2020 Official Member Review: Fujikura Motore X shaft

[dlow206]

[azstu324]

Now that's a dope head cover!

the more I practice, the luckier I seem to get..

[COmedic]

Looking forward to these reviews so much. I have an F3 7x on the way myself that I suspect may get converted  to a 3-wood shaft. Thinking the F1 6X for my driver but want to see some reviews first!

[dlow206]

It will be a few more days until I can test out the new shaft, still under the weather but recovering.

[revkev]

What’s in the box, grandpa? I don’t know, let’s open it up and see.....

More pics coming soon.


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[azstu324]

So as I'm sitting in the waiting area of Discount Tire waiting for $600 worth of rubber to be bolted to my wife's car, I figured I'd provide some updates.

WARNING: this is kind of lengthy, kind of techy, and kind of ridiculous. So feel free to swipe through as I'm sure others have much more interesting things to say.

Thursday: PGATSS launch monitor session: I went straight to the hitting bays in the back and warmed up with my 9i before swinging the big stick. I did take my Pro Force V2 with me to switch at some point for some contrast and comparison.

When it came time to tee up for the driver, the shaft felt really good. Smooth and definitely stable (as advertised). That said, I wasn't quite seeing the numbers that I was hoping for. Spin was mid 3's! Ouch! Distance was also short by about 10-15 yds, presumably due to higher spin. Dispersion was nice and tight but not much better than I'm used to with the V2.

After about 50 shots, I plugged the V2 back in. Suddenly my spin went back to around 2800 and my lost distance was found.

Confession Time: I noticed that the swing weight just felt more pronounced with my V2. The first thought I had was to compare the 2 and make sure they're the same length. Well wouldn't you know it, the Motore X is shorter than V2 by nearly an inch! At first I'm thinking maybe I got the wrong length sent. So I took everything up front to the tech. They measured the playing length of the driver with the Motore X. 45.25" on the nuggets. I had requested a 45" so with the thicker butt cap of the Lamkin Sonar, was spot on with my request. Swing weight was D1 which should be right in that sweet spot for the driver.. for most.

So I then plugged in the V2 for measurement. 46 1/8" with a SW of D6! All along I was playing a longer, heaver driver than I had realized. Now let me interject into my own saga.. the V2 uncut weight is 66g. The Motore X is 69g. The very unscientific formula for butt cutting and SW difference is .5" = 2-3 SW points. Without getting into any further details, 1" sounds about right for a 5 SW point difference.

So Thursday night, after discovering all of this, I had to figure out what to do before my round on Friday. Since I was very familiar and comfortable with the D6 SW, I made the decision to add about 8g of thick knitting yarn into the head. In turn this should have added roughly 4 SW points. Not D6 but closer.

I played a really good round yesterday! Red Mountain is a pretty lengthy and open course so many opportunities for an opened up driver. I would say that for the most part, I was having a lot of success with trajectory, dispersion, and distance. The shaft felt outstanding. The swing weight definitely felt closer to what I'm looking for too. The sound is something I'll have to get used to. Anyone whose added polly fill, yarn, cotton, etc to a club head, it can drastically change the acoustics. For tinny or loud sounding drivers it can be a big improvement. The F8+ however already has that carbon fiber crown sound so adding any sound dampening material almost gives it a wooden baseball bat sound. It's different. Not bad.. but different

Now.. there are some questions that I need to ask myself before I can continue the testing.. Assuming that the length is very much a non-issue..

1. Should I just keep things as they are and fine tune with more/less yarn and just deal with the sound?

2. Should I take the yarn out and find a way to get used to the lighter swing weight. (Note that many drivers come stock with D1 - D3 SW so this is quite a normal weight) I've just grown very comfortable with it a tad heavier.

3. Do I counter balance with a lighter grip? for example, the Lamkin Sonar Tour weighs in at 53g and the GP Microsuede is 47g. I love the Microsuedes and play them on my irons. That said, the Lamkin Sonar really feels fantastic so I'd hate to lose it.

4. Do I order a heavier sole weight for my driver? I.e. 18g front weight to replace the 12g

These questions are mostly rhetorical but feel free to chime in if you have something to add.

I haven't gone back to see if the added head weight will improve the spin or distance but I'm not expecting to see anything different, so that's another situation that I really hope to find a solution to because the shaft feels great and really performed on the course.

I was golfing with my dad and 2 other gentlemen who were not quite comparable in their swing speeds. My ultimate performance test will come tomorrow when I play with my buddy Ross. We have very similar swing speeds and shot types. He plays off of 7 so he's pretty consistent and knows his tech. We are usually outdriving each other by a few yards. We'll see how the new stick compares. I'll even have him take some swipes to get a 3rd party take.









the more I practice, the luckier I seem to get..
 

Edited March 7, 2020 by azstu324

[goaliewales14]

I was able to get on GC Quad today as soon as I got a box on my front door. Unfortunately there was an issue with the NV Green shaft so I wasn't able to do a good comparison. Basically the shaft is going back to Aldila and getting replaced with a new one.

Going through my first couple hits, I noticed we definitely needed to change some settings with this shaft. I was launch really low and with almost no spin. We jumped the loft up to 10.5⁰ and it made all the difference! Here's my last hit. Slightly low on the face but I think I'll take it 

[dlow206]

@azstu324 What an interesting situation. I would probably order a heavier removal weight and tinker with that to see what happens.

@goaliewales14 Hitting bombs with that PXG / Motore combo. Will be interesting to see the comparison with the NV Green. Do you have any prior numbers with the NV Green?

[Rtracymog]

My box arrived today as well!  I got an MCC on there and I never specified a color, but I think that it was a nice touch to add a red one to match the graphics on the shaft!  I probably won't be able to get any rough numbers until Monday or Tuesday, but I did an initial bend test and this thing felt stiff!  I'm hoping that I didn't bite off more than I chew here!  I did notice that the adapter looked a little rough.  I attached a picture.  This has not been used or put into my driver yet, so I was a little surprised.  It's a little tough to see a couple of the blemishes on the ferrule, but there'e a good size scratch on the right of the adapter.  Also, I noticed the lettering on the shaft appeared on the bottom.  Just curious where everyone else's were.  Any chance that these were pured? There's no indication of that, but that might explain the look. 

[goaliewales14]

58 minutes ago, dlow206 said:

 

@goaliewales14 Hitting bombs with that PXG / Motore combo. Will be interesting to see the comparison with the NV Green. Do you have any prior numbers with the NV Green?

I don't have any pictures from the PXG fitting, but I know that my ball speed maxed out at 163 mph and my carry number was close to 280.  I've never seen ball speed get that close to 170!  I've also never hit 117 mph in club head speed.  I threw my HZRDUS Yellow in just to see what that was swinging at, and it was coming in around 113 mph.  I had to give it all I had to get anywhere close to 117 mph.  I'm definitely going to keep watching to see if that trend continues!

@azstu324 - If you don't want to by the heavier weights right now, you could always use lead tape to see if it would make a difference.  That would allow you to take the yarn out and get the sound back to the way you want it.

[dlow206]

18 minutes ago, Rtracymog said:

My box arrived today as well!  I got an MCC on there and I never specified a color, but I think that it was a nice touch to add a red one to match the graphics on the shaft!  I probably won't be able to get any rough numbers until Monday or Tuesday, but I did an initial bend test and this thing felt stiff!  I'm hoping that I didn't bite off more than I chew here!  I did notice that the adapter looked a little rough.  I attached a picture.  This has not been used or put into my driver yet, so I was a little surprised.  It's a little tough to see a couple of the blemishes on the ferrule, but there'e a good size scratch on the right of the adapter.  Also, I noticed the lettering on the shaft appeared on the bottom.  Just curious where everyone else's were.  Any chance that these were pured? There's no indication of that, but that might explain the look. 

My adapter looked brand new. I doubt they were pured, my lettering was down as well. I think they did the standard graphics down (the lettering side), except that the design is such that there is graphics all around.

[azstu324]

I don't have any pictures from the PXG fitting, but I know that my ball speed maxed out at 163 mph and my carry number was close to 280.  I've never seen ball speed get that close to 170!  I've also never hit 117 mph in club head speed.  I threw my HZRDUS Yellow in just to see what that was swinging at, and it was coming in around 113 mph.  I had to give it all I had to get anywhere close to 117 mph.  I'm definitely going to keep watching to see if that trend continues!
[mention=76102]azstu324[/mention] - If you don't want to by the heavier weights right now, you could always use lead tape to see if it would make a difference.  That would allow you to take the yarn out and get the sound back to the way you want it.

Yeah the only issue is that I really dislike the look of lead tape and the sound isn't bad. Just different from its original acoustics. Weighing the 2 out, I'd much rather deal with the sound.

We'll see if anything changes tomorrow. Luckily it's an easy fix whichever way I decide to go.


the more I practice, the luckier I seem to get..

[dlow206]

When I am no longer under the weather, my plan is to include 4 shafts in this test (yes, i bought 2 shafts for this test)

1. Stock Fujikura Ventus Red 5S Non-Velocore Shaft, 55g
2. Fujikura Motore X F3 5S, 59g
3. Project X Evenflow Red Max Carry 45S, 45g
4. Project X Hzrdus Red 6S, 62g

These are all mid, mid-high, or high launching shafts with mid to high spin. Why did I buy 2 shafts just for this test? I wanted to have a wider variety of shafts and I paid under a $100 total for both additional shafts. 

[azstu324]

53 minutes ago, Rtracymog said:

My box arrived today as well!  I got an MCC on there and I never specified a color, but I think that it was a nice touch to add a red one to match the graphics on the shaft!  I probably won't be able to get any rough numbers until Monday or Tuesday, but I did an initial bend test and this thing felt stiff!  I'm hoping that I didn't bite off more than I chew here!  I did notice that the adapter looked a little rough.  I attached a picture.  This has not been used or put into my driver yet, so I was a little surprised.  It's a little tough to see a couple of the blemishes on the ferrule, but there'e a good size scratch on the right of the adapter.  Also, I noticed the lettering on the shaft appeared on the bottom.  Just curious where everyone else's were.  Any chance that these were pured? There's no indication of that, but that might explain the look. 

You definitely got the beast of the bunch. Hopefully you find that it works for you.

I'm putting my money on not PURED or spine aligned. I requested mine be built at 9.5° and got mine with the less busy graphics perfectly centered, facing up and lined up with the grip center marker. That would be some pretty remarkable craftsmanship and QC to build every shaft with most stable section perfectly between both sets of graphics. Also, I'd imagine it would have come with the blue PURE sticker if that were the case. Please correct me if I'm misunderstanding the PUREing process.

Lastly, it definitely does look like you got the 6 phone call adapter. That thing has seen some play for sure. Mine looks brand spanky.

the more I practice, the luckier I seem to get..

Edited March 8, 2020 by azstu324

[azstu324]

I was able to get on GC Quad today as soon as I got a box on my front door. Unfortunately there was an issue with the NV Green shaft so I wasn't able to do a good comparison. Basically the shaft is going back to Aldila and getting replaced with a new one.
Going through my first couple hits, I noticed we definitely needed to change some settings with this shaft. I was launch really low and with almost no spin. We jumped the loft up to 10.5⁰ and it made all the difference! Here's my last hit. Slightly low on the face but I think I'll take it 

Damn son! Do we need to get you tested for PED's? Those are some serious #'s!

It's good to see what my exact shaft is capable of in someone else's hands other than mine.

the more I practice, the luckier I seem to get..

[Rtracymog]

You definitely got the beast of the bunch. Hopefully you find that it works for you.

I'm putting my money on not PURED or spine aligned. I requested mine be built at 9.5° and got mine with the less busy graphics perfectly centered, facing up and lined up with the grip center marker. That would be some pretty remarkable craftsmanship and QC to build every shaft with most stable section perfectly between both sets of graphics. Also, I'd imagine it would have come with the blue PURE sticker if that were the case. Please correct me if I'm misunderstanding the PUREing process.

Lastly, it definitely does look like you got the 6 phone call adapter. That thing has seen some play for sure. Mine looks brand spanky.

the more I practice, the luckier I seem to get..

Yeah I figured that I would see the blue sticker if it was pured. It’s good to see that I’m just weird on the graphics vs. words alignment. Speaking of which, I just took a closer look at my grip and it seems off. I’m never going to complain about getting the chance to try free stuff, but this is why I always do my own. Oh well, minor details. Where did the phrase “6 phone call adapter” come from? I’ve never heard it but I like it!


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[edingc]

8 hours ago, goaliewales14 said:

I threw my HZRDUS Yellow in just to see what that was swinging at, and it was coming in around 113 mph.  I had to give it all I had to get anywhere close to 117 mph.

I'm now very intrigued as I've been dreaming of replacing my HZRDUS Yellow for some time now. Always felt like I couldn't generate the swing speed I wanted from it, compared to other shafts. 

[azstu324]

9 hours ago, Rtracymog said:

Yeah I figured that I would see the blue sticker if it was pured. It’s good to see that I’m just weird on the graphics vs. words alignment. Speaking of which, I just took a closer look at my grip and it seems off. I’m never going to complain about getting the chance to try free stuff, but this is why I always do my own. Oh well, minor details. Where did the phrase “6 phone call adapter” come from? I’ve never heard it but I like it!


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It was a Stu original. I've got a lot of randomness floating around in my head. Non-copywrited so feel free to use it.

Being a new grip, you may be able to salvage and re-use if you have an air gun. Something like that would probably give me the twitch.. 

 

[goaliewales14]

8 hours ago, edingc said:

I'm now very intrigued as I've been dreaming of replacing my HZRDUS Yellow for some time now. Always felt like I couldn't generate the swing speed I wanted from it, compared to other shafts. 

I'm not sure if the counterbalance of the HZRDUS Yellow is the reason for the slower speed or what.  In the PXG fitting with the NV Green and with the Motore X, I feel like I have a better since of where the club head is at during my swing.  

[revkev]

Don’t have many pics yet - shaft arrived as I was heading to work yesterday but I threw it in the club, hit 2 drives on the range after church and off I went to the course.

 

 

Here it is in my study after I dropped it in.

 

I hit 11/13 fairways with driver in tons of wind. Both missed fairways were playable - in fact I made pars on those holes. Of course I couldn’t understand why ARCCOS didn’t register the first 3 drives. It kind of helps to have the probe in the shaft. :) Too bad, the drive on 3 was a career drive on a hole I’ve played 30-40 times. I estimated it when I added it at 252 - that’s very long for me. Hit a beautiful wedge from there to 10 feet - much easier hole with wedge than my customary 6 or 7 iron.

 

I’m playing again Tuesday. I was very straight with this shaft in my driver - don’t know that I was longer - that one drive came down wind when the wind was very strong so it’s hard to say that it was exceptional.

 

 

 

 

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