The Northern Spin Company - AuroraYou've probably heard of this in the other threads. This is the first offering from a new Canadian company -- the Northern Spin Company -- located in Toronto, Ontario. Being in the same town as its creator Manny (EEB on this forum), I had the pleasure of seeing this yoyo way back from when it was just a drawing on Manny's laptop, to its prototypes, color samples, and finally the production model.
SpecsGap: 4.5 mm
Weight: 66.5 g
Diameter: 52 mm
Width: 40 mm
Bearing: 6x13x5 Metric KMK
Material: Anodized Grade 5 titanium
Response: Flowable silicone
(taken from the official website
http://www.northspin.com)
PicturesThe highest quality of all the pictures you possibly want -- box, package contents, response area, color combos -- are already on the their website and
this thread, so go and get yourselves some eye candy over there
http://www.flickr.com/photos/northspin/show/OK, maybe here is a shot they didn't have, a 5A Aurora (or 5Aurora?
)
And a raw prototype Aurora (thanks Dennis for this pic while we're in Vancouver!)
A major selling point of this yoyo is of course its material -- anodized titanium. I will leave it to Manny to tell you how the process is different from anodizing aluminum, but one gorgeous effect is that it appears with a slightly different shade under different lighting conditions.
This picture below is illuminated by sunlight. Both my solid blue Aurora and my blue Dv888 appears bright blue.
Now this picture below is illuminated by my desk lamp. I put my Aurora on my desk most of the time, so I do wonder if my Aurora is actually solid green... If I just showed you this, you'd think it's solid green. No, it is the same solid blue Aurora as the picture above.
PlayOn a throw, this yoyo is smooth, extremely smooth. I cannot imagine anyone will complain about vibe from something like this. This is partly due to a tight bearing seat, which squeaks when you twist the yoyo apart.
One thing that titanium allows is an aggressive weight distribution. According to Manny, the inner wall is a lot thinner than what's possible for aluminum, so a lot of weight can be pushed onto the rims. It's up to you to believe that, but it's evident during play. It has a nice solid and stable feeling to it. The spin is helped by the silicone response that's applied flush. Yes flush, as in perfectly level with the walls without recess. This will take a while to break in, and when it does, it gives very tight binds.
Some people asked if it's grindable, and the answer is yes. It's not beadblasted, but this is definitely not one of those glossy finish that dashes away as soon as it hits your skin. On a dry hand, it will grind nicely. It has has an inner ring grind lip and two little metador spikes, so IRG and metador tricks are certainly possible. But since that I'm not that good at either, I won't say how well.
ComplaintsI don't believe there exists a perfect yoyo, so I will always have something to hate. The thing I disagreed with Manny since the beginning is the bearing size. The bearing is the ILYY metric bearing, not a size C. Spare metric bearings are a lot harder to find than size C, so make sure you take good care of it. But I don't think you need to tinker with it at all, since it comes pre-cleaned and has a nice dry sound. Other than the difference between Manny's and my philosophy, the bearing works well in the Aurora as it is.
FinallyI'd like to congratulate Manny for achieving a few firsts:
1) First yoyo of his company!!
2) First yoyo designed and manufactured in Toronto.
3) First yoyo made of anodized titanium and sold in retail.
The Aurora is coming to YYN (
bolded in the
coming soon thread!), so get your F5 keys ready.
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