Re: ShopTalk: Graman

[Bernie Baymiller]

Rick,   >The BOM weight is 194.9 & the Bangenstein weighs 205.4.  Current driver,  Wishon 915CFE 420cc with NV 55S looks a little under D5 @ 46.5.   The BOM is a good weight for even a 48" driver. Bangenstein is too heavy for a 47" driver, IMO. >I don't qualify for a senior just yet and I don't want to, only 52, but I probably qualify for the less flexible part.  I have all your old posts on how one is supposed to square the longer stick but learning how to swing takes too much effort.    Have you tried a long driver? It might not take too much effort to hit it at all...just depends on your swing and ability to time it. I've had some players, both young and old, who just go out and hit the long stick better than a short driver with no learning time at all. Others will never get the hang of it. You never know until you try.   >Was going to call around to many of the courses and find out when the senior leagues were there and was going to do it during that time.  But I think that most who work in the golf business for a living don't get to play much golf - a big nix to that idea.   Yeah, for me building clubs is more fun as a hobby. I can do just enough to sort of keep up with  clubmaking, experiment with new stuff, see how far down in cost I can build a good set of clubs, etc. (I shot my age in April (70) with perfectly matched irons I built for under $15 a club component cost.) >I was really surprised when I measured the 3 Graman shafts.  The FL 50 weight is 55.5 and a torque of 6.3� and 46" long. The HL 40's wt. is 62.5, a torque of 4.3�, and is 45 and an eighth long.  The heavy CF310, 75.6 grams, torque is in the middle at 5.6� and 46" long.  Certainly not the published torque stats that Graman would put out.   Like UST, Graman has never been very truthful about their specs. That's a good FL-50 weight, but 2.5 grams higher than spec if I remember correctly. And, I've found their shafts are not very consistent, particularly in weight, over a few months time. When Graman made the switch from HL-40s to TP440s, I was getting A-flex shafts about 56-58 grams. Six months later, they were all 60-62 grams. Last year, they were 58-60 grams. Also, the initial TP440s were straight, Type 2 shafts. This past year, I'd guess almost 70% of the ones that I received were Type 1 bent shafts...pretty unusual in graphite. Graman listed the UL440 at around 55 grams, I think, and at 48" I thought it was going to be a really good shaft that would compete with SK Fiber's PE A and the Longwood 50/50 R. Well, I found they actually weighed 62 grams when I tried a few. I asked why the deception and was told it was the pre-paint weight. Yeah, right. The UST ploy. And, I think Graman is not very accurate on their tip trim numbers. I've found several of their recommended 1/4" tip trim increment shafts have tip sensitivities which warrant 1/2" (or at least 3/8") increments. I have to say, though, that the FL-50s, HL-40s, TP440s and UL440s in several flexes that I've used have all played well and felt better than most comparably spec'd shafts. >I am going to give a Cydonia a try again and put it on a HL 40.  Do you tip for 3 woods?    I tipped my HL-40 R about 1" for my 3W. It's the 15� Cydonia. I didn't tip my shaft in the 13� 2W Cydonia, which is 45" (driver length).   >And have you tried Danny Neu's new alignment - NBP @ 6:00?   Well, it's not very new. We talked about alignments, including that one, over a year ago. I've had good success with another one that Dan and I talked about since then...NBP-COG. I like it on my irons because it seems to improve my accuracy in the short irons by a couple of yards. Ever since I was a senior golfer, and even with a good swing, I seemed to pull my wedge shots about 5 yards from 115 yards out. With the NBP-COG alignment, when I make a good swing, the ball is right on target. It's interesting that the NBP will be at about 2 o'clock on the wedges, while it's just about at 12 o'clock on the long irons. Also found that NBP-COG doesn't work as well on long, A-flex drivers...impacts were centered but all high on the face...toe droop, I guess. Used S1-COG for the woods and that works very well...even usually get good FLO with that one. Didn't see any noticeable performance difference between S1-COG and NBP-target on the drivers, though. Bernie Write to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]