This Paddle Was Ahead of the Times...

Author

Chris Olson
April 01, 2023

What’s up, guys? Today I have updates on the amazing Gearbox that got discontinued and the new Vulcan v570s. Check it out.

🎥 Thermoforming updates & opinions

This is just a brief update on some of the thermoforming news. I’ve been getting a lot of individual messages on these topics and thought I would put it all in one place. This will also serve as my disclaimer for future reviews of thermoformed paddles so I don’t have to repeat the same line in every single video.

One of the most important topics I covered was that I don’t believe thermoformed paddles will be banned. I think it opens a big pandoras box that USAP can’t solve if you decide to get rid of these because of delamination.

With regular paddles delaminating, you would need to ban many other brands as well. I expand more on this in the video.

📢 This Gearbox was ahead of its time…

Have you ever seen the original pink GX5 from Gearbox? It was released in 2019 and was later replaced with updated versions of the GX5 and 6 line. The old ones had the dotted pattern that you can see on the face above.

I had a viewer constantly raving about how good this Pink Gearbox GX5 was. I didn’t believe him. He finally offered to send it to me and after hitting it, my only question is, Gearbox why on earth did you stop making this paddle?!

Most of you probably know that I haven’t given Gearbox paddles favorable reviews. I think they have a place in the market, but there are a lot of things about them that are less than ideal, while other aspects are highly appealing. The newest CX14 Ultimate has been my favorite Gearbox paddle to date and one that I thought was quite good.

Well, this Pink Gearbox GX5 is really, really nice. I’m actually baffled that Gearbox stopped producing it. I think it’s LEAPS AND BOUNDS better than the CX11 line, which I hated reviewing. The GX5 could be competitive with paddles on the market today. The only complaint I have is that it doesn’t have any texture to the face so on dinks and rolls, the ball doesn’t catch the face as well as I would like.

It has more power than any Gearbox I’ve hit (possibly including the Ultimates), the sweet spot is larger, and the feel off the face is fantastic.

I can’t believe this paddle was released in 2019. It was WAY ahead of its time. I truly think this would be a relevant paddle for Gearbox in 2023 if they just added a textured coating to the face. Please Gearbox, bring this back.

Also, someone is selling one on eBay for $322…

If you know anyone who has a dotted pink GX5, let me know. I’d like to acquire one.

😡 Vulcan v570 is meh

I may make a first impression of these at some point, but I took them out for a session and was very unimpressed.

  • Exposed polymer in the handle

  • v570 Carbon Fiber 1119 RPM

  • v570 Fiberglass 1309 RPM

The exposed polymer really rattles my gears at this point. There is no way every major company isn’t aware of how to stop having exposed polymer. To me, companies are choosing to be lazy and cheap out on something that would hardly cost them any money to fix.

I personally don’t think the paddles are a great value. With paddles like the Ronbus R1.16 available for $100 (Discount code PBSTUDIO), Vatic Pro, Legacy, and the Head Radical Tour Co, I don’t really know who would choose the Vulcans.

The carbon fiber v570 claims to be raw carbon fiber, but it’s actually using a different technique and feels very glossy. Clearly the numbers show the spin potential isn’t that great.

v570 “raw carbon fiber” under a microscope. It looks closer the Franklin Signature STK texture which we know was not good.

Of course, spin isn’t everything, but the v570 carbon fiber has no stand out features that make it worth considering over other cheaper raw carbon fiber paddles.

The fiberglass one is actually kind of fun, but that’s about all I have to say. It’s more of an all court paddle and has a satisfying pop feel off the face.

The “raw fiberglass” term also irritates me. I don’t know if they are aware of SixZero, but their raw fiberglass implementation is MUCH better than the Vulcan v570. The fact that they called the carbon fiber paddle “raw carbon fiber” feels like it’s trying to convince the market it is something it isn’t by using a common buzzword in Pickleball. Annoying.

🔥 News worth reading

🎙️ Latest podcast

If you missed it, we talked a lot about a recent article that came out about rally scoring vs traditional with a stats blog from Real Clear Stats. It’s very interesting and raises good points for rally scoring.

Thanks for reading the newsletter, and I’ll catch you guys in the next one.