Up Ahead: Quelot Driver Review and XDB 90t shaft

I’ve got a couple of interesting products I’ll be checking out for the GTI blog over the next few days. I quickly snapped some shots before the sun set so I could kind of preview them here on the blog.

First I’ll be looking at the Quelot Royal Excellence driver. This is a premium distance driver available as part of Geotech Golf’s offerings.  A couple of forum members noticed that premier independent reviewer Rating Gate had recently taken a look at the Quelot and rated it very favorably, almost as high as ratings it has given top class performers the Epon Technity 460ZR and the Crazy CRZ-435.  Rating Gate is very picky and very strict with its reviews and as a matter of a fact some of the most popular brands and models in Japan have done very poorly at Rating Gate. The Quelot RE10 (short for Royal Excellence 2010) did especially well in the tests for distance and feel with distance rivaling the Epon and Crazy especially for players who swing under 105mph (ideally 85 to 100mph).

I’ll be testing both Gold and Silver models over the next week at the range and through 18 holes as well and then writing up a detailed review on both models.

Another product I’ve actually been wanting to test for some time is the XDB Shaft. XDB features a 65 model that has a multi construction design made of 3 types of high modulus carbon sheets. I’ve talked a lot about high grade carbon on the blog here and as you all have read, hot performing shafts like Crazy and Quadra and even Fujikura and Honma use high modulus carbon. Shafts are created with carbon fibers weaved together, and these fibers are measured by their modulus of elasticity in tension. Typical golf shafts are around 24t or 30t, the measurement of tensile strength. These lower grade shafts are more flexible and because of this the shaft is slow to regain its original shape on the downswing creating inconsistent impact where a player must rely heavily on timing due to the flexibility of the shaft. As the tensile strength increases, the carbon weaves are more dense, more rigid and return more quickly to their original shape. The flex and rebound of the shaft becomes more predictable equaling more consistent shots and much tighter dispersion. The higher tensile ratings ratings in golf shafts are also related to the higher grades containing more glass and metal particles which are more rigid and lower grades containing more flexible rubber particles.

The XDB65, which is rolled and made in Japan, features a 4 axis weaved butt for stability matched with a reinforced 90t mid section and a layered 50t tip area. The reason why the XDB shaft caught my attention was their use of 90t. The highest tensile strength I have seen in any shaft is 80t.  Another thing that is very attractive about this shaft is that the XDB brand belongs to Geotech Golf. What this means is VERY good pricing. I’m looking forward to seeing if the performance is up to par with other big name high grade carbon users. If it is, XDB could become a very hot shaft.

Look for some reviews in the coming week!