Category Archives: Volkl
Take a Guess?
A very good player and client came into the World Headquarters Wednesday with his three (3) Tecnifibre TF40 315’s wanting to re-string. There is nothing unusual about that except this time he wanted to discuss different strings. So we did!
The final three (3) strings under discussion were:
- Tecnifibre Razor Soft 17 (current string)
- Volkl V-Star 17
- MonoGut ZX Pro 17
The first two are considered to be polyester, however, I am not sure V-Star fits entirely in that category, and PEEK is the material with the MonoGut ZX Pro name. All of the strings are monofilament.
We learned in a previous post “a picture is worth a thousand words”, so we are including a picture to help in our guessing.
Take a Guess?
Here are some basic properties of the subject racquet that may contribute to your guess
- Weight=342
- Swing Weight=327
- RDC Flex=63
- Flex Four Flex=50.8
- Grip Size= 3
We hope you will make a guess in the “comment field” below and if you do you can use the string name or the color…we will figure it out, and thank you for you guess!
A Picture is Worth a 1000 Words?
Yesterday @ the World Headquarters was full of interesting stringing! So we decided to do some testing of some of the strings that were just waiting to be broken!
The chosen strings are Ashaway MonoGut ZX Pro 17, Tecnifibre Triax 17, and Volkl V-Star 18—three totally different materials. Our purpose is to determine a string’s properties before it goes into a tennis racquet. Our testing quantifies these properties, and then the “feel” component comes from the player.
A 1000 Words?
We normally do not do more than two (2) overlays because it is a little messy, but these strings begged to be compared, so here it is!
Our Questron can cycle automatically, so the stop points are pretty precise. All strings are cycled from two (2) pounds to fifty (50) pounds and then until they fail or ultimate tensile strength (UTS).
In the Displacement axis (X), the shorter the distance in mm to 50 ponds, the stiffer the string. The straighter the line is to fail, the more consistent the feeling until failure.
The testing confirms that Tecnifibre Triax does contain some stiffer fibers. The other strings are monofilaments, so there are no fibers.
Racquet Quest uses a bunch of each of these strings for obvious reasons and, of course, depending on the player.
Monofilament Material Comparison
Most monofilament tennis strings are polyester, a blend of polyester, or PEEK.
As you know, we believe there is no wrong string, just wrong applications. The graph will show the comparative stiffness of three (3) materials. The string is pulled at a rate of 1mm per second. The resultant spreadsheet for this particular test is about 5300 rows long.
With our spreadsheet, we have access to every mm of data. Maybe sometime we can post some of the individual data points.
Blast is polyester, V-Star is a unique blend of material (I do not know what it is), and MonogutZX is PEEK (polyetheretherketone).
The graph shows the cycle from 0 to 50 pounds three (3) times, then to failure (UTS). The quicker (shorter distance) the string reaches the 50-pound mark, the stiffer it is. MonoGut ZX did not fail in the 180mm excursion. You can see, in this case, the stiffer string fails at a higher force but shorter excursion.
Stiffer strings deliver less power and have a higher shock value. The midrange stiffness shows exactly what would be expected, and the softest string also indicates expected results.
Racquet Quest, LLC
