old vs. new

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vaultin chris
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old vs. new

Unread postby vaultin chris » Tue Dec 23, 2003 12:54 am

Does anyone know if old spirit poles of the same weight and flex were made differently than the new ones they make? Reason being is I have three older spirits made in the early 1990s and compared to newer spirits at close to the same weight they seem they old ones have smaller diameters and have a lighter carry weight. Now am I just tripping or can someone explain this phenomenon.
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Unread postby rainbowgirl28 » Tue Dec 23, 2003 1:24 am

As far as I know Spirits have stayed the same in flex. My high school got some brand new Spirits from a sporting supply store that were made in the early 90s. The only difference I could tell is the ones made before 95 did not have the pink weight label/max handhold.

I think if a pole is between mandrels it might end up either way. My school has a 12'120 30.0 flex Spirit made on one size mandrel. A girl in our club has the exact same weight rating and flex, yet is made on a smaller mandrel. Go figure :confused:

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Unread postby das_1971 » Tue Dec 23, 2003 3:28 am

your not tripping, there getting heavier and more awkard. im thinking in 14=15 foot rangs. is that where your having trouble?
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OLD VS NEW ???

Unread postby Bruce Caldwell » Tue Dec 23, 2003 12:02 pm

OLD VS NEW
The only way to determine that is by the serial number one might have a different year!!!
But diameter is not necessarily a year thingy!

However we are building an EB Mandrel (Earl Bell) for a special project Earl has going on the 375 400 415 length poles.

[color=blue][b]When the manufacturer is supplying a lot of poles in the same size it is necessary to pop in the oven several poles in a run.

When this happens sometimes one must use several mandrels and there is a possibility that you will have some on one size and others on the next size up.

The weight ratings will be the same and the flexes will be too, however the poles will be different and have benefits and hold backs

Yes, a same size pole on a larger mandrel will be lighter. And the smaller one will be heavier than the other (this is very slight and carry weight will be the greatest difference).

In the larger size lengths a larger mandrel may be better as the pole is lighter and has a potential better return if used properly.

In the smaller lengths a smaller grip will be easier to grip and the pole can be more flexible and more forgiving in it return giving one a little more time to invert.

I think the vaulters handgrip will determine if a larger diameter will work.
I remember making poles for Earl Bell in 1977 (FiberSport) and he was telling me the poles were great while we had to build smaller diameter poles for Billy Olson and Joe Dial as they were saying their first poles were monsters. If anyone knows and has shaken Earl’s hand they know he has very long fingers at least 2â€Â
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Unread postby lonestar » Tue Dec 23, 2003 10:51 pm

Could be the type of glass used.

Just a guess, but based on my experience with Spirits, it seemed like most of the 15' Spirits made prior to like '94 were made with "E" glass, which is a heavier glass and I think requires more wraps. They were definitely made on bigger mandrels too.

The 15' Spirits I jumped on built between '95-'99 were lighter and smaller diameter, possibly built with "S" glass on smaller mandrels.

Not a statement of fact - just a guess - someone please correct me if I'm wrong.
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Good Comment Kris

Unread postby Bruce Caldwell » Tue Dec 23, 2003 11:27 pm

Yes Kris is correct if the pole is really older it was made of E glass predominately
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Unread postby rainbowgirl28 » Wed Dec 24, 2003 12:31 am

lonestar wrote:Could be the type of glass used.

Just a guess, but based on my experience with Spirits, it seemed like most of the 15' Spirits made prior to like '94 were made with "E" glass, which is a heavier glass and I think requires more wraps. They were definitely made on bigger mandrels too.

The 15' Spirits I jumped on built between '95-'99 were lighter and smaller diameter, possibly built with "S" glass on smaller mandrels.

Not a statement of fact - just a guess - someone please correct me if I'm wrong.


I didn't notice a big difference between the 15' 140/145 (made before 95) vs the 15'155 we have that was made after 95... then again I'm not vaulting on them! I'll have to check them out sometime and see :P

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Unread postby lonestar » Wed Dec 24, 2003 1:05 pm

rainbowgirl28 wrote:I didn't notice a big difference between the 15' 140/145 (made before 95) vs the 15'155 we have that was made after 95... then again I'm not vaulting on them! I'll have to check them out sometime and see :P


I don't claim to know anything about Spirits, and maybe the production year has absolutely nothing to do with it, but Trinity University had 2 15' 170 Spirits with the exact same flex number (I have no idea why - waste of money IMO), but one was built in '93 on like a 7 or 8 mandrel, and the other in '99 on a 10 mandrel. The 10 was a helluva lot lighter than the 7, thus my thinking it was built with S glass. I've seen the same thing on some 15' 150's and I once jumped on a 165 that was bigger and heavier than a newer 170. I don't know what type of glass Spirit is using, or if they use both types interchangeably, ask them, but I do know I've found some differences over the years.

I also jumped on an older green Skypole, 15' 165 with the black sticker up at EB's- freakin log! Then I jumped on a 15' 170 green Skypole with the pink sticker(newer), which was lighter. Things do seem to change with time.
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