Equipment
Tech Talk: KBS C-Taper Lite iron shafts
With the name C-Taper Lite, most golfers will assume that the biggest difference between KBS’s newest shafts and the company’s original C-Taper shafts is the weight. But even though the new shafts are between 5 and 15 grams lighter depending on flex, weight was actually a secondary concern in the design of the shafts.
Kim Braly, the man who designs KBS shafts, says there’s no reason golfers should change to lighter iron shafts based on weight alone. While he admits that changing from heavier iron shafts to lighter ones usually gives golfers a few extra yards at first, over time Braly has noticed that golfers tend to go back to hitting their iron shots about the same distance.
“You see it all the time on tour,” Braly said. “Guys go to light-weight iron shafts and hit it a little farther. But then a few months later they go back to hitting it their old distances. Their bodies acclimate to the lighter weight.”
So if the C-Taper Lite shafts don’t give golfers extra distance, what do they do?
The new shafts fill a hole in the company’s lineup, which is between KBS’s low-launching, low-spining C-Taper and KBS Tour shafts and the company’s high-launching, high-spinning KBS Tour 90 shafts. They offer a similar feel and the same efficient energy transfer as the C-Taper shafts, but in a profile that is much easier for slower swing speed players to load properly. That gives them the best chance to hit long, straight shots.
To create the new shafts, Braly had to experiment with different shaft geometries, just like he did when he designed the tour-only shafts that Phil Mickelson is currently using, the KBS Tour V2.
Mickelson didn’t care for the feel of KBS’s original C-Taper shafts — he preferred the softer feel of the KBS Tour. But the KBS Tour shafts spun too much and launched too high for him. So Braly spent almost two years working with Mickelson on the design of the KBS Tour V2, which are actually lighter than KBS Tour shafts, but are lower launching and lower spinning.
Can you tell which shaft is a KBS Tour V1 and which shaft is a KBS Tour V2? A KBS Tour V2 shaft (left), has a larger outside diameter and thinner walls in the tip section, which gives it a more penetrating trajectory.
It seems impossible that Braly could make a shaft that was both lighter and had a more penetrating trajectory, but it’s actually fairly simple to do. Because changing a shaft’s outside diameter (the fatness of the shaft) has three times more effect on stiffness than changing a shaft’s wall thickness, Braly was able to increase the outside diameter of the V2’s tip section to make it stiffer and get the lower-launching, lower-spinning performance Mickelson wanted.
Notice how the KBS Tour V2 shafts, when paired side-by-side with the KBS Tour V1 shafts, have longer steps (in both pairings, the V1 is on the left and the V2 is on the right). This change, combined with the change in wall thickness and outside diameter, gave Mickelson the launch, spin and feel he was looking for in his iron and wedge shafts.
For a change that simple, why did it take two years for Mickelson to make a change? According to Braly, getting the right performance from a shaft is often much easier than getting the right feel. That’s why the V2 shafts are five grams lighter than the KBS Tour shafts. To make up for the stiffer tip, Braly was forced to extend the lengths of the steps of the shafts and subtract from the thickness of the walls to give Mickelson a KBS Tour-like feel with the performance that he wanted.
Like the tour-only KBS Tour V2 shafts, the C-Taper Lite shafts were able to be made lighter by decreasing the thickness of the shaft’s walls and tuning the shaft’s diameter to create the mid-spin, mid-launch conditions he was looking for from the shaft.
Just how important does Braly think the C-Taper Lite is to his company’s shaft lineup?
“I’m really into custom fitting and I wanted to have a complete product line,” Braly said. “I want to be able to fit golfers into the best product I possibly can. With this new product, I can’t imagine that there are many golfers out there that we won’t be able to fit.”
The C-Taper Lite shafts have KBS’s brushed satin finish, and are available for order now with shipping starting July 8. The R-Flex C-Taper Lite shafts weigh 105 grams, with the S-Flex weighing 110 grams and the X-flex weighing 115 grams. They’ll cost around $39 per shaft.
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Whats in the Bag
Matthieu Pavon WITB 2024 (May)
- Pavon’s WITB accurate as of the Wells Fargo Championship. More photos from the event here.
Driver: Ping G430 Max (9 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus TR Black 6 X
3-wood: Ping G430 LST (15 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus TR Black 7 X
Hybrid: Ping G430 (19 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 10 X
Irons: Ping i230 (3-PW)
Shafts: Nippon Modus3 Tour 120 X
Wedges: Ping Si59 (52-12S, 58-8B)
Shafts: Nippon Modus3 Tour 120 X
Putter: Ping Cadence TR Tomcat C
Grip: SuperStroke Claw 1.0P
Grips: Golf Pride MCC Align
Ball: Titleist Pro V1
Check out more in-hand photos of Pavon’s gear here.
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Equipment
Spotted: Tommy Fleetwood’s TaylorMade Spider Tour X Prototype putter
Tommy Fleetwood has been attached to his Odyssey White Hot Pro #3 putter for years now. However, this week at the Wells Fargo Championship, we did spot him testing a new putter that is very different, yet somewhat similar, to his current gamer.
This new putter is a TaylorMade Spider Tour X head but with a brand new neck we haven’t seen on a Spider before. A flow neck is attached to the Spider head and gives the putter about a 1/2 shaft offset. This style neck will usually increase the toe hang of the putter and we can guess it gets the putter close to his White Hot Pro #3.
Another interesting design is that lack of TaylorMade’s True Path alignment on the top of the putter. Instead of the large white center stripe, Tommy’s Spider just has a very short white site line milled into it. As with his Odyssey, Tommy seems to be a fan of soft inserts and this Spider prototype looks to have the TPU Pure Roll insert with 45° grooves for immediate topspin and less hopping and skidding.
The sole is interesting as well in that the rear weights don’t look to be interchangeable and are recessed deep into the ports. This setup could be used to push the CG forward in the putter for a more blade-like feel during the stroke, like TaylorMade did with the Spider X Proto Scottie Scheffler tested out.
Tommy’s putter is finished off with an older Super Stroke Mid Slim 2.0 grip in blue and white. The Mid Slim was designed to fit in between the Ultra Slim 1.0 and the Slim 3.0 that was a popular grip on tour.
- Check out the rest of our photos from the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship
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Equipment
Club Junkie WITB, league night week 4: Some old, some new
We enter week 4 of Thursday night men’s league feeling a little more confident in the game. BK is hoping to go a little lower and reduce the mistakes out there with these clubs in the bag. Watch the video for the full breakdown of why these clubs are getting the starting nod this week!
Driver: Titleist TSR2 (10 degrees, neutral setting)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Diamana WB 63 X
3-wood: TaylorMade Qi10 (15 degrees)
Shaft: UST Mamiya Lin-Q M40X TSPX Blue 7F5
7-wood: Ping G430 Max (-1 degree, flat Ssetting)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus TR Blue 8 S
Iron: Mizuno Pro Fli-Hi 4
Shaft: Aerotech Steelfiber hls880 S
Irons: PXG 0317 Tour (5-PW)
Shaft: LA Golf A-Series 105 Low (4)
Wedge: Titleist Vokey SM10 (50-08F)
Shaft: UST Mamiya Dart V 105 F4 Wedge
Wedge: Ping S159 (56-10H)
Shaft: Ping Z-Z115
Wedge: Ping S159 (60-08B)
Shaft: Ping Z-Z115
Putter: PXG Battle Ready II Brandon
Shaft: BGT Stability Tour Spec One
Ball: Callaway Chrome Tour X
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Pingback: KBS Adds New C-Taper Lite Shaft with Parallel Tip | Golf Gear Select
Dolph Lundgrenade
Jun 14, 2013 at 8:40 pm
With counterbalancing about to be a major aspect of the fitting process (owing to the recent exposure that many players are using it…and Jack used it) I expect a shaft line-up to be double the options. For KBS’s line-up I believe we will see a B-spec version of each shaft in a lighter configuration with the same profile. For example, don’t be surprised to see a C-taper that is exactly the same in terms of performance, but 10-20 grams lighter per flex… or, as another example, being able to buy a KBS Tour X stiff shaft that weights 115g. In this manner the fitter can counterbalance 15 grams of weight without increasing the overall weight of the club.
That’s just what I see for the future… but I’m right so often you may just count on it.
Ryan
Jun 11, 2013 at 12:41 pm
Wonderful intuitive article. I play the Tours but can’t wait to try the C-Taper Lite Stiff!
lefty
Jun 10, 2013 at 9:20 pm
Yea but my Honma 5 stars cost more and are graphite. I have gold in my irons too.
Honma driver 5 star 1700 dollars
Honma 3 wood 5 star 1500 dollars
Honma irons 3-AW 5 star 12,500 dollars
Cameron California prototype, 1 in existence 25,000 dollars
Honma Corinthian leather golf bag 5500 dollars
Custom Club Car cart 22,000 dollars
Golf swing .50 cents
Okay guys I am being fecetious but I actually saw this on ebay
Dave
Jul 12, 2013 at 7:31 pm
Surely you mean FACETIOUS? Since Fecetious must mean that there’s sh*t coming out of your mouth?
Either way, what’s the point of your post?
Blanco
Jun 7, 2013 at 11:42 pm
One of the best articles I’ve ever read on Golfwrx. Nice to hear about more about shafts than the usual weight, launch profile, fluorescent colors, and who’s playing it on tour. Informative, clear, great photography.
Please inject me with more technical shaft dope.
John Strathman
Jun 7, 2013 at 8:23 pm
I always thought there was a hole in selecting KBS shafts. I hit Tour’s with two iron sets and just went back to DG S300’s on my last purchase. Well there is always tomorrow…
LK
Jun 6, 2013 at 7:42 pm
forget the c-taper lights, give me the tour v2s!!
John
Jun 6, 2013 at 9:42 pm
Seriously wish they would, as this sounds like the perfect shaft I’m wanting. Kbs tour feel with a more dg like trajectory or even slightly lower spinning and I would pay big $$$!
T
Jun 7, 2013 at 11:57 am
Huh? DG says it is LOW launch, so how can it be more like DG trajectory? You don’t know what you’re talking about. Why not use something like DG XP hardstepped a couple times?
John
Jun 7, 2013 at 7:38 pm
Huh?? That’s exactly what I’m saying, if the KBS had a shaft with the SAME LOW launch of the DG with the FEEL similar to the KBS tours, with a possibly touch less spin than a DG.
Yo mama
Jun 9, 2013 at 8:54 pm
I don’t want to pay big bug I want them
Kridian
Jun 16, 2013 at 9:45 pm
$39 per shaft!? There better be GOLD weaved in there!
Xander Walsh
Jun 6, 2013 at 6:20 pm
Great article. I enjoyed the read.