Posted by Overload on March 26, 2003 at 20:13:59:
In Reply to: I disagree posted by poleman_henley on March 13, 2003 at 17:12:56:
The carbon poles are not simply carbon but a mixture of carbon and fiberglass. Inhearently carbon fiber is rigid; it doesn't flex or stretch and store energy the way that a regular fiberglass pole does. Carbon fiber is therefore faster since the carbon fiber will flex. The whole point of carbon fiber being used in the poles (mainly carbon pacer) was to allow the use of less material, having a lighter pole. The carbon fiber added to the mixture kept the regidness and thus the hoop strenght, allowing an effectivly smaller pole to hold more weight. Carbon fiber mixture pole vault poles are not 'faster' so to speak as they are simply more rigid, or stiffer. This all goes away however when the pole is longer then 15'9, in which less carbon is required to hold the seight.
: I'm sorry Bruce, but i disagree totally with what you said about carbon not speeding timing up. I have vaulted on Altius, UCS Spirit, and Pacer carbon. Altius is just a plain fiberglass pole...and if you put an altius of the same weight, length and relative flex as a carbon side by side....the carbon is much faster and returns more energy to the vaulter no matter the length of the pole. UCS also does the same only not as lightweight. My point is....yes there is a difference and it doesnt start at pole lengths of 15'9" and up.