Daytona Slimline SE - A Rebirth with Onedrop Side Effects

I didn't go into too much personal details about my life in the last blog post. I think I wanted to - but since it was a colab with CLYW I felt like maybe it would be kind of unprofessional. It's been an emotionally tough start to 2022 but I'm trying to figure out why. This is one of those years I wanted to push myself to grow the business a bit more - with the goal of funnelling everything I made into bigger and more substantial projects (I already put a deposit on a new plastic mold that i am trying to pay off). It's no secret that I went through some rough patches in regards to mental health. Its weird though, because I genuinely think I'm in a better place in life now but every now and then it comes up again. 

During pre-pandemic was such an insane time in my life, traveling and filming so many contest videos. I think so fondly of those days - making yoyo friends all over the world. When I moved back to Toronto just before covid, that was the goal. To go out and live like a bum again, and attempt to run Luftverk while living somewhere in Asia and going to contests. Covid obviously had other plans, and I started to drift further and further away from the community. I remember the motivation I felt when people during contests came up to me and told me what they liked about my designs and just share creative ideas. I think that in person human connection was more important than I realized. Social connection and community is a basic need after all. With the online world, it just feels a bit more disconnected. It's easy for me to fall into an imposter syndrome spiral where ambitious projects and ideas fall by the wayside because I stop believing in myself.

The Daytona was one of these project - I had used Side Effects on some 3d printed projects in the past. Knowing it was a publicly available system from Onedrop, it was something that I wanted to try in titanium for the longest time. I had a design based on the Triple Zero with Side Effects, but I knew a wider yoyo would be more difficult to tune. When I saw others in the industry peruse this concept with titanium, It sparked my interest with Side Effects once again - but I wanted to take my time with it.

The Daytona made sense - it was the original Luftverk titanium slimline EDC yoyo. There is something about the concept of Side Effects that feels very utilitarian. If you had a yoyo you wanted to carry for the rest of your life, it makes sense that you can service components that wear out. In the same way that a quality folding knife can be rebuilt many times, the Daytona can be "rebuilt" with new Side Effects when deemed necessary. I know this concept is extreme since not even I have ever worn out threads to the point I needed to dispose of a yoyo, but the vision of a yoyo that literally lasts forever makes for an interesting topic.

Design wise, I tried to keep the soul of the original Daytona Slimline by keeping the shape and weight almost the same. I wanted the aesthetics to stay the same, but have certain details that made it feel modern. I wanted to use the brass ultralights since the brass and titanium gave it a very premium feel - but this also meant that the hub needed to go on a diet. The side effect bezel needed to be reduced as much as possible. Because of the 10 degree taper of the side effect, it was structurally possible to make an incredibly thin lip. I wanted the Side Effect to look like an infinity pool where the brass was almost spilling over the edge of the post. The same engraving was used as a homage to the original Daytona from 2017 tying together the classic EDC feel.

The introduction of a brass ring version was a somewhat experimental choice since the concept seemed too difficult. The original idea was to combine the idea of a ring but inspired by how a cap would press in place. This seemingly tiny garnish ring adds an entire gram to the overall yoyo. The stability can be felt for sure, but the main goal was to add a level of visual aesthetic not found in other slimline yoyos. Having such a thin band of brass though, meant that assembly was a complete nightmare. Not only is the ring smaller than typical stainless steel weight rings, but the softness of the brass meant I could bend it very easily when being pressed into the yoyo. Much like an arch built with stone blocks, the ring alone is super delicate but when installed becomes one with the titanium body, nearly impossible to distort due to the constant pressure from the interference fit. This was the first project I have released where the assembly felt much more like fine jewelry then a yoyo.

The original prototypes seemed a bit on the light side, so slight tweaks were made to improve the overall feel. Having other side effects to play around with gave me a better idea of where I wanted the bodies to weigh, so customers could have the option of making it lighter or heavier. Being the first Side Effect yoyo I have designed, it proved to be a challenge to tune smooth. I did notice that because titanium is a harder material, the Side Effects sunk in less then aluminum models made by Onedrop. The Morse taper wedging effect was much weaker likely due to the combination of materials (brass & aluminum vs brass & titanium). This meant that the bedding in of the surfaces happened more on the softer Side Effect then the harder titanium body. Often after unscrewing the yoyo, the wedging action would only happen 50% of the time vs on aluminum bodies where it would be wedged 100% of the time. This is fine of course, since the genius of the O-ring design stops the side effect from rotating and loosing it's smooth position. But some of these concepts are what makes a titanium side effect yoyo much more difficult to tune vs their aluminum counterpart and is no fault of the Side Effect system. I will say that some Side Effects assemble much smoother than others even in the same yoyo body but I am unsure if this is due to the tolerance levels of each side effect, or something else (which would be way too time consuming for Onedrop to test since the Side Effects are ordered in bulk anyway).

I studied yoyos that use side effects in my collection to achieve what you see in the Daytona SE. I wanted to show one of my most interesting yoyos in my possession which is this silver coated Cascade. You can see the difference between the bezel size that is possible with aluminum vs titanium. This specific Cascade has an interesting story though - it was given to me by Paul Dang more than 7 years ago when I stayed with him in Oregon. I had the opportunity to visit Onedrop and hang out with the crew back when he was working with Shawn and David. I remember hanging out on his couch the night before I was leaving when I saw this insanely patinaed Cascade. If I remember correctly in classic Paul fashion it was being used as an ashtray lol. When I left to California for CAL states, he gave it to me after I mentioned how cool the patina looked. It has stayed in my collection ever since. I referenced this yoyo a lot during this project since it's such an interesting piece that gives me fond memories of hanging out with Paul when he was still working with Onedrop. 

 

Overall, this project has been much more challenging then usual - mainly due to the assembly process for the brass BTM variant. I have received overwhelmingly positive comments about the design of this yoyo. Roughly 48 of each will be available with half going to retailers, which is a larger run than normal. I hope that this run will be accessible to more people who have asked for a slimline reboot. A lot of the times these blog posts and releases are my emotional outlet when things feel rough in life. Thanks everyone for your continued support and patience for my releases.

 

 
Two versions of the Daytona Slimline SE will drop Thursday April 14th, 2022 10:00pm EST time.

Daytona Slimline SE

Daytona Slimline SE BTM