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I have a question about the pole I received today (14' 170 pacer fx). It has a flex of 17.2 I had a vaulter using a 14' 165 spirit and it has a flex of 17.1 Are these poles identical??? (.1 difference, the spirit is .1 stiffer). I opened the tube today and looked at it and noticed the flex as soon as I taped the top 1'6" and the bottom 1' for the part that hits the box. I did not have anyone use it. Please tell me I did not just order the same pole, just different weights and brands...

If so, am I screwed??? I figured having a 14' 165 spirit and a 14' 170 pacer fx would be a good thing...

You can NOT compare Pacer and UCS flex numbers. If i remember correctly, Pacer changed how it flexed its poles a while back that made it differ from the norm. So, you should have two usable poles that are 5 pounds apart in weight rating!

SKOT wrote:You can NOT compare Pacer and UCS flex numbers. If i remember correctly, Pacer changed how it flexed its poles a while back that made it differ from the norm. So, you should have two usable poles that are 5 pounds apart in weight rating!

Mmm for 13', 14', 15', and 5.00 meter poles the flex numbers are pretty close between those 2 brands. NOT for any other length I can think of (well maybe 4.90 poles). Gill changed how they flexed 12'6 and shorter poles a few years ago.

Yeah, those 2 poles are probably pretty close. I know we have a 14' 170 Spirit that is .2 stiffer than our 14'175 PacerFX, and from watching people jump on them, that seems accurate.

It's always good to discuss flex numbers when ordering poles.

Interesting, we'll see how the pole works today in practice. I've been under the assumption flexes were universal but have been told recently that there is no standardization of flexes between brands.

I have another 14' 165 pacer with 17.6 flex so that means I have:

14' 165 pacer III (old) - 17.6
14' 165 spirit (made in 1992) - 17.1
14' 170 pacer fx (brand new) - 17.2

So I'm kind of confused but wil assume the pacer III is a soft 165, the spirit is a stiff 165 and the pacer fx is a soft 170 but a bit bigger (the next pole to use) than the spirit. Man, my head hurts...

patybobady wrote:Interesting, we'll see how the pole works today in practice. I've been under the assumption flexes were universal but have been told recently that there is no standardization of flexes between brands.

I have another 14' 165 pacer with 17.6 flex so that means I have:

14' 165 pacer III (old) - 17.6
14' 165 spirit (made in 1992) - 17.1
14' 170 pacer fx (brand new) - 17.2

So I'm kind of confused but wil assume the pacer III is a soft 165, the spirit is a stiff 165 and the pacer fx is a soft 170 but a bit bigger (the next pole to use) than the spirit. Man, my head hurts...

If you want to make your head hurt more, consider that the sail piece is probably in a different place on each pole, and how that will affect the ease with which the vaulters roll the pole into the pit

Flex them yourself, it will be relative.

gtc wrote:Flex them yourself, it will be relative.

I agree that this is the best way of seeing the relative stiffness between the poles.

Well it was jumped on today...A tad stiffer than the 14' 165 spirit, t'was very nice, about the next pole I guess.