Aerotech Ti-Fiber Driver Shaft Review

By Russ Ryden, Fit2Score, A Dallas Fort Worth Club Fitter & Club Maker
The Golf Center at the Highlands, Carrollton Texas

Aerotech steel fiber iron shafts are the only graphite shaft that have been consistently played on the tours. The shaft is unique, a thin steel wire is wrapped over a filament wound graphite core. The filament wrapping process, done correctly, creates inherently round shafts by eliminating any possibility of a sheet overlap that can occur in sheet wrapped designs. Until now, this design was limited to iron, hybrid and fairway shafts. Steel is heavy compared to graphite. Too heavy to produce a long driver shaft in the common weight ranges. That problem was overcome in the Aerotech Ti-Fiber driver shaft by using Titanium wire in place of steel.

Listen to Chris Hilleray, the owner of Aerotech explain the shaft at the 2018 PGA Merchandise show.

AeroTech Crosssection The TI-Fiber driver shafts wrap a braided titanium wire over a filament wound carbon fiber core. This process is explained in greater detail on the Aerotech website and explained in the Aerotech SteelFiber constant weight taper shafts review.

To continue reading this section of the review, you must be registered at a higher level membership.
Russ

ACCRA Tour Z RPG 400 Golf Shaft Review

4 Replies

ACCRA Tour Z RPG 400 Golf Shaft Review

By Russ Ryden, Fit2Score, A Dallas Fort Worth Club Fitter & Club Maker
The Golf Center at the Highlands, Carrollton Texas

ACCRA added a new profile to the Tour Z RPG in 2018. The Tour Z RPG is a lower launch version of the Tour Z RPG 300 reviewed last year. This video, shot at ACCRA day at the PGA merchandise has Ken Thompson of ACCRA explaining the RPG shafts to the club fitters gathered there.

ACCRA has moved some of their manufacturing to a Japanese foundry. The Tour Z RPG is a made in Japan product. It uses high modulus materials with the lowest resin content of any ACCRA shaft. A new material with a quad weave runs the entire length of the shaft. The 4 Tour Z RPG 400 shafts have consistent bend profiles. Fitters can work to find your proper weight and flex knowing each of these shaft have exactly the same bend properties. The radial consistency was 99.3% with a 0.5% standard deviation. They are round.

To continue reading this section of the review, you must be registered at a higher level membership.
Russ

Graphite Design Chichibu Driver Shaft Review

By Russ Ryden, Fit2Score, A Dallas Fort Worth Club Fitter & Club Maker
The Golf Center at the Highlands, Carrollton Texas

The Graphite Designs Chichibu is an ultralite driver shaft. Uncut weights range from 41 to 46 grams. It is designed for driver swing speeds in the 65 to 85 mph range. This video was shot in January 2018 at the PGA Merchandise show. Bill McPherson and I discuss the Chichibu and other 2018 shafts from Graphite Designs.

Most of Graphite Design’s shafts have models in the 40 gram range. Making light weight shafts is not something new for Graphite Designs. The Chichibu weighs in below the typical Graphite Design Tour AD DI 4 models.

To continue reading this section of the review, you must be registered at a higher level membership.
Russ

Project X EvenFlow Blue Black Driver Shaft Review

5 Replies

Project X EvenFlow Blue & Project X EvenFlow Black Driver Shaft Review

By Russ Ryden, Fit2Score, A Dallas Fort Worth Club Fitter & Club Maker
The Golf Center at the Highlands, Carrollton Texas

The Project X EvenFlow, introduced in late 2017 is made in San Diego where the Project X HZRDUS shafts are made. It adds a unique pair of profiles to the Project X HZRDUS shafts that have released over the last few years. It has a softer midsection than the HZRDUS Black, It has a firmer butt section than the HZRDUS Red. It has a firmer mid section than the HZRDUS Yellow. The profile is a popular design and it has a great many close matches from just about every manufacturer in the golf shaft business.

To continue reading this section of the review, you must be registered at a higher level membership.
Russ

Mitsubishi TENSEI CK Driver Shaft Review

12 Replies

Mitsubishi Tensei CK Driver Shaft Review

By Russ Ryden, Fit2Score, A Dallas Fort Worth Club Fitter & Club Maker
The Golf Center at the Highlands, Carrollton Texas

The past focus of Golf Shaft Reviews had been aftermarket shafts. With this review I am creating a new category, OEM shafts. The typical market price of an aftermarket driver shaft ranges from $300 to $1000. Those shafts are not supplied in off the rack drivers. In the not to distant past we would see the notation “Made For” or “Engineered For” on these shafts. That notation came to be recognized by the golfer for what it was. Several years ago it disappeared and the labeling of the OEM ‘Made For” shaft became much more subtle. A reasonable person understands that he is not going to get a $400 ultra premium shaft in a $400 driver. Unfortunately, many of the clerks in the retail side of the golf business are unaware of the subtle changes in graphics now used to label aftermarket and OEM shafts.

This is not a condemnation of the shafts made for the club companies that are installed in off the rack drivers. A great many golfers play a lot of good golf with these shafts. And generally the quality of all shaft has improved over that last several years. The difference is in the materials used. Those differences are most easily seen in the measurements torque and hoop deformation. In my experience those two properties affect dispersion. It is not difficult to produce bargain shafts with the same linear stiffness properties of some of the premium shafts. It is impossible to reproduce the matrix of stiffness, weight, torque and hoop strength that comes with exotic materials and high density prepreg that is used in premium shafts.

The Tensei CK Pro Blue, Tensei CK Pro White and Tensei CK Pro Orange have been reviewed earlier. They feature a long section of Carbon Fiber Dupont Kevlar “CK” material woven into the butt section of the shaft. The Pro Blue and White feature Boron reinforced tips. The notation Boron Tip is printed on the tip of the shaft. The Boron material is not included in the tip of the non “Pro” version of the shafts. The Tensei Pro Orange has a material called MR70 which Mitsubishi states is stiffer than Boron. The EI profile of the Tensei CK Pro Orange validates that claim. Let’s take a look at other subtle graphics and what the profiles of the Tensei driver shafts you will find in off the rack clubs.

To continue reading this section of the review, you must be registered at a higher level membership.
Russ