[Vibram] Vibram ridge:first impressions!

[Lewis]

The Summit does have more glide than the Ridge, but the Ridge is a much straighter disc. I have one with "medium" plastic (not sure the official term from Vibram), and it is plenty grippy for my taste.

I think the "greasy" quality was something on the surface of the disc after manufacturing. Throw it in the water, rub some dirt on it, play a round or two with it, and voila, no more problems. For what it's worth, my Summit had a bit of this feel when I first bought it, but I washed that stuff right off. Vibram isn't the only brand that has had this greasy feel to me off the shelf.

My only real complaint about my Vibram putters is their tendency to roll a long way when they catch an edge. It sounds like they solved that problem with their "soft" rubber. I will probably consider a soft Ridge once my Blowfly wears out.

 

[Dana]

It sounds like the new 'putting' putter might be less of a "roller". Also, my soft Ridges hate to roll.

 

[bboykin]

I was putting in the back yard a couple days ago. Throwing Avairs, Wizards, Ions, Darts, and my sole X-Link Ridge. I picked up the Ridge last. I hadn't thrown it in a few weeks.

To my great surprise it felt...GREASY! I know I said it wasn't in an earlier post but damned if it didn't feel that way this time. I still like the disc but it does have a certain slickness to it that for some reason eluded me before. I had to rub my fingers in it for a minute and flex it out to get it feeling right.

So to the greasy comments - they are valid.

 

[mcmyers640]

First impressions: great line holder, terrible glide. However, the glide thing doesn't really bother me because the disc really sticks its landing. Few skips, few rolls in my experience. It was very forgiving for me, but I use it more for drives 150 - 275 feet. The entire line of vibram putters is amazing. They're basically all I use, although I can't tear myself away from my KC aviar for putts. The discs take a bit to get used to, but they're very versatile in varying weather conditions. Big fan of the ridge. Even bigger fan of the VP on windy day approaches and drives.

Try one.

 

[Fishy]

I throw my my Summit almost exclusively, unless I NEED to throw around something. I bought mine in X-Soft, seems to glide nicely, too much sometimes, but as it's a fairly recent addition to my bag I still need to get used to it. As for greasy, I hadn't noticed. I think one of my next additions will be ridge or VP.. too bad they don't seem to take a dye well.

 

[captain jack]

Ok, here is a cool trick for soft Vibrams that I use.
The soft Vibrams tend to hold whatever shape you give them, at least for one throw.

If I want more glide from my VP, I will dome it up. If you flex the flight plate, it will bow out like a belly fulla beer on top. This makes it super glidey.
If I want to pitch it hard, right at the center of the chains, with no glide, I flatten the top out. This makes it fade harder and takes the glide out, but it goes much better into a headwind like this, with no lofting.

So tune your softs.

PS, all the Vibram discs will gain some glide, and lose stability, as they wear.

 

[StevenDodge]

I was putting in the back yard a couple days ago. Throwing Avairs, Wizards, Ions, Darts, and my sole X-Link Ridge. I picked up the Ridge last. I hadn't thrown it in a few weeks.

To my great surprise it felt...GREASY! I know I said it wasn't in an earlier post but damned if it didn't feel that way this time. I still like the disc but it does have a certain slickness to it that for some reason eluded me before. I had to rub my fingers in it for a minute and flex it out to get it feeling right.

So to the greasy comments - they are valid.

I would be interested in investigating this further, as I've heard of something similar happening to X-Link Soft discs (note: X-Link Soft is pretty darn close to pure rubber and will lose some grip if left sitting in the sun for a few days.)

Did you store the Ridge outside? I'd like to know how it was kept so we can try to duplicate it. Once we've figured out the cause, we can educate Vibram discers about something to avoid.

Thanks for any extra input.

 

[Fishy]

The soft Vibrams tend to hold whatever shape you give them, at least for one throw.

If I want more glide from my VP, I will dome it up. If you flex the flight plate, it will bow out like a belly fulla beer on top. This makes it super glidey.
If I want to pitch it hard, right at the center of the chains, with no glide, I flatten the top out. This makes it fade harder and takes the glide out, but it goes much better into a headwind like this, with no lofting.

I am so gonna try this as soon as I can :thmbup:

 

[mcmyers640]

I am so gonna try this as soon as I can :thmbup:

Is he from the future?

 

[cfair]

First impressions: great line holder, terrible glide. However, the glide thing doesn't really bother me because the disc really sticks its landing. Few skips, few rolls in my experience. It was very forgiving for me, but I use it more for drives 150 - 275 feet. The entire line of vibram putters is amazing. They're basically all I use, although I can't tear myself away from my KC aviar for putts. The discs take a bit to get used to, but they're very versatile in varying weather conditions. Big fan of the ridge. Even bigger fan of the VP on windy day approaches and drives.

Try one.

I've found the Firm Ridge to be similar to the BB Aviar (KC), Wizard, and Ringer in terms of putting. Closer to the Ringer just because of the flat nature of it. BB Aviars and Wiz's have big dome for me...

 

[bboykin]

I would be interested in investigating this further, as I've heard of something similar happening to X-Link Soft discs (note: X-Link Soft is pretty darn close to pure rubber and will lose some grip if left sitting in the sun for a few days.)

Did you store the Ridge outside? I'd like to know how it was kept so we can try to duplicate it. Once we've figured out the cause, we can educate Vibram discers about something to avoid.

Thanks for any extra input.

I store all my discs in the house, usually in a golf bag as I have a few older ones. The Ridge had been in my bag at the time. It's about 72 degrees on average in the house. It was at least 60 degrees outside that evening.

Here's my X-Link Ridge on the left and a Soft VP.

There was a definite slickness to it that evening. Maybe it's always been like that and I just didn't take much notice but since I was throwing so many different putters that night the Ridge really stood apart from the rest.

 

[bdodson]

I putted outside last night for an hour in snow and mud with my ridge and never found the grease.....I just grabbed it from my bag and it feels great..I'm in Montana and it's low humidity here...

 

[bboykin]

I picked up my pile of putters again last night just to give them all the grip test. The pile consists of 2 Medium Wizards (very stiff), a SSS Wizard, a couple DX Aviars, 2 R-Pro Darts, and a Soft Ion in addition to the Ridge.

They all had a nice grip and varying degrees of tackiness to them. Calling the X-Link Ridge "Greasy" might be a bit of an overstatement but it's definitely slick compared to all the others. All that said I've had some fine shots on the course with this disc and I'll be hanging on to it. I just wanted to address the "Greasy" comments as there is something to it. My soft VP is another animal altogether...Plenty of grip there!

 

[mykeg44]

I want to pick one of these up with my next dgc order, but I've never felt one. A couple questions before I pull the trigger...

1. How similar are the flight characteristics to a KC Aviar?

2. What is the Innova/Discraft equivelant to the Firm and the Regular X-Link?

 

[jubuttib]

Based on mine I'd say

1. Less glide, more LSS to start with, though not by much.

2. Firm is really quite firm, though I wouldn't call it KC stiff (at the KCs I've tried have been really hard). My medium VP bends like a Pro plastic fairway driver. It's not quite as simple as that though, because rubber resists bending in a different way than plastic. The feel is always going to be different.

 

[mykeg44]

Based on mine I'd say

1. Less glide, more LSS to start with, though not by much.

2. Firm is really quite firm, though I wouldn't call it KC stiff (at the KCs I've tried have been really hard). My medium VP bends like a Pro plastic fairway driver. It's not quite as simple as that though, because rubber resists bending in a different way than plastic. The feel is always going to be different.

Does the medium bend like R-Pro? I can't stand that crap.

 

[bdodson]

you will not be disapointed

 

[jubuttib]

What type of R-Pro? I've handled R-Pro drivers that are almost hard, I've handled ones that feel like normal pro (except for the surface texture), I've handled R-Pro putters that are like floppy rubber, and I absolutely love my P-MD2s (the first runs were an R-Pro mix, the next run will be a regular Pro mix) that are just as stiff as my S-Line mids, maybe a bit stiffer. It just gives a better grip.

Out of those the driver blends blow up after a couple of throws, the mid blends hold up better than other Pros I've thrown and the putter blend is totally bulletproof.

But to answer your question, no. It doesn't bend like R-Pro. Nothing made by the other companies feels exactly like a Vibram.

 

[mykeg44]

I threw my buddy's R-Pro Dart for a round and couldn't get off a clean release because the disc was so floppy. Most of Innova's other Pro discs are nowhere near that floopy.

I'm kind of paranoid about dropping $17 for a disc I've never held if I can't stand the grip, but the allure of a soft, rubbery disc that won't be floppy is appealing to me.

 

[jubuttib]

Only the softs are floppy, the mediums and especially the firms are nothing like that. You can bend them, but that's rubber for you. It resists in a different way than plastic.