I swear sometimes I just think it’s a bit grabby/slippy but then changing it out awakens a completely new yoyo, other times it just plays the same but with slightly better response.
I’ve ready somewhere on here that snow tires are consistently found to be on the thicker side. It’s might be by design, but regardless, summer tires are sold out everywhere, do people see a want/need for them. If you search “summer tires” here on the forum, people rave about the performance of their caribou yoyo after, and silicone is the best alternative. I just did half of my Leaf, and it does feel WAY better. Thinking about doing the other half, but I’m enjoying it as is.
Yeah, I have summer tires in almost all of my CLYWs and I can attest to the fact that they are awesome. I prefer silicone but summer tires are for sure the second best option. I wish all CLYW came with them stock. I truly don’t know why snow tires are so thick when every yoyo is better without them.
I’d totally recommend either siliconing or putting summer tires in both sides of your Leaf. I have one Leaf with silicone and one with summer tires and they’re both amazing, completely changed it.
Summer tires do take a bit of breaking in, though. When you fully install them in both sides, they’re pretty slippy until you rough up the surface through play. They come very slick, but once broken in they’re almost perfect.
I had a similar experience with the D7 I got.
It came with Snow Tires and I hated the yoyo; way too grippy. I did some research and it seemed like Summer Tires would solve my problem, but I couldn’t find them in stock anywhere. A little more research revealed that RSO actually made a pad specifically designed to fix the issue. They are the white Landing Pads (CLYW Slim/G grip pads, specifically), and are still in stock (only in packs of 6 or 20 though) on YYE. Solved my issue and breathed new life into the throw.
