[RoverRick]

Ok guys, I scored some KBS Hybrid shafts in custom black brand new for $40 for the pair. These are stiff shafts and 43.5" raw length.Since these have a .370 parallel tip and my Titleist 909H have .335 I am going back to the Ben Hogan CFT ti.

Brief history, Hogan made the CFT ti in 2003 and I have these heads in 14* and 19*. These heads are still practically new because they had too much spin for me and ballooned pretty badly into the wind. I also have the 2004 CFT in 17, 21 and 24. these puppies have the paint worn off of them because I used them until January of this year. The reason for the design change I recently learned (last two weeks) was because high spin players had a difficult time with graphite shafts in the wind. (Really who would have thought that . The Hogan CFT hybrids are the finest hybrids ever made in my opinion. Very workable.

Of course with my quest for distance I followed the conventional wisdom of more head speed is distance, and lighter is faster, and longer is faster, and "post ergo proctor hoc" longer & lighter shaft means more distance. ( I thought I would throw a little Latin in this site to make us sound like we are educated, but I think I learned this on Guilligan's Island.) I have longer lighter shafts and spin the heck out of them but I still get good distances. I can hit them straight. However, these distances are not right for my future set up with the new iron shafts that are arriving tomorrow or Monday. So it is time to redo the top of the bag. I am replacing a 21*, 19* hybrid and 15.5* fairway wood with a 24* 4 iron, 18* and 14* hybrid.

I do not hit fairway woods all that well. I hit down on the ball and honestly hit a low lofted hybrid better. I do not make consistant contact with the 3 wood off the deck and have found that I am better off hitting a driver off the deck than the 3 wood, but better still, to lay up and use a wedge. I often leave the 3 wood out and add a 64* wedge but I am tempted to try shots that I should not with it so I am not much better off. There is no particular benefit for me to hit a 3 wood off of the tee because I can hit an easy driver or a long hybrid about the same distance. So it is back to a hybrid.

I have the option of the new very expensive low spinning graphite shafts, or the KBS Steel Hybrid shafts. I thought seriously about putting C Tapers in them but since I was able to get these two for the price of one C Taper I will do this.

The KBS site does not list the tipping instructions for the hybrid shafts. I think that the 14* hybrid will have a 41.5" shaft so I have two inches to cut off. Making this a 42.5" club. I may need to recut it later but it is easy to pop off the head and re-glue the shaft. It is quite difficult to make the shaft longer. My plan is to work the 14* first and see how I like it and then if I made it too short, I can butt trim the shaft and use it for the 19*.

So this brings me to the question, am I correct in thinking that by trimming the tip of the S Flex shaft I am actually making it stiffer and thus cutting down on the spin?

[jmiller065]

RoverRick, on 04 May 2012 - 11:47 AM, said:

Ok guys, I scored some KBS Hybrid shafts in custom black brand new for $40 for the pair. These are stiff shafts and 43.5" raw length.Since these have a .370 parallel tip and my Titleist 909H have .335 I am going back to the Ben Hogan CFT ti.

You could always see if you can bore the hosel out to a 0.370 (Parallel rescue / iron size) instead of the 0.335 (fairway metal and driver size)

RoverRick, on 04 May 2012 - 11:47 AM, said:

The KBS site does not list the tipping instructions for the hybrid shafts.
So this brings me to the question, am I correct in thinking that by trimming the tip of the S Flex shaft I am actually making it stiffer and thus cutting down on the spin?

They do list the tip trimming instructions they just moved them to a really odd location on their new website, it is under the downloads tab for in the shaft model here is a direct link to the PDF download.
Tip Trimming --> http://kbsgolfshafts...itting-info.pdf
Specs --> http://kbsgolfshafts...s/prod-info.pdf

[RoverRick]

jmiller065, on 04 May 2012 - 11:14 AM, said:

You could always see if you can bore the hosel out to a 0.370 (Parallel rescue / iron size) instead of the 0.335 (fairway metal and driver size)

Yeah, but I like the way the Hogans set up better than the Titleist. Titleist are more closed at address and I tend to draw the Titleist more than the Hogans. Hogans have a more neutral ball flight.

jmiller065, on 04 May 2012 - 11:14 AM, said:

They do list the tip trimming instructions they just moved them to a really odd location on their new website, it is under the downloads tab for in the shaft model here is a direct link to the PDF download.
Tip Trimming --> http://kbsgolfshafts...itting-info.pdf
Specs --> http://kbsgolfshafts...s/prod-info.pdf

If you read this carefully, you will see they list the Tour, Tour 90, and C Taper. Not a word about Hybrids. I sent them an email before I wrote this post.

[RoverRick]

I have an opportunity to purchase some KBS C Tapers (TM pulls) 3-P for $175. ($280 value) Any thoughts on this? Should I buy these and sell the DG X100's?

[RoverRick]

Never mind. Could not resist the opportunity so now I have c tapers and dg. X100

[GolfSpy Matt]

RoverRick, on 04 May 2012 - 01:46 PM, said:

Never mind. Could not resist the opportunity so now I have c tapers and dg. X100

That was the only real solution all along.

[RoverRick]

Now the x100s came today. So the question is do
I put the x100s in and play with them tomorrow basically loose a Set of grips or live with what I have until the c taperS?

[RoverRick]

Of Course I put the DG X100's in the heads tonight. I have Pure Grips, They suppossedly go on (and OFF) without tape, so I have nothing to lose. So I will have an opportunity to play Sunday, Monday and Tuesday with the DG X100s and then I will remove on or two of them or maybe all, I can swap out a set of shafts in an hour or less, and try the C Tapers for a few days or ever. I will review both in comparison to the PX 5.5 and the DG S300.

[RoverRick]

Played 36 holes today with the DG X100s. I did see some distance gains and some reduced spin. But in all honesty, I did not hit full iron shots unless I could help it. I had 10 minutes of range time.before the round. I hit the 4 iron full shots several times off of the tee but since I did not hit it before and only got it Saturday I can not give an account as far as the shaft change. I will say that I hit it 20 times and never have one less than 180 yards. The Mizuno FLI HI 4 iron is pretty awesome, however afterwards, some of the guys hit it, because I was hitting it so well, and they did not have the same results.
I shot an 85 the first 18 and a 77 the second, so I really like the new irons.

I wrote this in the Pure Grip Review by Rookieblue7 but instead of having most of the morning to practice with the new clubs, I got a phone call this morning and had less than an hour to get dressed, put the grips on the new shafts, and get warmed up. It took 7 minutes to install 7 Pure Grips on new shafts. That is pretty cool.

[jmiller065]

RoverRick, on 04 May 2012 - 12:38 PM, said:

If you read this carefully, you will see they list the Tour, Tour 90, and C Taper. Not a word about Hybrids. I sent them an email before I wrote this post.

You are right my fault, figured it would be in there as it is listed under the hybrid section, I think they are done in 9/16" increments but i could be wrong, better to see what KBS says about it.

[wdgolf]

According to Hireko, you tip trim the KBS as follows:

14* - 0.0"
16* - 0.5"
18* - 1.0"
20* - 1.5"
22* - 2.0"

KBS Hybrid Shaft: http://www.hirekogol.../2365/0/0/0/0/0
Tip Trimming instructions (IH33): http://support.hirek...ength-Guide.pdf

Quote

HYBRIDS: [...] If the hybrids use chart IH9, IH15, IH23, IH24, IH25, IH27, IH28 and IH33, use the loft to determine the correct trimming.

[jmiller065]

wdgolf, on 07 May 2012 - 09:36 AM, said:

According to Hireko, you tip trim the KBS as follows:

14* - 0.0"
16* - 0.5"
18* - 1.0"
20* - 1.5"
22* - 2.0"

KBS Hybrid Shaft: http://www.hirekogol.../2365/0/0/0/0/0
Tip Trimming instructions (IH33): http://support.hirek...ength-Guide.pdf

Your first link didn't work for me, yes the normal tip trim for rescues is 1/2" incerments but looking at KBS site it is different for each of their shafts line so I don't know how reliable that is, could be a number of things knowing how KBS is probably in a 16th of an inch lol...

KBS Tour ~ 9/16" increments from 2 thru P
KBS C-Taper ~ 9/16" increments from 1 thru P
KBS Tour 90 ~ 1/2" increments 1 thru P

So it could really go wither way...

[RoverRick]

These came tip prep-ed from Golfsmiths so I assume that since there are no tipping instructions, and they were tipped, that they did not need it. I will say this. These things are awesome. I only hit a few shots on the range tonight with them but they were all fly past the 200 yard sign on the range, which is what I wanted. These appeared to take care of my spin issues. I can only hope the C Tapers do the same for the irons. A complete review to follow after I have done more than hit three range balls each.

[jmiller065]

RoverRick, on 07 May 2012 - 10:44 PM, said:

These came tip prep-ed from Golfsmiths so I assume that since there are no tipping instructions, and they were tipped, that they did not need it. I will say this. These things are awesome. I only hit a few shots on the range tonight with them but they were all fly past the 200 yard sign on the range, which is what I wanted. These appeared to take care of my spin issues. I can only hope the C Tapers do the same for the irons. A complete review to follow after I have done more than hit three range balls each.

Being in windy Texas I think you will like the C-Taper, penetrating bullets is best way to describe how they work for me. I haven't tried the KBS Hybrid good to hear that it works well, I have a RT Technologies Midas that is a beast you can get them in Adams hybrids custom order if I recall correctly.

I ended up having to switch my 3 & 4 iron shafts out of the C-Taper into KBS Tour X-Stiff the trajectory with them was TOO low with the C-Taper

[RoverRick]

jmiller065, on 08 May 2012 - 07:50 AM, said:

Being in windy Texas I think you will like the C-Taper, penetrating bullets is best way to describe how they work for me. I haven't tried the KBS Hybrid good to hear that it works well, I have a RT Technologies Midas that is a beast you can get them in Adams hybrids custom order if I recall correctly.

I ended up having to switch my 3 & 4 iron shafts out of the C-Taper into KBS Tour X-Stiff the trajectory with them was TOO low with the C-Taper

My 4 Iron is a Mizuno FLI HI. I will not have the C Tapers until later this week and right now have X100s all the irons, but I do not think that the trajectory will be an issue. My biggest problem now is that I do not know how to hit shafts that go so straight. I thought that the big hooks that I was hitting were caused by swing flaws, now I can swing as hard as I want and the ball simply goes farther. It will take some getting used to but it is a very nice problem to have.