yo yo types

Yo-Yo Reviews Looking for Help/Recommendation
1

from reading this forum i have started to get a basic understanding of what separates yo-yo’s beside the obvious, yet i am not completely clear.

So, my question is what does

rim weight effect
inner weight effect (is that what you call it?)
gap size effect
overall width effect
plastic vs. metal vs. bimetal effect(can one be as good as the others, distinct properties of each)
any other qualities i am missing?

for reference, my 1A yo-yo’s are protostar, DMII, and metal drifter

any and all advice is appreciated. ;D

2

well you can go deeper into metal by now asking what types- steel, titanium, 6061, economy grade, 7075, 6082msgAi.

  • in metals there are several differant finishes, slip matte Ni, pyrimatte, beadblast, polished, raw, nickel plating, soda blast, plating, canodized, candy blast, canflon, painted, anodized.

  • then like finish designs like, splash, drizzle, acid wash, and such

3

A lot of stuff comes down to needs and preferences.

If you are into grinding, you want something with a textured surface on the rims. This reduces friction and helps keep the yoyo spinning. There are various treatments. Satining is like sanding it down so it leaves a somewhat rough surface. Rough isn’t completely accurate. Blasting treatments also can do this, be it sand, glass, bead or soda blasting. There is also angel dusting. Thees are all variants of the same basic concept but can leave different results.

If you’re into IRG and thumb grinds, you want a yoyo with a gab in the rum where you can put your thumb into.

From what I understand, the more weight on the rim, the longer it will spin and more stable, but you have to balance that against how much material you have on the rest of the yoyo.

4

heres the basics…

butterfly shape is nice and wide so you can land the gap of the yoyo on the string, these yoyos you typically want to spin as long as possible… you accomplish this by developing a strong and balanced throw, and by maximizing the rim weight, and thus maximum momentum… the momentum keeps the spin going, and the gyroscopic force keeps it stable… minimizing center weight keeps the yoyo light and fast… these properties make the angled shape like the yyf protostar or supernova excellent yoyos

imperial or thin, more circular yoyos are used for looping tricks… to see a great example, just youtube search shinji saito, and you can see how amazing it really is rather than reading my opinion about it…

any ways, this style requires sleeping, but sleep time is not as essential as it is for string tricks… more importantly, the yoyo flips 180 degrees after every loop… so a little less stability makes it easier to accomplish so more center weight and the imperial shape is the result

string trick with two yoyos is best with the butterfly shape

offstring yoyos, typically have a smaller gap, making it easier to respond, sleep time is still important here and there are also yoyos with rubber rims for durability because being off string can occasionally lead to a run away yoyo

and counter weight yoyos should share the same ideals as the string trick yoyos…

that pretty much sums up the major five styles, but another thing to consider is that more advanced players typically dont want the yoyo to come back with a tug, instead a bind return this helps enhance sleep time, and opens the door to tricks that would otherwise snap back to your hand, and believe me, that can hurt…

looping is meant to be responsive

i hope this answers your questions and gives you a nice understanding of how yoyos are supposed to work, and i see yoyojamiszm and studio42 covered grinding, finishes and materials… beyond a certain point, the material dosnt really matter unless you want it to frequently contact while spinning (any kind of grind)

anyway, enjoy the journey yoyoing takes you on… it wont be long before you get noticed and nicknamed the yoyo dude… lol… happy throwing

edit: one more thing to mention… sizes… generally a larger size enjoys more stability and momentum, but dont sacrifice comfort… any midsize yoyo (midsize= a yoyo with a diameter about 2 inches… size points occer about every quarter inch so 2.25 or a yoyo with a close diameter is considered full size)

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5

so to answer your question,
rim weight usually makes the yoyo more stable and it has more momentum,
inner weight makes the yoyo more agile and fast, so inner weight usually used by looping yoyo to make it fast.
bigger gap size will make the yoyo less snappy (I think)
overall width usually affect the speed and stability

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6

To elaborate more on the gap size, it affects the responsiveness of the yoyo, and the number of string layers it can take. A large gap size would make the yoyo harder to bind, but it makes up for it by allowing you to easily perform tricks which require you to insert many string layers into the yoyo. A small gap size would make the yoyo easier to bind, but it is much harder to insert many layers of string into the gap without the yoyo snapping up to your hand.
Material wise, metals are usually preferred by many players, due to their smoothness. Metals tend to much less vibey than plastic yoyos, due to the fact that they are machined, and not poured into a mold. Plastics vibe, due the inconsistency caused by the varying densities of the plastic in different parts of the yoyo occurring during the manufacturing process… Metals do not usually suffer from this problem.

7

i gotta argue the inner weight… the lack of inner weight makes it more agile and fast, and looping yoyos are liter anyways, but the purpose of their shape is to make the flip that the yoyo does after every loop as easy as possible…