GTR-JS is your bet. Love that yoyo, fits most of these categories IIRC. Best modern Duncan yoyo.
1 Like
It has a wide-ish gap though. You’ll have to put some really grippy pads and some fairly thick string in there to get the kind of binds you get from YYR throws.
2 Likes
i vouch for peregrine. Amazing yoyo that fits everything you are looking for.
oh, im an idiot, i just rea that youre looking for something similar to peregrine.
in that case, yea. Youre looking for an Asteria Star Trail. its literally a comfier, sligtly lighter feeling peregrine.
1 Like
You sir spoke my mind exactly.
Yea I forgot to mention it’s got sharp rims.
But I think it’s “comfortable” in it’s overall shape and similar to the Float that you mentioned.
JS is never a bad choice, but to me it feels more like a “balanced” bi-metal. It’s like the JS “does everything amazingly well” and feels like a more polished version of the GTR. The Orbital feels like “holy smokes this thing is light, is it still spinning?” it’s hard to put everything into words but I hope you understand my sentiments.
JS runs you $120 since no one sells them on the bst you gotta buy new, you could probably find an orbital for $40 in good condition on the BST.
1 Like
I’ve never come across the Asteria Star Trail, thanks! How are the binds?
snappy and tight.
1 Like
With regular thickness string? Aka Draken or maybe Kitty Fat?
your standard fat string delivers tight and snappy binds with star trail. normal string works fairly well too.
1 Like
Are the rims sharp enough to occasionally hurt during the catch? That kind of annoyed me after a period of time. It’s interesting you compared it to the Float. That is a super comfortable yoyo that I wouldn’t think of as sharp.
1 Like
Converge is amazing!! One of the best yoyps ever made imo.
1 Like
Yes, it’s like the major complaint people have about the Orbital GTX is that it’s too sharp on the rims.
Float shape similar to shape of the Orbital GTX meaning competitive V shapes, but the rim sharpness is a different element I guess. The orbital rims don’t curve in at all, so maybe it’s a nope for you.
2 Likes
Thanks for confirming, good to know!
1 Like
Thanks for the suggestion, I’ve always really liked the specs on the Converge. Are you able to compare the weight-feel and binds to any other yoyos?
Out of curiosity, what is behind the 45-46mm width mandate?
Sure, it’s not quite a mandate. I gave it just to give an idea of what I’m looking for, but the way a yoyo feels (albeit subjective) is much more important to me than its specs. I’m certainly open to going wider. That said the reason I used 45-46mm as a rough gauge is because I feel it’s a sweet spot between the modern meta and when it gets difficult to navigate between multiple strings. I don’t have huge hands, so there comes a point where I can only spread the strings so much and the yoyo being too wide can be a problem.
Yeah, no, I guess I was more curious why so wide? I mean, you’d be passing up on an exquisite throw like the Galaxy Time, which I feel hits all the marks except it isn’t “modern meta wide”.
1 Like
Sorry I thought you were suggesting to go wider. Either way it’s really not a mandatory thing. I’d be totally down with 44mm, which the Galaxy Time appears to be. Care to share your thoughts on it?
Any comparisons to other yoyos in terms of weight-feel and binds is always helpful!
This probably isn’t going to be up your alley, but I figured I’d mention it since it drills home the point you’re making that specs don’t tell the full story.
I love the Surveillance, despite looking like an angular H shaped yoyo, the angles of the rims and rounded edge of the rims feel super comfy in the hand. The matte blasted steel rims make it way comfier than most outer rim bimetals since you get rid of that sticky glossy steel feeling.
The 66.5g weight it has is really deceptive. It plays extremely fast and light. It has a bit of a hefty presence on the string, but is very agile and immediately responsive to direction changes. It always wants to be pushed fast. The extra weight doesn’t make it play heavy at all, the extra weight just makes it spin way longer than it feels like it should, and it’s incredibly forgiving of sloppy play. The 42.5mm width might seem narrow at first, but the rims are angled down enough that basically the entire yoyo feels like a catch zone. It feels wider in play than yoyos that are actually wider. Because on some wide yoyos if you aren’t playing very accurately with them, getting string hits outside of the immediate trapeze width will start to immediately kill the spin of the yoyo or tilt it off plane. The surveillance doesn’t have this issue since the whole thing just feels like catch zone, and the extra weight and more narrow width just means it has the power to handle that kind of sloppy play more easily.
So yeah, Surveillance plays very light and fast and feels extremely catchable. I really love that yoyo. It’s not what you want I think, but it certainly gets your point of “specs don’t tell the whole story” across. Maybe you are interested though after hearing this description.
5 Likes
I have the following yoyo’s in the list below. In terms of perceived weight, throwing and on the string, from light to heavy:
- Float
- Orbital GTX
- Hummingbird
- Krown Ti
- Krown Bimetal
- Peregrine
- Chopsticks gorilla.
Float is the lightest but doesn’t have the bi metal rings. it does lack power.
2 through 5 are all very very close in terms of perceived weight/ease of movement. If I had to rank them, I think Hummingbird feels more rim weighted than the others. Just tossed the ones in this group and the Orbital GTX I think feels a hair faster/maneuverable than the hummingbird actually. Both Krown variants are a hair slower but both are still very very fast and more “balanced” if that makes sense. The Krown Ti has extra power/spin time without feeling rim weighted thanks to the titanium construction.
Having thrown the GTX again, I do think it’s an severely underrated yoyo. I love love love the hummingbird, but if I were preforming a freestyle in a competition, I’d probably choose the GTX (or the or the Krown Ti assuming I had money for multiples). The GTX has the most forgiving catch zone for string tricks but it is the least comfortable to catch. It isn’t as bad as the razor-sharp hand-slicing Kenshin Kiwami, and I think it does tick all the other boxes for you in your list of wants. But if comfort is a priority you might need to go with one of the Krowns or Hummingbird. The Krown bimetal and Krown Ti I think might be more stable at high speeds. The Yoyofriends pro team switched to the heavier and more stable peregrine because of control issues when the Hummingbird was pushed to max speeds. This is speculation on my part I’m not able to push play that fast.
All of them are outstanding, fast nimble yoyo’s. I ended up getting multiples of each in this group and I haven’t been able to bring myself to sell off or trade away any of them from my collection.
Peregrine and Chopsticks both feel like they are above 63g. Both are great but I don’t consider either of them super light/super maneuverable yoyos. Chopsticks is definitely the heaviest of the bunch.
Unfortunately I can’t speak to which yoyo binds the cleanest. I use Sochi-fat and never had a problem with binds on anything I’ve thrown. I’ve never really thought about it and it could be my lack of skill.
Let me know if you have any questions.
1 Like