So I got my Rally in the mail today and for about the first half hour it played great. Smooth and quiet, the response was a little snappy for my taste but eh, I could deal with it.
After the half hour mark the bearing just started screeching. I decided to pop in a different bearing and try it out. I took a bearing that is completely smooth and quiet from a different throw and it put it in my Rally. On the very first throw the spin time was something just under 20 seconds and the bearing made a horrible grinding/clunky sound. I put the bearing back in the original yoyo it came from and it was smooth as butter. Every bearing i try to put in this rally (besides the original) has absolutely HORRIBLE spin time and makes this horrible sound.
I decided to give the original bearing the Rally came with a bath in some mineral spirits. After cleaning the original bearing (and not lubing it), my Rally is now responsive. I’ve tried everything I know of and nothing is working.
That is really strange to hear. I’m not a huge fan of the standard 8ball bearing in my Rally, but this is quite unusual sounding. Out of curiosity, you said you tried other bearings in the Rally, but did you try the rally bearing in any other yoyo? Hopefully somebody has a good suggestion.
If none of the bearings gives satisfactory results, I think it can only be the Rally itself.
You told us about short spinning times and horrible sounds - well for me this is an indicator for a faulty bearing seat.
Maybe you try the folowing: dismantle the yoyo, then place the bearing on one half, hold the bearing down on the inner ring, turn the bearing with your finger and try to feel, if the bearing turns free and smooth - repeat this with the other yoyo half. If there are any obstacles, you should be able to feel it.
The Rally is not really a cheap yoyo - so if you can’t solve the problem without big efforts (that means cleaning, or reassembling), I would open up a claim in your case. Maybe they could send you replacement parts on the base of acommodation.
Good luck
PS.: I’ve a Rally from the first release and I havn’t any problems.
Edit: I did this and everything seems to feel fine. I’ve cleaned and recleaned too many bearings to try to get this rally to work as intended. Best I could get was semi-responsive. It makes no sense. I can take the bearing out of my smoothest, quietest throw and put it in this Rally only to be met with grinding/screeching responsiveness. Put that bearing back in the throw it came from and it’s smooth and quiet.
I feel that I’ve tried to hard to justify having this yoyo. For the record, this was the second OD that i’ve been less than impressed with.
Although I do really wish it would work, cuz it’s gorgeous.
Is the response situated properly in the response groove? It seems pretty clear the issue isn’t the bearing so it must be either the response or you were very unlucky and got a defective unit. I’d bet that the response has slipped out or something just slightly making the yoyo respond.
I had thought it might have been the response, but everything seems in order. I even took some denim and rubbed it thoroughly around the response to try to make it less snappy. My OD benchmark is really snappy so I figured it must just be a OD thing. After two days, I am at a loss at what to do.
Maybe the aluminium parts are not fitting properly into the plastic body of the yoyo halves (and therefore side effects are possibly not positioned rectangular to the bearing seats, which may result in a faulty bearing position) - maybe the metallic parts are pressed too deep into the yoyo halves (which would result in a narrow string gap and which would explain the responsive behavior of your Rally accordingly).
Whatever it is, it seems to be a manufacturing error and you should write to One Drop and open up a claim.
Manufacturers need customers feedback about their products to improve and you should give them the chance to get things right (and as I said: my Rally is wonderful smooth and silent ;))
I really appreciate your ambition, to understand and solve the problem - but under a pragmatic point of view, it’s waste of time and effort and you should go the easier way (it’s only a short mail to the customer service of One Drop ;))
As chance has it, I was watching TV last night and I had the exact same thought. I wasn’t sure who to get a hold of so I used YYE’s “contact us” feature. Should I be getting in contact with OD or YYE?
I would try both - First I would contact YYE. If they can’t help (maybe because they have a complete run of Rallys with the same issue), I would mail to OD.
I got a hold of One Drop and they suggested sending it to them to see if they could determine what was going on.
I sent it in and they said they could not replicate my results. They said different bearings increased the response slightly but not to the degree I described.
Despite not being able to achieve my poor results, OD said that “there is definitely something not right” with the Rally I sent them, so they are sending me a new one.
Customer service has been terrific so far. No matter what happens with my rally, I am impressed with their dedication to try and fix the whole situation.
Hmm… don’t know, if it is really such a great customer service. There should be a guarantee on the yoyo and it’s always easy for a manufacturer to say, that bad results can’t be reproduced. Jmosh has sent them his yoyo for check - therefore he is not able anymore, to prove the faults he has claimed. :-\
Anyway… OD has admitted, that something is wrong with the Rally (and this is the most important fact). I think they will check the replacement yoyo, before sending it to Jmosh. So there is a very good chance, that he’ll get a death-smooth and silent throw now. I hope he will be happy with the new one.
Indeed they did check it. I had asked them to try out a couple types of bearings to make sure I didn’t have the same problems as before and the guy I was talking to said he did just that. So we’ll see. Should be here today.
man, glad to see that OD took care of you. that’s why they are by far one of the best yoyo companies out there. great throws and excellent customer service equals a great company who care about the people!
keep us updated with how the replacement rally plays!