Why does my RESPONSIVE yoyo need lubricating every hour?

Yo-Yo Mods and Maintenance
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I’ve been playing with yoyos for 2 years now, but not in a very focused way. Just a bit of play here and there, as befits a hobby. Still, I’m slowly building up some skills with it. For now I’m sticking to a RESPONSIVE yoyo (YoYoFactory One, in particular), because unresponsive still seems too daunting - my throws still leave a lot to be desired in the straightness department.

This week I’ve had more opportunities to practice. Nearly every day I’ve had an hour or so of outdoors walking, during which I also play with my yoyo, weather permitting.

And I realized something odd - my yoyo becomes… well not, unresponsive, but noticeably less responsive after just about an hour of play. Then I put a drop of lube on it (I’ve got a bottle of YoYoFactory “loop/response” thick oil), and it’s good for another hour… until it seems to be back where it started.

This seems way too quick for me. I’ve tried another string and also checking the effects of string tension, but that’s not it. Response pads could theoretically be the culprit, but it seems unlikely to me. Then again, I don’t have any different ideas. What could be to blame here?

To be clear, what I mean by “less responsive” is that it often fails to bind when the spin has died down a bit or if I don’t tug very hard. Things like forward passes and around-the-worlds (which I feel I’ve mastered fairly well) become more difficult, as the yoyo often fails to bind. Looping with the yoyo is… not easy at the best of days, especially since it’s a butterfly-shape, but becomes even harder when it doesn’t return properly.

Note also that I don’t want to have too much response, because I do want it to sleep for a useable amount of time. So I haven’t tried applying lots and lots of lube. Maybe adding a drop of lube every hour of play is then reasonable?

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try grease instead of lube. also, as a substitute anything thick like that will work as well such as vaseline or chapstick

i also highly recommend ppl check out fast eddy bearings for responsive bearings as they come packed with grease and stay responsive

also, i know it wasn’t the topic of your post but in regards to a straight throw, don’t sweat it. you can learn to correct and compensate for a throw that isn’t perfect and you shouldn’t feel like you have to grind out a perfect throw before trying more difficult tricks. Just jump in and keep playing and your throw will improve organically over time

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the ONE has a halfspec large bearing, which in my experience is always going to feel a little slippy at best without those yyf thick orange pads (which make string tricks harder). i also recommend using grease instead of oil but dialing bearing response to your personal sweet spot is a constant work in progress. more directly, adjusting every hour with loop oil sounds about right to me

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Try a fatter string also maybe

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You can always double loop around the axle. This was always recommended in the early transaxle era, and is helpful with a 1/2 Spec.

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Thanks for all the replies! Double looping didn’t help, unfortunately, and I’ll see if I can get some grease next time I go to a hardware store.

About the bearings and strings - I’ve been wanting to try some fat strings for a while now, but I can’t find any place that would ship them to me at a reasonable cost. :frowning: I live in the EU - Latvia, in particular. Locally I don’t know any shops that would sell yoyo supplies. Some larger online shops do carry a few things (among a random assortment of various other merchandise), but there’s hardly any selection, and ANY string is hard to come by at a reasonable price. Like, I can get, 5- or 10-packs of some random strings for 20€, which seems too much. International retailers do sell reputable strings at a reasonable cost - like Kitty or Sochi for 20€ for a 100-pack - but then they charge 15€ and more for shipping.

Well, I’m thinking of just biting the bullet and ordering anyway, because a 100-pack for 35€ still works out to just 0.35€/string, and it will last a long time. But it would be nice if I could order a smaller sample of just 5 or 10 strings to try out, before committing to a 100-pack.

Does anyone know of any retailer that sells yoyo strings to Europe at a reasonable cost, including shipping?

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Slusny in Prague

or YoyoFactory Europe

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Nice! Thank you very much! :star_struck: