Introduction
When I was asked to try out one of the protoypes of the Ratchet, I was ecstatic to say the least. Troy (one of the owners of SYY), is a rather good friend of mine, and I was more than happy to test his new yoyo out!
While this review is rather late on my part, I am going to do my best to showcase my thoughts on it. Onward!
[size=10pt]{bling bling}
[size=12pt]Ratchet Specs
[center]Width: 47.00mm
Gap: 4.45mm
Diameter: 54.50mm
Weight: 66.48g
Response: One Drop Pad Response
Bearing size: Size C bearing
Axle size : 5x8x8
Price: 65$
[size=12pt]Playability and it’s pros and cons
I’m going to preface this section with a little tid-bit about myself as a player; I tend to pick one yoyo to use for two weeks or so before moving on with my case. That said, my collection is always limited (for the most part, anyway), to 12 yoyos max. When I received the Ratchet, it became one of those yoyos. I didn’t really switch between the Ratchet and another yoyo at all during the duration that I owned it. I feel that this is important to mention because of how wide the ratchet is, and how that width affects how I feel about the other yoyos I own:
[size=10pt]{dem curves, tho}
It’s safe to say that the Ratchet is one of the more wider yoyos on the market right now. This is by no means a bad thing, persay, but rather something to consider when deciding whether or not you should buy this (pro tip: you totally should). When I received the Ratchet, it did in fact take me a few throws to get used to the width. I have owned yoyos as wide as the ratchet before, but at the time, I hadn’t used a wide yoyo in a while.
The feel of this yoyo on the string is refreshingly odd. You would think that the Ratchet would be very hollow or light because of it’s width to weight ratio, but this is definitely not the case. The Ratchet, I feel, is very easy to control. It generally is slow, but it can go fast as well without a problem. The play on this yoyo is very welcoming; I had a hard time putting this yoyo down.
Fast forward a week- at this point I have become pretty familiar with how the Ratchet plays (lol). With that amount of time, however, I found two issues I wanted to address here as well: its stability and maneuverability. I found that the Ratchet was not the most stable yoyo in my collection. Again, this isn’t all that big of a deal considering how wide the Ratchet is. If you are a seasoned player, chances are you wont really care about the stability at all. It isn’t by all means as unstable as a Freehand 2 or something like that.
It’s maneuverability, however, is something that can be tolerated much easier with enough use (just like the stability). Since the Ratchet is as wide as it is, it may be difficult to do tricks that are “tight” or “techy”. The Ratchet can be a great yoyo to practice those kinds of tricks on for that very reason. If you can do it on a 47mm wide yoyo, you can def do it on others as well.
[size=12pt]TL;DR
-Wide, but very much manageable.
-Super comfortable shape; easy to throw without thought
-Easy to reject string
-Took a few throws to get used to maneuverability (as in, width made it difficult to perform tight tricks)
-Can be unstable, but nothing crazy
-Yoyo plays way beyond it’s price point at 65$
Thanks for reading! Do let me know if you have any further questions!
-Stephen F.