The Oxy Ti by Oxygene

Reviewed by Chris Rhoads

CIMG7443

Introduction

This is going to be a different type of review. A friend of mine told me that it is kind of pointless to review the Oxy Ti. The reason being, if a person is going to spend around $500 on an all titanium yo-yo, they are not going to care what I say about it. While there is sound logic in that line of thought, I think there are people out there who want to know about the Oxy Ti. These are the same people who like to read specs just for the fun of it. This review is for them. I am going to take a look at the Oxy Ti and see if titanium really makes that big of a difference. I see people on the forums constantly stating that if they could have any yo-yo it would be a titanium version of their current favorite. Now is the time to see if this all titanium yo-yo is the one to rule them all.

Specs

  • Weight: 68grams
  • Diameter: 49.5 mm
  • Width: 37.7 mm
  • Gap Width: Adjustable
  • Bearing: C-Sized Konkave Bearing
  • Response: Recessed Silicone Pad
  • Finish: Raw Titanium

CIMG7461

Construction

The first thing I noticed is the absolute beauty of this polished titanium yo-yo. It is absolutely gorgeous and smooth to the touch. There is not a blemish of flaw to the exterior. The yo-yo comes in an understated, little black box with an extra set of o-rings for the axle and an Oxygene monogrammed microfiber cloth to wipe it down. After examining the packaging, I delicately took out the yo-yo out, and took it apart. I had to get a look at the axle system. For those of you not familiar with the Oxygene axle system, it is quite a bit different from what you normally find in a yo-yo. All Oxygene axles are pure titanium with the bearing being held in place by a small o-ring. There is another o-ring just before the threads start on the axle that keeps the other half snuggly in place while allowing the user to adjust the gap. It is this adjustment that is key to the legendary “Oxy Smoothness”. The axle system allows you to make small tuning adjustments until the yo-yo plays exactly the way you want it. The design of the yo-yo itself is very rounded and organic. The insides curved with deep side recesses for thumb grinds. The Oxy Ti sits comfortably in the hand, resting perfectly on my middle finger. The only thing this yo-yo has going against it is the finish. While it is beautiful, there is no finish on this yo-yo, making it a poor grinder. While I would like to see a grinding finish on all my yo-yos, putting one on the Ti would almost be a crime. It just looks too good to mess up.

CIMG7463

Weight

The Oxy Ti’s design makes the weight distribution look deceptive. It has very thin walls, giving it the appearance of being totally center weighted. That could not be farther from the truth, there is a good deal of weight in the rims, thanks to the heavy nature of titanium. On a throw, the Oxy Ti spins for quite a long time while still being extremely stable. As for the weight itself, it is very heavy on the string. It has a great thunk when it hits the end and it takes a little bit of muscle to power it through the tricks. The weight in those beautiful rims gives it more than enough spin time for you to pull off any tricks that you throw at it. Even though it has a beastly weight to it, the Oxy Ti is still a great yo-yo for hopping.

Response and Bearing

The bearing in the Oxy Ti is a departure from the norm for them. Instead of the standard, metric 6x13x5 flat bearing that graced the Oxy 3 and 4 before it, the Oxy Ti comes with a C-Sized Dif-E-O KonKave ceramic bearing. The bearing, as shipped, is heavily lubed. So much so that I took it out and cleaned it. Before cleaning it, it was very responsive and at one time it cracked me in the knuckles on an unexpected bind. After cleaning, the bearing was dead unresponsive. Normally I would have broken it in but I did not want to take the risk of another shot to the back of the hand. 68 grams of titanium is not fun on the knuckles.

The response in the Oxy Ti is a set silicone pads that sits slightly recessed into the gap of the yo-yo. The pads get the job done, but tend to be slightly grabby. I would normally rip the pads out and throw some flowable silicone in there but this particular yo-yo is on loan from Oxygene so I could not test if adding flowable to the yo-yo would enhance the play at all. At this time I can say that the pads are quite usable but not my favorite. From my experience putting flowable silicone in my Hspin H2O, I have a feeling that flowable silicone would aid the play of the Oxy Ti.

CIMG7465

Playability

Let’s get this out of the way right up front, this yo-yo is not meant to be a grinder and performs poorly in most types of grind tricks. The smooth surface is just not meant to sit on the hand while spinning. If you attempt to palm grind it will almost immediately catch and roll out of your hand. If you arm grind it will shoot up your arm. When I tried an arm grind, the Oxy Ti shot up and almost clocked me in the head. What can I say, I am accident-prone. The one grind that it excels at is the thumb grind. It sits on the thumb and spins for quite a long time. I pulled off several transfers back and forth without it spinning out.

Now, lets talk about the rest of the play aspects. At first there was some vibe, but after adjusting the yo-yo by turning the halves I was able to tune out the vibe completely. Once I found that sweet spot, the Oxy Ti was smooth and I mean SMOOTH! It is almost too smooth in my opinion. Holding it at the end of the string, you cannot feel the yo-yo spinning. Add to that the ultra polished, mirror finish, and it is almost impossible to see is moving as well. This was a shock to me. I am one of those people that like a tiny bit of vibe in my yo-yos, it gives them character. To have such a smooth playing yo-yo took some getting use to. I had to make judgment calls on when o bring it back to my hand, I just could not tell when it was about to lose rotational velocity. After some extended play I developed a sense of when it was time and I did not have an issue with spinning out due to trying to push it past the point of no return.

When it came to tricks, this yo-yo was phenomenal. I did not find a single trick, barring grinds, which this yo-yo could not handle. It comboed nicely from trick to trick with ease and with spin time to spare. I was able to easily combo McBride Rollercoaster and Skin the Gerbil without an issue. Eli hops are great on this yo-yo even if they scared the heck out of me. Throwing a loaned, $500 yo-yo up in the air can be a little hard on the nerves. Even though it is a heavy sucker, I didn’t have a problem doing tricks that require the yo-yo to be popped up off the string, such as Kwijibo. All in all the Oxy Ti is a great yo-yo to play.

CIMG7464

Final Thoughts

Normally, this is the point of the review where I tell you if you should go out and buy the yo-yo I just reviewed. This is a special case. As I stated above, those of you out there that are going to drop around $500 on a yo-yo have already made up you mind to do so. Whatever I have to say about it will probably not change you mind.

As far as I am concerned, this is a great yo-yo. Sure it doesn’t grind, but I could have told you that it wouldn’t just from looking at it. Mirror finishes are kryptonite to grinds. As far as everything else is concerned, I can find just a single fault with this yo-yo, the pads. Other than that it is a triple threat of it feeling great, playing great, and looking great. Is it the titanium that makes it such a fantastic player? NO! It is the three plus years of development from Carlo Menon that makes it such a fine yo-yo. You can tell that he set out to design the definitive titanium yo-yo and I think he has done just that. Is it worth the price of admission? I leave that up to you. Personally, I would buy it in a heartbeat if I didn’t have home remodeling to do. I can honestly say that the only thing I am going to hate about this yo-yo is that I have to send it back.

CIMG7462