Northern Spin Co. Aurora
Reviewed by Chris Rhoads
August 8, 2010
Introduction
Ok, I’ll come right out and say it. I have been looking forward to this review for quite some time; pretty much since I received confirmation that I would get an Aurora review unit. The reason being is that it is the latest creation from one of the first people that I got to know in the yo-yo community. While this company, Northern Spin Co., is new to quite a few of you, lead designer Emmanuel “Manny / EEB” Boutros has been a member of the community for quite some time. Back in his design school days Manny worked with Doug Spence of BBYY to create the Copycat, the prototype for Manny’s first yo-yo the Primer. After the Primer came and went Manny fell off the grid for a bit. I thought he might have left the yo-yo world to move on to bigger and better things. Well, I was half right. He teamed up with a partner, Andrew Hogan, and started the company you see before you today. Their first release is the Aurora, an anodized titanium yo-yo. When I asked Manny why he chose to make the debut NS Co. product out of titanium he gave me the following answer.
I’m a designer and craftsmen at heart, yoyos are not the only thing I make, I do ceramic and metal-smithing art/craft/design objects. I have a very strict and rigid design philosophy, maybe too strict for my own good, hoping that will change over time, hehe. Simply put, I want to make the things that have the most genuine reasons to exist.
What I take away from this answer is simple. He wanted his debut yo-yo to be a no compromise piece of art that shows the world what his new company has to offer. Now we get to see if their offerings are something that the public will want.
Specs
- Diameter: 52mm
- Width: 40mm
- Gap: 4.5mm
- Weight: 66.5 grams
- Bearing: 6x13x5mm ILYY KMK bearing
- Response: Flowable Silicone
Construction
The Aurora arrives in a 5.5 x 5 x 3 inch box with custom cut foam inserts, instructions and a certificate of authenticity explaining the limited nature of this yo-yo, only 68 will be made. Once pulled from the box the true beauty of the anodized titanium can be seen. This is my first experience with anodized titanium and I am impressed with the looks of it. The green color of the Aurora changes with depending on the light source, from a deep shade of green indoors to the vibrant lighter greens seen in the sunlight photos in this review. In all honesty, pictures just do not do the color justice; it needs to be seen in person to truly appreciate the subtle shifts in hue. The shape of the Aurora is an understated, stepped V-Shape design. The catch area starts out with a shallow angled rim that transitions into a steeper rounded v-cut leading into the gap. The cups of the Aurora show off the robust rims with a deep inset IGR and a spike set atop a plateau in center of the cup. Each cup is deep, covering my large thumb up to the cuticle of the nail while resting on it. I am honestly not sure what the finish is on the Aurora. It does not feel bead blasted, instead I think the acid etched the surface while it was being anodized leaving a silky smooth surface ready for grinding. UPDATE: Manny cleared up the surface of the yo-yo for me. It is satined during the finishing run on the CNC and then it is acid etched during the anodizing process. Thanks for clearing that up Manny.
Weight
The feel of the Aurora is a little different from your standard metal yo-yo thanks to the titanium. The durable nature of titanium allows for the walls of the yo-yo to be machined extremely thin, less than the thickness of two credit cards. This gave Manny the chance to push quite a bit of weight to the rims without having to resort to chunky rims or exotic designs. What you get with the Aurora is a middleweight design with rock solid stability with a floaty nature in the air, all things that I look for in a yo-yo.
Response and Bearing
The response on the Aurora is flowable silicone but it is set up in an interesting way. The channel is deep enough to accommodate the silicone but it is about as wide as the .555 Pad channel that you would see in a One Drop M1 or a General-Yo 5-Star. What this gives you is a huge amount of response surface area that will need to be broken in. Since the silicone is set flush with the gap I found that on the first couple of throws that they response was very grippy and would sometimes catch. After about an hour or two of play the silicone settled down and the yo-yo became dead unresponsive. A buddy of mine gave me a little trick for those that may not want to wait for the silicone to break in, rub a little bit of the lint from your dryer on the silicone. It will give it that broken in feel without needing to invest the time. One major plus that I found with this setup is that the yo-yo would still bind even at dangerously low RPMs, a bonus when you are trying to eek out as much time as possible from a single throw.
The bearing is my one major complaint about the Aurora. Manny decided to design around the metric KMK bearing. I understand why European companies use this bearing, it is easier to get a hold of in Europe but in North America the C-Sized bearing is pretty much the standard for large bearings. While I have nothing against the Metric KMK, I prefer to have more choice in my bearings. Manny’s reason for using the Metric KMK makes sense; he designs everything using the metric system so it only seemed natural to use a metric bearing as well. He also considers the KMK to be the best on the market. In the end, I can’t deny the KMK gives an incredible level of performance, I am just a little bummed that my choice for replacement bearings has been limited.
Playability
On the first throw the feel of the Aurora blew me away; this yo-yo is beyond smooth and incredibly stable. It is completely vibe and wobble free while spinning; to the point that it does not feel like it is moving at the end of the string. To test the stability I decided to learn the trick “Twirly Bird” which can seriously mess with the yo-yo’s stability while it is moving around the inside and outside of the hand. With the Aurora I found the yo-yo stayed stable during all but the most exaggerated of movements while performing this trick. During normal play the Aurora just sings on the string… literally. It has this audible ring to it while moving through the air. I know I slammed the BSP for the noise but on the Aurora the sound is quieter and much more pleasant in tone. The only time it gets loud is when the string strikes the side during a whip or slack trick; then the yo-yo sounds like a ringing bell. When designed well, a good titanium yo-yo has such a great sound. The performance of the Aurora during normal play is phenomenal. It recovers quickly from a bad throw, and the gap is easy to hit during whips and slack tricks. As far as grinds are concerned, this yo-yo is more than capable. It is not as grind happy as a General-Yo but it out grinds every other titanium yo-yo on the market today. The surface feels great while spinning on the hand, staying still without generating heat like some of the more aggressively blasted finished. Thumb grinds are spot on with the deep IGR’s that hug the thumbnail when caught. Last but not least, those spikes I mentioned earlier, while they may look small, they are quite usable. It takes a little practice to pop it up and catch it by the spikes but once you have it down you will be rewarded with some fun matador play.
Final Thoughts
The Aurora is a work of art, pure and simple. This is the perfect way to introduce a new yo-yo company to the world. The Aurora plays like a champ and looks spectacular while doing it. With the ever-increasing prevalence of over the top designs and flashy anodized finishes, the classic, minimalist looks of the Aurora make it stand out in the crowd. So much so that even my wife will pick it up and look at it under multiple light sources then mention that the Aurora is one of the most striking yo-yos I have gotten in for review. In all honesty though I do have to mention one last nitpick. I find the limited nature of the Aurora to be criminal; this is a yo-yo that needs to be experienced by a wide range of players. If you have a chance to throw an Aurora, take the opportunity, you will not be sorry. On a positive note, I did ask Manny where his company could possibly go from here and his response was to tell me about his midrange line of aluminum yo-yos with a “Fundametal” price range and the experimental line of tops, crazy off-string stuff, and “art”. I am eagerly awaiting more info on the follow-ups. If they play half as good as the Aurora I can see this new Canadian company making a huge name for itself.
