I’ve only been yoyoing a little under 6 months, so I’ve never experienced what I think I’m experiencing. I live in Pittsburgh, PA, and it’s been warmer lately after yoyoing all winter indoors with windows closed and dry. I swear lately, ever since it’s become warmer out and I’ve had the windows open, the responsiveness of my yoyos has become much more grippy. I noticed tighter binds, sometimes when I hop the yoyo I’ll even get axle knots. It’s happened on more than one of my yoyos so my best guess is maybe humidity? It’s a pretty big difference. It’s not a bad thing; I’m really just curious if anyone else has ever noticed this happen.
3 Likes
Fellow Pittsburgher! 
Throws n Brews had a video on humidity affecting bearings. He too is around the Pittsburgh area.
Personally I notice some changes with responsiveness on fixed axles when i go out and it had rained. I assumed it may have affected the string and made it fluffier?! 
1 Like
I notice when it’s real humid my wood throws are extra responsive because the wood swells a tad snd the cold dry air makes things slip a tad. I assumed the response pads expanded shf contracted.
2 Likes
Haha, damn that video is exactly what I’m talking about. Ive watched a bunch of his videos and knew he was from Pittsburgh but I never seen that video. I been putting off getting lube/being cheap. I’m going to have to get some now for sure. Thanks for sharing that. What part of Pittsburgh are you in? I’m just outside in Penn Hills.
Awesome! lube is good, i use a needle to apply a tiny bit and may reapply after a few weeks if it gets loud. I occasionally clean my bearings too but less often than lubing. It seems like the less i open the yoyo the less i need to clean/re-lube.
I lived around the east side of town most of my life - edgewood, forest hills, oakland, shadyside. Since having kids we recently moved to the burbs (Wexford).
1 Like
Thanks. I’m familiar with using it for responsive yoyos but always would just clean my unresponsive bearings when they would give me trouble. With the way humidity is messing with my bearings though I’m gonna have to get some thin lube. I been meaning to anyway, guess the weather is going to make me ha.
Nice you was real close to me then. I have a friend who teaches at North Allegheny highschool. Did you ever go to that yoyo club at SW Randall that used to be there?
1 Like
We got like a super wet week by me and I had the windows open when it was raining and stuff and a bunch of my strings that were strung up got funky so it could be the strings also like I know humidity has an effect on them but in general, Im team lube and just do a fat drop to one side give it a sec to settle then paper then in and play the yo responsive for a day ish and then never have to worry about it like since I started doing it that way, I just like don’t clean them and they’re silent and get hella play idk
1 Like
You are totally right, I think it affect it a lot, I come from an island in South of Italy where sometimes in summer we have even up to 42 degrees and an unbelievable amount of humid cause my city is on sea.
Usually is the string the first thing to get affected, it literally become sort of wet, start to knot a lot, turn on itself and do not keep the tension at all and deteriorate very quickly, it even become much heavier, you really have to throw more or less a string a day.
The bearing is the second to be destroyed, while I was living there I had soooo many issues with bearing, I keep having them locked/responsive and then to throw on the bin, it was a real fight.
Pieces of the wet string sometimes finish inside, the humid itself make it responsive and your hands that at this point are more humid than the yoyo do not help the process.
When I am there I have to play in the night or in big parks hidden between the trees or in the morning, everything between 10am till 7pm is literally only stay at the beach
2 Likes
I’ve definitely noticed problems with my strings because of the high humidity in Arkansas. I never thought about how that could affect bearings but it could explain why I often have problems with bearings even if I take care of them perfectly.