Cobra FlyZ+ Heads on ebay .370" hosel- measure varies wildly in each single hosel- seller "we got from cobra" cobra-"we never made anything but .355"

GuitarsGolfKY · October 22, 2020

So I ordered some new in the wrapper cobra fly z plus heads from an ebay seller- assuming I would drop in my KBS tour 120 shafts (the kbs tour 115 R+ and 125 S+) came stock with these when they came out. Didn't realize the .370 til after I ordered- I called cobra and they left me on hold for like 30 minutes and came back and said no we didn't make those with a .370" hosel- then golf works site says the cobra fly z forged custom sets (which isn't a real club name) came with super lightweight graphite shafts and .370 hosels.

So the heads are new in wrapped for sure- but it looks to me kinda like they were pulled- a little dirty and crusty inside the hosel- maybe I've just never seen the inside of a virgin hosel though. They're definitely bigger than a bunch of random .355" shafts in different brands I have lying around and they also look like they take a big ole collar. but they also measure kinda randomly with my digital calipers- granted I can't get them all the way to the bottom for a diameter measurement- and they aren't ULTRA precise but theyre precise enough to give me readings from .366-.375 then like .405 or more in the collar area.

Wondering what I should do- I have shafting beads- my shafts are steel (I'm honestly not sure a parallel tip would fit all that much better- maybe better filling the hosel with a brass shim (no experience- and the shafting beads) I seem to remember drywall tape as a solution. wondering about ferrules? I was wanting to put some sexy bb&f's on these if I decided to keep them to match the grey and blue sonar grips. but how would I fill the collar. Even if I got some collared ferrules I can't find many with measurements on the outer diameter of the collar.

Also got some used 3-6 heads and the x100 shafts and ferrules were separating and they hit really weird. like they were loose- pulled one out and found a taper tip installed into a .370 head cleaned everything off and found it was loose as hell. .

Id love to use these kbs- should I try brass shims? what about an oring or something similar for the collar? got the shafting glass too.

thanks a bunch for the help!

Edited October 23, 2020 by GuitarsGolfKY

mvhoffman · October 22, 2020

all you can do if you are set on those shafts is try some shims. If they do not work then try to find a set of the 120's in .370

GuitarsGolfKY · October 23, 2020

22 hours ago, mvhoffman said:

all you can do if you are set on those shafts is try some shims. If they do not work then try to find a set of the 120's in .370

So i got the heads and they're in new wrapper and look brand new- I dont know what a new hosel looks like on the inside but it looks somewhat brown, but like its been cleaned well.

HOWEVER- the hosel measures differently throughout it. i got measurements with my digital calipers under .370 (as low as .355) and as high as .385. near the entrance of the hosel there looks to be a wider space for a collared ferrule.

Cobra says they never made flyz + irons with anything but .355" hosels via email now (but when I called some guy said they might be universal) Unfortunately I dont have a parallel shaft to test. But i doubt it would even get all the way down with the thinner areas.

The ebay seller claims they got the clubs directly from cobra- maybe they pulled the brand new kbs shafts and are planning on selling them- then did a hack job on cleaning the hosels? Maybe they got some defect units on the backend- or cobra doesn't wanna claim em.

My question is now- I guess I could ream out all the narrow parts to .370" and at least get a consistent minimum - but then id have to buy some shafts.

Or do you think I could still use a brass shim and some shafting beads (micro glass to mix into epoxy to help fill in gaps) will that work without any loss in performance?

I was wanting to throw some fancy bb&f or other colored ferrules on these, but they dont make collared ferrules. I made a diy collar out of the top of a .355" ferrule. Isn't there somewhere that sells those? It was labor intensive. or maybe a good tutorial on making them?

Has anyone ever seen this? I ordered a used set of miura cb201's last year- 4 of them were just heads 3 had shafts installed. I noticed the 4 iron was a just the tiniest bit wobbly when applying pressure. The 6 iron felt fine so I tried hitting it. I hit some good ones- but then it felt pretty bad and weak for the most part. Then I measured the ferrules all the way from .350 to .390- I couldn't get my taper tip shaft in one- and I couldn't get a parallel in the others. I found an old post on a forum where someone asked how they could get their shafts on their new miura heads (they come .350") and the response was use a 3/8" drill bit :::slaps face multiple times:::

I returned them- these id like to play, but I think this ebay seller is on some BS. Calling them brand new and probably selling factory defectives.

I believe this is actually happening everywhere on ebay- there weren't any fly z sets now there's all these barely used ones popping up with .370 hosels. I bought a 3-6 set from a guy and its the exact same thing- he had taper tip x100s in em and the ferrules were sliding up the neck. I took them off and cleaned and started measuring- i think he got the lie angle off because of how loose they are.

Anyways- the brass shims and homemade collar seemed super tight. Will filling the gaps with lots of epoxy and shafting beads be plenty- or am I gonna have reduced performance regardless?

THANKS!

mvhoffman · October 23, 2020

Depending on where you live, you may want to have a skilled club builder or yourself if you have the tools bore the complete hosel out to .370 so that there is a consistency. I follow Jim McCleary (McGolf Custom) https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCA97VU9ZSFfcG-wsUsvSG8Q

He gets a ton of this kind of stuff. Honestly, try reaching out to him.

GuitarsGolfKY · October 24, 2020

I was thinking that. But....

Problem with that is in parts of the hosel I get messurements wider than 370. It feels pretty tight with a brass shim. But I can’t wiggle it and feel tiny little .004” nicks surrounding the shaft. But I feel like epoxy and shafting beads should fill it right?

kess13 · October 24, 2020

Not sure about these but the amp line used a hybrid hosel that would accept both .355 and .370 shafts. They may have carried that up. I put .355 shafts in them and thought they may be a bit loose but shims were too tight so I used some drywall mesh strips and never had a problem.

Hack Daddy · October 24, 2020

Take it to someone that actually knows how to build clubs. Damn near every off the rack, mass produced .355 is going to have some wabble or looseness. Esp if it was preped and pulled.

vietnameeh · October 28, 2020

I bought the same heads and use .355 taper tips. seems fine and had the same amount of play in the same taper tip heads i had laying around.

i used ghetto shafting beads (sugar) to be safe, but I do that with all my clubs

I too was confused because the seller said .370. I don't think cobra made a players head with .370 if that helps.

gdb99 · October 28, 2020

Use shims from Golfworks and you can use your ferrules, no problem. You don't need collared ferrules.

Stuart_G · October 29, 2020

On 10/23/2020 at 9:38 PM, GuitarsGolfKY said:

I was thinking that. But....

Problem with that is in parts of the hosel I get messurements wider than 370. It feels pretty tight with a brass shim. But I can’t wiggle it and feel tiny little .004” nicks surrounding the shaft. But I feel like epoxy and shafting beads should fill it right?

First of all, a tapered hosel is generally .370 for most of the depth. It's only the bottom 1/2" that the taper usually exists and the diameter narrows down to the .355 value.

If it's a bit wider it parts due to manufacturing tolerances, that's not a problem when reaming out the hosel. The important part is to widen out the lowest part of the hosel to ensure you get full insertion of the shaft into the hosel. That is if it's needed. You can measure the bore depth with the calipers and then check the insertion depth to see if you're getting the shaft all the way to the bottom or not.

With the right tool, boring out the is easy and doesn't require any special skill. You can either get the tool yourself or find a builder who has one.

https://www.golfworks.com/spiral-fluted-reamers/p/gw0115/

If it's loose enough that you can use a shim, then you should use a shims. If it's not loose enough to be able to use shims, then just epoxy is fine, you don't need the beads.

GuitarsGolfKY · December 21, 2020

I used shims on these and shafting beads and got some VERY tight fits. It was an absolute pain in the a** though as I had to cut off some of the arms of the brass shims on some heads- some took the full shim- some only needed two legs. As I suspected I also had very good results with collared ferrules- somebody definitely reamed these for a collared ferrule and that helped with the overly large diameter at the very top of the hosel.

it was a lot of oh this fits dry with this shim- then I added epoxy and shafting beads and oh s*** it won't fit at at all. pull it off clip off some legs off the shim and reinsert. They are solid as hell now but I definitely wouldn't recommend this to the novice builder (well I'm not an expert but I've reshafted at least 50 clubs and never have had a problem)

The ones I bought used off ebay came from this store (as I asked the seller later). and they definitely played super bad because the original installer just put .335" shafts with regular ferrules and no shims in there. Its like they felt weak. I keep seeing sets of these in new condition go on and off ebay- surely its because they were shafted without minding the large variations in the hosel diameters.

I had a set of Miura Cb-202 straight neck irons come like this last year. when they're really bad you can see how the shaft comes out of the hosel crooked when you hold it up at the proper angle just with the naked eye even. Anyways- I searched and spent tons of time on ebay trying to get a refund- because they felt awful. Only the 3 iron felt right (and was probably unmolested) I searched all over the internet for this topic and found some guy asking what to do with his new miura heads that he wanted to ream out for .370" shafts. Somebody on one of the forums- Might have even been this one- circa 2010 if i remember correctly- told him he could just use a 3/8" drill bit. smh... DONT DO THIS.

Get the expensive reamer from golf works and the hand turning thing and hand ream it with a well oiled bit. Also invest in some nice digital calipers- such a good investment for so many things even if you aren't a handy person.

These irons are friggin amazing by the way- I installed some KBS tour 120's soft stepped once 1/4" long. they are so forgiving. They feel good- I get ludicrous amounts of spin and I'm hitting my irons high for once (I've always hit my irons somewhat low height high spin). These actually have less offset than the miura straight necks I mentioned before. I can see why Cobra basically renamed these 3 times over (amp forged irons>fly z plus>tour forged (which won the US open this year- I'm not a one length dechamboner (though I would like to try it) but I wonder what he'll do now that these are gone- his iron play out of the rough was IMO the key to that victory. The fly z are almost identical to the tour forged- the irons he ripped through that thick s***.

I wish more companies did a compact players CB forged head with an actual undercut cavity (I think the rubber insert really helps these feel better than most undercut cavities) and tungsten weighting WITH LESS OFFSET (ap2 would be the answer but too much offset and I feel like these come off way hotter than the ap2 but still are consistent distance wise without giant jumps like game improvement irons.

these are for people that like the ap2 (but feels MUCH better) without the huge amount of offset. they might be slightly larger head than ap2, but I love them coming from bridgestone j36 blades (which are superb quality irons and some of the absolute best feeling irons ever made) it almost feels like cheating

benno_r · December 21, 2020

Isn't this line of irons (and the similar irons like amp forged, king forged etc) universal bore? Pretty sure the Amp forged I had I took out some parallel shafts, and installed tapers that were fairly firm.

Milfordlefty · December 22, 2020

Listen to Stuart G. All hosels for taper tip are approx .370 at the opening of the hosel, but taper to .355 at the bottom. If you try to put a parallel tip shaft into a taper tip head, you will not be able to insert the shaft all the way into the head. If you try to put a taper tip shaft into a parallel tip head, the shaft will be loose at the bottom, BUT, likely tight at the top of the hosel.