Category Archives: PEEK

Head Gravity Tour 98 Review Duex

After playing with the Head Gravity Tour 98 consistently for several weeks, this racquet has continued to impress me.

Head Gravity Tour 98

I personally prefer my string tension rather high- between 53 and 55 lbs. I tend to be sensitive to tension fluctuations. I only noticed a decline in my play when the tension dropped below 50 lbs. That being said, I had a full bed of Ashaway Monogut ZX strung at 55 which lasted probably 8 weeks or longer while playing 3 to 4 times a week.

The frame was recently restrung with a hybrid setup of natural gut and Ashaway Monogut ZX. I love this setup. Between the strings and the frame, the feel is almost silky when hitting a ball. I feel confident that I can put the ball where I want it with enough topspin to reduce errors. Touch shots like drop shots or slice backhands are easier with this racquet than with most I’ve played with.

My serve was one area of my game that didn’t come quickly during the first demo with this racquet, which I spoke about in my first review. However, that has changed and now I’ve found that I can hit both flat serves with pace and an effective slice serve.

I know that I will be ordering one of these racquets when they’re released and that’s the best recommendation that I can give.

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Understanding String: A Short Video

This short video will begin to open up the mystery and myths of tennis string.

While watching this video, I questioned a statement about our Questron testing device. I said it was set up to pull one (1) pound per millimeter when, in fact, it is set up to pull one (1) millimeter per second—not pound per second! The data is reported in pounds!

Please add your comments and questions.  We want to know what interests you so we can add it to our video and website activity.

 

A Visual Treat: String v String

A picture, or a graph, is worth a thousand words somebody said.  So here is an image showing the difference in string stiffness.

Simply, the shorter the distance (mm) to 50 pounds the stiffer the string.  So you see one string (blue) reached a force of 50 lbs at 26.0 mm, another (red) at 27.9  mm, and another (green) at 49.6 mm.

Soft v Stiff String

Another property we see is linearity, or how straight the line is from beginning to end.  This could indicate the consistency of the string through various hitting forces.

Ultimate tensile strength (UTS) is indicated by the line going straight down because the string broke at that force.  The force and distance are displayed near that vertical line.

The two top strings are polyester and the lower one is PEEK.  These just happened to be strings installed in racquets today.

As always, posts are presented as information and never an endorsement or non-endorsement…if there is such a thing.  

I hope we saved a thousand words with this picture!