It doesn’t stick out any more than the response pads that went into the groves. I take a credit card and scrape any excess silicone off right after applying it while it’s still a liquid…so that it’s completely flat with the yo without it protruding at all.
I don’t notice it rubbing against the string. I’ve had no issues with it being too grippy or snapping back in any of the wraps and stuff I’ve been doing.
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Using silicone on your yoyo is completely fine and long lasting if done properly. Don’t let anyone tell you different. I’ve been siliconing yoyos for many many years.
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Do you re-silicone all your brand new yo-yos though? If not… why not?
I understand replacing old or worn out parts, but pulling new …?
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I use silicone in any yoyo that needs the response replaced and is able to accept silicone. Nothing more, nothing less. If someone chooses to put silicone in a yo-yo as a replacement for stickers and they know how to do it they’ll have no problem.
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If you found something you really enjoy that was simple to do to a yo-yo…then you tried that thing on a couple more yo-yos and were absolutely pleased with the results…
Would you think about doing that thing to the rest of the yos you play with?
I don’t get why you’re so against me doing this xP. It hasn’t taken anything away from the yos I’ve done so far. In fact if anything, it’s added more fun to them for me personally.
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Man, you do you. At the end of the day, you’re the one throwing these. If they feel good to you, that’s all that matters.
Honestly, same. @codinghorror what’s the point of this? He’s happy and you’re the one really keeping this up. Spoiler: some people have preferences that don’t align with yours.
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And I did it to my brand new Legendary Terrarian I got this week because I wasn’t quite pleased with the response. I’d likely have left it alone for at least a week if I was more pleased with the binds I was getting.
I loved the results of the silicone though! It made my binds super snappy and effortless…even on slow/dying spins.
I’m not sure what happened today, but meh…things happen. I’ll try again and move on.
You can do whatever you want with the things you buy, of course.
I’m just curious how bad a fit the response pads could be on a brand new yo-yo from the factory, e.g. do many people feel like the stock pads are frequently not to their taste on brand new yo-yos?
Technically YYF even has those pads with different silicone grippiness, e.g. this
I can’t stress enough that I HIGHLY believe it’s not the yo-yos. It’s me. I’m just learning and I’m not the best binder in the world. I’m getting there, and I’ve been happy with the progress I’ve made in these last couple of months…but I sure have a long ways to go!
Silicone is making my yos more snappy to bind with. It’s like adding training wheels or something. I’m happy with the results and it’s making things easier on me.
I’m sure as I get better I’ll have less and less issues with binding with my throws. I was having some issues with binding with my K’Edge as well until I applied silicone. Now it’s my favorite yo that I keep going back to. Very snappy! Very satisfying!
Again, I dont think it’s the K’Edge or the response it came with from the factory.
It’s me.
But I’ve found something that works for me personally. I’m not going to feel like an idiot for using it.
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It probably just didn’t adhere too well and ripped out. I’ve had this happen to one throw I siliconed.
I’ve also had a couple of stock pads (“factory installed”) rip out or arrive protruding so it can happen to response stickers too. As you said, just try again.
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You might also try experimenting with fatter strings. I can recommend yoyostringlabs AMMO, if you would like I can send you two in an envelope to experiment with.
And for the record, it is much easier to swap strings than to swap manual silicone out 
To be honest part of my reaction here is buying someone else’s yo-yo collection, kinda as a favor to them, and that person had manually siliconed everything, pulling out all the silicone stickers, and made all their yo-yos so much worse as a result. Just super erratic response across ~15 different yo-yos due to inconsistent application of manual silicone, when the original stock factory stickers they started with would have been utterly perfect… I had to go back and fix all those (by putting stickers back in) before I could even give them away. Still traumatized by that. 
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IMO, I much prefer flowable response over stickers.
Done correctly the response is awesome.
You can recess it, have it flush, have a little bump. It rocks.
Flowable window/windshield automotive silicon allday.
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Hey thanks a lot 
I’m really happy with the silicone + kitty fats I’m using though! Just picked up a box of 100 this week
It might be easier to switch out to a fatter string then to play with my yos. But I enjoy the experience. I like the fact that I’m manually adjusting my throws so that they’re more enjoyable to me.
It’s not like adding a bit of silicone is difficult in anyway. It’s not like it’s time consuming. Takes me less than 5 minutes to apply. I have plenty of other yos I can play with while it sets for a day.
I enjoy this stuff.
I was into yoing in the early 2000’s where modding yos in different ways was normal. Cleaning bearings, and changing out to different responses and what not…so maybe that’s why I enjoy it? It was just part of what you did back then.
Yos have come SO far in the last 15 years! Omg!!
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Fair, worth noting that AMMO is even fatter than kitty fat though.
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Yeah that sucks
What a pain and extra expense that’d be!
I’m having consistent results aside from today. All my yos I’ve siliconed are snappy and enjoyable to bind.
I’m wondering maybe if it was the silicone he used? Or maybe he was in a rush and didn’t make the effort to take his time with it.
I may have to give them a try! Thanks for the heads up!
No need to send me a couple though. I really do appreciate the awesome offer though! Very nice of you! haha I"ve been SO damn spoiled rotten though in these last 2 months with people being extremely kind to me and sending me stuff for this hobby.
I’m ready to start giving back instead of keep taking!
It’s also possible that the seller played the more problematic ones more and wore out the silicone, but then didn’t bother to test and resilicone before sending to you. Silicone tends to be softer than a lot of response pads, which is what gives them the snappier bind you see us all talking about right off the bat without needing any break in. The trade off is that they tend to wear out a fair bit faster than pads.
Fresh silicone done right really does give a snappier bind than most pads IMO unless you’re talking about the softer competition pads like YYF Red or Sochi Pink. And if you own any G2s from like a year or two ago, there’s a good chance they have Permatex 81730 flowable silicone instead of response pads. (They actually don’t conform to the 19mm slim standard so they need silicone—no one manufactures compatible pads.)
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Wow interesting thread, i can actually see all sides of the discussion and all are equally valid points.
At times like this it always reminds me of my mum who loved gardening (of sorts), never followed the advice of professionals or books. Motto was if you want to know whats going to grow, or not, stick it in the ground and see.
Garden was a complete mish-mash of growing stuff, including weeds. Wouldn’t win any prizes but the wildlife loved it 
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@codinghorror I think you’re just bad at siliconing or something man, idk what flowable ever did to you 
@twitch77 I will agree with Jeff on one thing. Switching to thicker strings is easier than manually siliconing fresh yoyos, AND it will also have a more profound impact on the response if you get a decently thick string like ammo. And btw, kitty fat isn’t actually fat. Kitty fat is like “normal” nowadays. Kitty fat was “fat” like 15 years ago when gap widths were a little smaller and people used a slightly thinner string on average.
BUT, I disagree with Jeff about the hate on silicone. I have definitely had the experience that flowable siliconed flat is slightly more responsive than many pads and many people actually prefer the response of flowable and it was actually quite popular to use as a replacement response ~10 years ago so I can see where you’re coming from,though I’m not sure I know of anyone else that replaces fresh pads for it.
However, I personally don’t have the patience to wait 24 hours instead of sticking a new pair in. Also, silicone definitely doesn’t last as long as pads for me, not even close. They start recessing quicker and they just fall out altogether quicker too.
Side note: I got a Sleipnir I was really excited about not too long ago and it came with flowable in it. The fact that it used flowable didn’t bother me at all in terms of play, it played fine, I was just a little disappointed because I knew this wasn’t going to last as long as if it had pads in it. Sure enough, the pads fell out 2 days later. I was out of pads, had to buy new ones and wait for them to come in.
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agreed