1080 setup for newbie

After a bit over a year of 1A I’m trying to get back to learning 2A. I have a pair of YYF 1080s. I have a choice of 50/50 cotton poly string, Kitty regular and Kitty 1.5 string as well as thick and thin lube.

I’ve been practicing with the 50/50 string and the 1080 gap adjust all the way wide. If I adjust it any tighter than fully wide it won’t sleep for tricks like Tidal Wave.

How would you suggest I set the gap width on a 1080? Is fully wide a good starting place or it is making it tougher to do loops?

Thank you.

I set the width of my 1080’s to just slightly wider than the thickness of the string, using 50/50. So it’s pretty thin. However I’m not THAT into 2A, just mess around with it from time to time. I set them up after reading an interview with Shu where he made a comment about his setup. Can’t remember the details.

Generally 50/50 string works better than nylon or 100% poly for looping. IMO thick lube works better than thin lube at least for me. Loopers need to be a bit responsive. As far as gap goes I believe most people use a thin gap on loopers (so they’re responsive). That is the idea behind modding yomega raiders. They use shaved spacers and overtighten them a bit to get a narrow gap. Your mileage may vary.

As far as sleeping goes, single loop the string on the axle and don’t have the string too tight.

The ideal setup should be as little ‘drop’ at the end of the string as possible (the moment when the yoyo is reaching the end of the string and just drops, instead of unrolling), yet still being able to sleep clean and easily, meaning the response is not constantly rubbing the string making screeching noise. Smooth ‘pii’ sound is where it’s at.
Keep in mind that as with fixed axle, 2a yoyos are very sensitive to string tension changes.

Glad someone started this thread… As far as gap setting, mine won’t open up very wide at all. In fact, I can’t get it to open up any wider than the string itself, also, the gap itself is crooked, so its even thinner on one side than the other. The gap is such that the string stacks on itself perfectly, which, while I don’t think that is a bad thing, I’d like it wider, as it has a very rubbery feel in the throw, and no sleep time. The spacers completely cover the bearing, and the yoyo won’t sleep. With no string on the yoyo, all you see is white spacer, the string can NOT ride on the bearing. I’ve tried to open it more, but I can hear a cracking sound, as if the plastic is going to break on the insides. In comparison, I have a YoMega Fireball which has a nice, nice gap, great sleep time and good response.

I’m concerned that something is wrong with the yoyo. Even though I’m not very experienced with this yoyo, I’m pretty tech savvy and mechanical by nature, I’ve rebuilt cars, bikes, homes, etc. I’m a handy guy. Something isn’t right, be it me, or the yoyo… Feeling disappointed, as I expected it to feel more solid, act more smoothly and have better features than the YoMega, I’m left feeling like the Fireball is a better yoyo for a third of the price. I’m wondering if the “Something” 1A yoyo is any better, however, if I knew this were working properly I’d probably feel better about it. Anything sound off to anyone? Thanks for any tips or advice.

I think your 1080 is broken. Doesn’t sound right at all.

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Yup it’s broken. Do you have two of them? did all do the same thing?

No just one. I am able to flip the spacers. They came in the way which encapsulated the bearing, (bottom picture) When I drop them in their seats, the gap is very small and string isn’t on the bearing. I can flip the spacers, which exposes the entire bearing, (top picture) but the bearing isn’t spinning. I do think that the spacers flex and press into the center race and the bearing isn’t spinning. Making it less tight, makes the whole yoyo too loose.

The 1080 spacers are supposed to look like that. They move when the yo-yo is assembled; it looks like they’re covering the bearing, but once you put a string on it should slip between the spacers.

Yeah no, the spacers are fine, the gap setup however, from the way you explain it doesn’t seem right. Try widening the gap and take a photo of the gap.

I got it to open slightly wider. The pictures you see here are all the way closed, where the star pattern interlocks and all the way open, exactly as thick as the string. I am using “82” string. Kevlar and poly. It doesn’t seem to be excessively thick, but maybe excessively thin string is needed in this Yo2. It’s still slightly crooked and there is no sleep.

Noob problems…

Middle pic… Gap looks wider than it is. Pic is a little distorted in a Salvador Dali kind of way.

That definitely looks too narrow even with the widest setting.
Can you pull it apart slightly? I don’t have one so I can’t really confirm, but in fireballs/raiders and some others, the nut inside can move back and forth. Just maybe, it was accidentally pressed before or something, and the nut moves outward closer to the cap, rendering the gap smaller. On raiders, it can be fixed by putting three metal spacers and tighten it to pull the nuts away from the cap.
I’m not 100% sure if it might be the case on 1080 unless I see it firsthand though.
Try this, set the gap the widest, then throw hard and catch to tighten the string winding. Then without unwinding the string, set the gap narrower (carefully). if I’m correct, this might pull the nuts apart if they are loose enough. From there just back up to the widest setting and see if it can sleep. This is a ‘softer’ way of doing the three spacers pulling method, except you’re using the string to hold the gap while tightening the key.

That’s good to know. I’ve wondered how the string can touch the bearing at all when it’s that tight. But I guess it will slip between those spacers. This also shows why I’ve heard that you don’t adjust the 1080 with the string attached. It could either break the yoyo or at least pinch the string.