I need help fast please… I have been using CLYW Chief for about 4 days, and today it started getting responsive… when I tug the yoyo high in the air it snags and binds back to my hand. I tried it a couple of times, and it still does the same thing. I lost the yyf tool, I’m not sure if I can removr the bearing and axle, and dismantle it. Plz help… seriously over 100 dollars, I’m a little disappointed…
Hey mate, I don’t think it’d be that hard to remove the bearing from a CLYW yoyo. As far as I can say, you must’ve played it a lot and now the bearing needs maintenance and cleaning.
Try opening the shields off your bearing. Use either lighter fluid, mineral spirits, or acetone and pour it in a glass cup or glass container of some sort. Put your bearing into the filled clup and shake the cup around not too violently.
Then take the bearing out and put it on a paper. After leaving it on the paper to soak some of the residue, take the bearing and put it on the tip of a pen and spin it several times. Then lubricate the bearing with the right lube for unresponsive play, do not put responsive lube on it. Then put the bearing back on the yoyo without putting the shields back on. The shields are pretty useless in my opinion.
Actually, I’m pretty sure I didn’t play it for even 10 hrs, I’m a student so I can’t play it a lot. Is it mostly the bearing problem?
Highly probable to be a bearing problem. In fact, I can’t think of it being anything else but a bearing problem.
It’s a bearing problem.
Plenty of new bearings need either a break-in period or a cleaning within a short time. The vast majority of my OD 10-balls have gone responsive within an hour of play, at which time you clean them or you fight through it.
Your investment isn’t lost. 
It isn’t CLYW’s fault, this can happen to any yoyo regardless of price, bearings are just temperamental like that.
A lot of the time I’ve found that if a yoyo is relatively new it can usually just be played through as Greg mentioned… you might find that after a couple more hours of play it stops being responsive. Most of the CTX bearings that came as stock in the Bonfires started off responsive, but I found that mine stopped after I had broken it in for a few hours.
If it doesn’t resolve itself you’ll need to clean it as Ledave explained. Alternatively you can just swap it out for a new bearing if you have one.
You can use a correctly sized drillbit to remove the bearing if you don’t have a removal tool, or alternatively a pair of pliers if you make sure you’re careful.
A lot of people run bearings dry (no lube) for maximum unresponsiveness, the only issue with this is they can get loud and grate-y feeling over time. If you do choose to lube it a bit after cleaning, make sure that you use a TINY bit of lube (even a drop is too much I’ve found), otherwise you’ll be back where you started.
I also forgot to add that after you are done cleaning it with lighter fluid, or mineral spirits, or acetone and then put it on a napkin or cloth for a bit to clean excessive residue. - You only need 1 tiny drop of lube on the bearing, do not overlube it. Use a toothpick and drop a dot of lube on it and then put the tip down onto the bearing. You’d be surprise how little lube it requires.
Here is a list of compatible lube,
One Drop V4M
YoyoFactory Long Spin
YoYoJam Thin Lube
Thanks guys! I’ll probably try to clean it without lube, don’t really care for noise.
Cleaning isn’t always necessary with a new bearing, it could just be breaking in. It’s really common for bearings to start acting up like that in the first few days of play. Try playing with it for a little while, gyroscopic flop over and over, and it should go back to unresponsive.
I always see people saying “it needs to be cleaned” but with 90% of our “bad bearing” yo-yo returns I just play with it for 5-10 minutes and it goes back to completely unresponsive.
Cleaning of course will work (I’m not saying any of you guys are wrong ;)) but like I said, may be unnecessary.
It will be louder if you don’t lube it. The lube will quiet it down and help it run smoothly and last longer
if it were to me this alone would be almost conclusive of this condition
Nothing wrong with the yoyo at all simple bearing issue follow the cleaning steps that ledav e kindly provided and you’ll be all set to go. You can also check the link in my sig which a has a bearing cleaning guide with pictures as well as other stuff if your ver having problems
True, Garrett, which is why I mentioned either cleaning or “playing through”.
Yeah… of course I read that… I was just talking to everyone else. ;D
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it’s hard to complain on the Internet while you break in a bearing. is there and easier solution?
maybe something I can do on my Xbox?
Again, thanks for the help everyone ;D is it normal for the bearing to spin short and sounds like its ‘grinding’? I’m worried…
When lubing, the bearing will spin short when placed on a pen; But will actually spin a lot longer than that when the yoyo is spinning on it. After playing with it in the yoyo for a long period of time, you take the bearing out and place it on a pen to spin again, it will spin significantly longer because it has broken in.
Ok, I swapped the bearing, but now I think that the bearing seat is really loose, I mean like really… Is it ok? I didn’t put much power to remove it, but I’m afraid I might have done something wrong.