ILYY Greyhound Final Review Notes

Hey there everybody.

I've finished my testing of the ILYY Greyhound.

I've had a fantastic time with this little throw. Definitely one of my favorite yoyos of this year and probably my favorite ILYY of all I've played.

The Greyhound is available at Bird In Hand for 110$ and at Yoyoz.co.uk for £74.99

You can find more details at ILYY.de

and follow the Sniffy Twitter feed @sniffyo

Final configuration is the new YoyoExpert Brazilian "Expert Strings"

and an ILYY stock bearing that's been Terrapin coated for some extra kick

Here are my notes, video review to follow soon.

• Ok. First impression, the Greyhound is an incredible throw, to say its another amazing undersize from Ilyy is an understatement. They seriously out did themselves this time around. Not an easy thing for a company that consistently produces perfect throws.

• The undersized Greyhound plays like a full size because of the insane level of engineering that went into figuring out weight distribution. This yoyo has incredible spin time for an undersize, and the spinning force of the rim gives it the substantial feel of a larger yoyo on the string.

• The candodized finish is a sort of dark cadmium red and tracks through the light like a ghost draped in silver threaded satin. It has an almost painterly or impressionistic visual quality to it even though it's engineered with such precision.

• The combination of the perfectly rounded and generous catch zone and well weighted rims makes all types of grinds easy to hit and move quickly back to the string.

• I wouldn't consider the Greyhound a floaty yoyo, however it's not clumsy in any respect. Its weight gives it very precise and intentional movement, and it rights itself easily on an off-center throw. In that respect it's forgiving on blind tricks that may have you playing by feel.

• The rim weight of this yoyo not only serves to make this so substantial on a spin, but also has such a perfect weighted balance that even as a spin is running slow the Greyhound keeps itself in position for hitting tight regens against the very precisely binding hot red sILYYcone response, which is very long lasting and provides very nice binds without being sticky.

• A while back I started thinking that I would be useful to adopt a new standard which indicates rim weight while spinning. At first I thought the best way to do this would be to actually have some way to measure that weight, I even started to investigate some sort of mechanical method of measuring this. After I was told it was an insane idea I realized it was an insane idea. However while throwing the Greyhound this idea has been reawakened because of how much heavier than its 63.5g it feels on the string. So maybe a better metric would be percentage of weight that sits in the rim. This may not be feasible either being shape and diameter has a lot to do with it, however maybe knowing the percentage of weight that's in the rim would still be a useful standard? The Greyhound certainly is a good example of rim weight distribution drastically effecting the feel of a yoyo being beyond its base weight.

• I've been throwing the Greyhound with a new Graou thin citron string, which so far is still breaking in, but seems to have a great feel and slightly stiff substance that coincides well with the candodized finish. Of course I generally try a combination of strings during play to find the string/yoyo sweetspot.

• I have decided to play a Toxic Yellow poly in the Greyhound after playing the Graou for a couple of weeks. I really like what Toxic is doing these days, their strings are consistent, strong, and have a unique feel to them. I still think the Graou are one of the best available, I play both the St.eel and Dang exclusively with the Graou. However all I have are the thin format and while it's a perfect weight for both the St.eel and Dang, I found it to be a little too thin for the Greyhound. I do plan to get some thick Graou soon and will also be testing that format, however the Toxics are extremely well playing and satisfying in this throw.

• The final string I've matched up with the Greyhound are the new Brazilian "Expert Strings" which YoYoExpert just had made for them. I've had a set of these strings sitting around for a while and hadn't had a chance to really take them out for a serious spin until now. They break in silky smooth and soft, but still give excellent binds, this is particularly important while throwing the Greyhound with its sILYYcone response which is a bit more exact than regular flowable, and being the testing area is outside, and it's getting cold out, I find my binds in general need to get a bit more attention to adjust to the temperature hardening the response materials in a yoyo.

• To sum up my experience with the Greyhound I'll say this is without doubt one of my 4 favorite throws of the year, the other three being the CLYW Canvas, the OD Dietz, and the Monkeyfinger Evil-Yo, and the Greyhound is without question my favorite ILYY yoyo of all time.

The Greyhound a perfect size for small hands, its red candodized finish is not only tough and beautiful, but is an excellent grinding surface even though its glossy.

And not only is it incredibly well engineered, but it's so well done the momentum and spinning weight are almost an illusion for a yoyo of its size. In fact this property is so well executed, it's actually inspired me to start working on a proposal to introduce a new standard spec which will communicate this property. More on that proposal in the near future.

Review of the Paul Dang Signature Yoyo : All Your Base Are Belong to Us!

Hey there yoyo'ers.
This is the sniffy review of the Dang signature yoyo from OneDrop Design.
Extended review notes are also posted here.
The Dang is available one the OneDrop site as well as at YoyoExpert.
You can contact Grou to order these fantastic strings at: GraouString@gmail.com
Feel free to email and questions or comments you may have.
 
Here's the dang specs:
Diameter: 55.23 mm / 2.17 inches
Width: 41.19 mm / 1.62 inches
Gap Width: 4.35 mm / .17 inches
Weight: 63 grams Bearing Size: One Drop 10 Ball Bearing Size C (.250 x .500 x .187)
Response: One Drop Flow Groove Pads
 
 
 

 
 

Here are my review notes, taken while playing the Dang

• First I'd like to mention that most reviews of signature yoyos, including some of my own, tend to start off with a caveat regarding how the signature yoyo being reviewed has been designed to fit the style of that particular player (if the throw is a true signature; as opposed to an endorsement in the form of a 'signature' yoyo). One Drop mitigates this condition to a great extent by allowing the player to make changes to the yoyo weight, and design, with their oh so easily changeable SideEffect axle system. So although the Dang is a true signature yoyo, One Drop allows us to modify the base weight and hub style at the core.

• The Dang returns the OD grooves in the catch zone which reduces friction on a grind, the cup shape and oversize rims combined with grooves in the catch zone and the extremely grindable pyramatte finish makes this throw a perfect grind machine.

• In this process I've tested several types of string, in the end I've landed on the Graou Citron Thin. Before coming to the Graou conclusion, here are the strings I tested: first I popped in a Hamstring 12 but quickly found this combo not to work well, the Dang is very light stock out of the box and such a heavy string made control difficult. Next I went over to the new Toxic Markmont signature strings. This played better and I kept it in for several days (2-3 hrs spin time). In the end though I found this string to give less than satisfying binds in terms of regens with the Dang.

For a majority of testing after the MN string I used the Chaos 422's, this string was light enough for the Dang to handle well, though I found shortly after breaking in the string became too slick and fluttery to give a consistent bind in a single wrap. From there I popped in an old Graou, which is much easier on the hands than the Chaos while maintaining its weight and friction in a bind.

• I applied a goldilocks level 3 oatmeal testing in order to get the best weight/string combo for my style of play, which is very different from Paul Dang's, this being a signature throw it's built to the style of the player it represents. However One Drop has given us a very simple way to configure their yoyos at this point in the evolution of their axle system. Of course here I'm talking about the Side Effects. I found the stock ultralights to be way too light for my hard throwing, long form choreographic style and so luckily I have several types of Side Effects both that have been purchased separately, and that have come with other OD yoyos. I'm going to take a second to consider that, OD has made it so the axle systems are easily hot swappable between their line of different yoyos that use the side effects system. First I popped in a set of brass domes, which are the heaviest Side Effects I own.

This gave the Dang a substantial feel, much more to my personal liking than the stock ultralights. It played well with the markmont string, but after a while I found it to be a bit center heavy. I gave this some thought and determined the aluminum black dome would likely be the next logical leap. Problem was I didn't have a set. After checking the weight charts on the OD site I noticed a happy little non-accident, the original dietz Side Effects are the same exact weight as the aluminum domes, a minute later I was throwing my Dang with the perfect weight/string combo. The spin times were exactly where I wanted them, the center/rim weight ratio is perfect. Basically I was able to test out the domes before ordering them. Actually the dang looks pretty hot with the dietz Side Effects so I may just keep them in. Especially since I strictly play the dietz with the brass domes.

• A little note on lube. For the last few months I've been throwing everything dry, aside from those with Terrapin coating. Yesterday I spotted in the corner of my eye my lonely little bottle of the OD V4M lube, 'why don't you use me anymore' it said (I was exposed to a LOT of gasoline working on my moped that day) and so I thought, why is it I haven't been using lube, beyond the obvious fact I love the sound of a dry 10ball.

So I picked up that little talking bottle of V4M and gave the bearing a sip. I forgot how smooth this lube makes things, and without any sacrifice to unresponsive play. So as a little side note, if you're someone who likes long lasting bearings with a smooth quiet throw, but are hesitant to use a lube because you think it might mess with spin time, I recommend plopping down the 6$ for the OD V4M and giving it a try. I don't think you'll be disappointed. At some point I'll have to do a vid on lubes, I've tested some pretty interesting ones for different effects.

• I have yet to experience a yoyo that plays as stable on a sideways throw as this one. • The Dang also handles various limb wraps and pass tricks better than any I've reviewed before. Which makes sense being it's so light yet large enough to hit the center blindly.

• Bit of a change in string. Started finding there was too little response too quickly into the Chaos 422 breakin time so switched out to a recently washed Graou Thin Citron. This string definitely increases the snappy binds, still not completely settled on it yet though.

The weight of the Dang definitely prefers a thinner string for my type of play, however the gap itself calls for more substance in the string, again this is specific to my type of play, which is quite different from Paul Dang's multiple wrap close in string trick focus style. Always something to account for when playing a signature throw; the yoyo is designed specifically to that player's needs. That is unless it's simply a player stamping their name on something just for the sales endorsement, which of course isn't the case with the Dang, or anything coming from One Drop Design.

All Your Base Are Belong To Us!

 
 

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