Yoyo Factory Grind Machine

Free US48 ground shipping for all orders over $50.

The Grind Machine by Yoyo Factory is a new, all plastic player that performs like a metal yo yo, without the high price. The Grind Machine produces an excellent extended spin time right out of the box, which every yoyoer can appreciate. The Grind Machine yoyo is the very first plastic yoyo on the market to feature the YYF triple bearing Hub Stack system, which allows the yo yo to be held while its spinning.

Until now, you had to buy an expensive metal yoyo like the 888 or the G5 from YoyoFactory if you wanted to experience not one, not two, but three awesome bearings in a single yoyo. That's because it is a patented design by YoYoFactory. They were reserving the best technology for their highest level yoyos. But fortunately for cash strapped yoyo players everywhere, YoyoFactory decided to let the technology "trickle down" to the Grind Machine, which fits almost every budget.

What do you do with the hubstacks? Glad you asked! Basically, those little plastic nubs on each side of the yoyo on the outside allows you to grab and pinch the yoyo while it is spinning, which makes for a mind boggling trick to spectators. Even cooler, you can grab the Grind Machine by those hubstacks with one hand while you pull the string with your throw hand and start the yoyo spinning while you are still holding it. It's sort of like spinning a top. From there, you can transition into all the regular yoyo tricks you want to do, after you've master the pull start. It's a whole new type of yoyoing that you'll have to master.

The Grind Machine is a non-responsive yoyo, also sometimes called unresponsive. That means that it doesn't wake up when you throw a sleeper. The only way to wake it back up is by doing a bind trick, so keep that in mind! If your kid points out this yoyo and asks you to buy it for him, ask him which type of bind he uses to wake up a nonresponsive yoyo. If he answers, "Huh? What's a bind?" then don't buy him this yoyo. If you try to tell us it is "broken" and it won't wake up, we're just going to roll our eyes and point you back to this paragraph.

This yoyo uses a larger type C bearing, which is typically reserved for use in advanced yoyos that are often non-responsive like this one. And not just any bearing. It uses the SPEC bearing from Central Bearing Co. (As far as we can tell, SPEC is just a name they use and doesn't actually stand for anything.) The yoyo weighs approximately 63 grams. It uses a silicone response system, which is pretty much the standard for non-responsive yoyos.

So why is it a Grind Machine? Because it's awesome at doing grind tricks. A grind trick is basically where you make the yoyo sleep and sort of Walk the Dog against your arm, hand or finger. It's hard to learn, but oh-so-impressive to spectators when you finally master it.

But wait! Plastic yoyos don't grind very well, do they? In this case, yes! Here's why. Unlike some plastic yoyos that slow down too quickly from friction when it sleeps against your skin, you get less friction with this yoyo. When you pick up a Grind Machine and look at the rim and interior gap of the yoyo, you'll see that YoyoFactory has given the plastic a weird kind of surface treatment. It's not perfectly smooth, but it's super slippery. So there's less friction when you are sleeping it against your skin.

Here is what else you'll notice when you look closely at this yoyo. It has a plastic ring on the outside which gives the yoyo additional rim weight and allows it to spin much longer than many plastic yoyos because of the physics of adding weight at the outside of a spinning object to lengthen the spin time. Strangely though, the Grind Machine isn't actually a great yoyo for outside thumb grinds, where you grind the yoyo against your thumb on the outside edge of the yoyo. That's because the hubstacks and the plastic ring take up a lot of room and don't allow your thumb to easily fit on the outside. But it's great for inside thumb grinds (inner ring grinds) and all the rest of the grind tricks that you typically do on the interior surface.

If you are looking for a long sleeping yoyo with hubstacks that can grind, but you don't want to pay the high metal price, you can stop right now. The Grind Machine is the yo yo for you.

Don't forget to buy YoYo Strings or Instructional DVDs & Books! All orders over $50 qualify for US48 FREE SHIPPING.

YoyoFactory Grind Machine Yoyo Features

• Wide Flared Gap Shape
• Non-responsive (which means it won't wake up unless you know how to "bind" a yoyo)
• Triple Bearing Hubstack System, which means you can pinch the yoyo from the outside with your fingers against the hubstack, and the yoyo will continue spinning
• Weight: 63 grams