Poor man's Diamana BF

[chrisp]

Does a poor man's version exist for this shaft?

[Jaywh2]

Kuro Kage blue

[mizunoMP14]

The BF is a same profile to all of the versions Diamana blue shafts. They are all stiff butt, softer mid, stiff tip. They just change the materials and make subtle tweaks. The BF is a hair stiffer in the tip than the B Series or S+ b/c of the new materials.

 

THe B series or the S+ would be cheaper as they are a few years old and you could find a used one

 

As far as other brands, most everyone has a mid soft shaft. The one that i have hit that sticks out similar to the diamana blue would be the Graphite design YS Reloaded, they are about $90 brand new.

[chrisp]

Would a Diamana KAI'LI 80 be similar to a Diamana BF?

[ram01002]

Would a Diamana KAI'LI 80 be similar to a Diamana BF?

 

absolutely

[chrisp]

Would a Diamana KAI'LI 80 be similar to a Diamana BF?

 

absolutely

 

 

Thanks. Went ahead and purchased a new Kai'li 80 stiff for $68.

Hopefully this works out. Its worth the risk.

[Jaywh2]

Would a Diamana KAI'LI 80 be similar to a Diamana BF?

 

absolutely

 

 

Thanks. Went ahead and purchased a new Kai'li 80 stiff for $68.

Hopefully this works out. Its worth the risk.

 

Great shaft. Good luck

[Z1ggy16]

Kai'li is solid. I'm thinking of buying a used one for a future 3w I'm eyeing.

[mtg]

Tour Blue from Aldila gets some play on tour. Similar profile. Can be had for under $75 I think.

 

Find a Rogue Black from a couple years ago. Was good enough to get Spieth around Augusta and into a Green Jacket. I'm sure they're very affordable.

 

Edit: just saw you picked up a Kai'li. Let us know how its going. At the prices these go for you can always do a little experimenting. I'm thinking about getting a BF, but I also like to go back and get a classic shaft every now and then to see how it stacks up.

[binknrum]

I just bought a BF 60 Stiff and found it to play very weak to flex. It felt downright whippy, almost like a regular. Had been playing a Kai’li 70 stiff which was great. Very surprised by the difference between the two. I get that the 70 should feel stiffer, but the difference was shocking. Wondering if the B series might be closer to the Kai’li or if I should give the BF 70 a try.

[Red4282]

The 70 not only feels stiffer, it is stiffer. Diamanas shafts flex changes with weight. An 80g stiff is stiffer than a 60g x.

[Stuart_G]

Don't have data for the BF but that wasn't the case for previous generations. The stiffness doesn't change much at all with weight. At least based on the data I've seen - which I admit isn't complete. Nothing like what you typically see in say the UST shafts.

Now it's pretty common for people to confuse weight and stiffness feels for one another - so they certainly can seem stiffer even if they really aren't.

The original white board. Pretty much identical.

 

Now there was a very slight increase in the ahina - but it really isn't very much of an increase

 

[Red4282]

Maybe it was the og diamana that did that. Im certain at one point that was the case.

[Red4282]

Ok found this, which on the chart a 50x is weaker in overall flex than a 70s. Sounds like they made a change in the third gen tho??

https://www.golfshaftreviews.info/diamana-b-series-golf-shaft-review/

[Stuart_G]

Sorry, that's too small for me to read the text in the graph (even in the original article) but it certainly could be a more recent change.

50's being a bit weaker isn't unusual, or didn't used to be. For graphite shafts, It's easy to add weight without adding stiffness, but once you get below a certain weight threshold, it's not always easy to remove more without sacrificing some stiffness or making it more expensive. It's the light weight wood shafts (< 60 gm) where the advances in technology has really allowed a lot of improvement over the past decade - gaining strength without gaining weight.

 

[Red4282]

Yea its small, i think from top to bottom:

50r

50s

50x

60r

60s

60x

70s

70x

80x

 

not sure why they left off 80 stiff, would be interested to see where it fell.

But also notice in the article:

 

“In all the Mitsubishi Shafts, weight and stiffness from shaft to shaft ascend uniformly. That means the 70 S shaft is stiffer than the 60 S as you can see in this illustration. This makes it easy for a fitter to move from weight to weight, knowing the bend profile of the shaft does not change. Not all brands follow this design choice. Some change profile with weight.”

[Stuart_G]

I read it. It's interesting they equate "the same profile" with just the shape and an important characteristic for the fitter to maintain. Not sure I agree that's an important distinction. If a shaft is too stiff or too soft, it doesn't really matter if it's from the shape or the stiffness level of a given shape being at the wrong level. Second, weight selection and fitting should come first before flex and profile. So you don't really look for the profile first.

But those are just my opinions, to each his own I guess.

[Red4282]

Oh i agree 100%. Just even more reason you shouldnt really care if your shaft says r,s, or x. Its all relative.

[Howard_Jones]

Exactly, Flex letters is only valid for compare within its own model AND weight. If model or weight is different, flex letters can no longer tell us anything at all.

Some Graphite models is designed with the same "carbon fiber frame", only more resin to gain weight for the heavier models, and even if resin itself dont officially make any difference to flex, IT DOES, we can even see that on the tip side on models made as 0.335 and .350, where the 0.350 becomes slightly stiffer. Thats also why Tom Wishon made hybrids and shafts as 0.335 for hybrids to get a softer higher launching profile vs 0.370.

Other shafts can be designed with a completely different profile from 60 series to 70 series, so NEVER use flex labels for compare of flex for anything else than within the same model and weight.

For short, we have tons of examples that R flex can be stiffer than X, so this letters is useless when model OR weight is different.

We have to go back to Hickory before we find a common standard for flex labels, and back then "Goose" was the strongest, and "Falcon" the softest, but today, flex letters is useless for compare, so never think you "need" a S or X, it could be R flex in the actual model and weight, and thats why my arsenal of drivers has both R, S, X and 5.5 labels, but they are all very close to each other on actual flex and bending properties.

[Red4282]

Thanks for the clarification howard. Im guessing the stronger materials available now days (mr70, boron, velocore etc) allows a lighter shaft to be stiffer if desired than those of 15 years ago.