Please excuse my searching skills, as I could swear I read of others' frustrations with replacing the grommets in their Babolat Pure Drive (aka PD) but couldn't find the thread.
I have limited experience replacing grommets, limited to my son's previous Wilson racquets which were fairly easy. A few weeks ago I replaced my son's grommets in his PD and boy, was that fun! Both the grommet and bump guard that go over the top of the hoop were challenging because they're a bit short. This made getting them in difficult, and keeping them in was very frustrating and required the use of small clamps. The grommets on the sides were quite a bit easier to install, but the bottom grommet was very difficult to get the second string through for tying off.
More recently I replaced the grommets on a used PD I bought and believe I was a bit wiser installing the top grommets and bump guard. After installing the center 12 grommets, I took my needle-nose pliers to the top grommet strip and bump guard (separately), clamped down tight in the blank area before the next group of grommets and give a twist, stretching them enough to ease further installation.
This next technique may not be ideal for preserving the cosmetics of the racquet, but I didn't/don't care:
Zip ties rock!
The side grommet strips appear identical:
...and this contributed to my previous problems.
But closer inspection revealed:
...they're not symmetrical! One end grommet has a larger interior diameter!!
That last discovery made stringing the racquet sooooo much easier. And made me feel stupid for note noticing last time.
Maybe my sharing will prevent someone else from enduring the frustration.
I have limited experience replacing grommets, limited to my son's previous Wilson racquets which were fairly easy. A few weeks ago I replaced my son's grommets in his PD and boy, was that fun! Both the grommet and bump guard that go over the top of the hoop were challenging because they're a bit short. This made getting them in difficult, and keeping them in was very frustrating and required the use of small clamps. The grommets on the sides were quite a bit easier to install, but the bottom grommet was very difficult to get the second string through for tying off.
More recently I replaced the grommets on a used PD I bought and believe I was a bit wiser installing the top grommets and bump guard. After installing the center 12 grommets, I took my needle-nose pliers to the top grommet strip and bump guard (separately), clamped down tight in the blank area before the next group of grommets and give a twist, stretching them enough to ease further installation.
This next technique may not be ideal for preserving the cosmetics of the racquet, but I didn't/don't care:

Zip ties rock!
The side grommet strips appear identical:

...and this contributed to my previous problems.
But closer inspection revealed:

...they're not symmetrical! One end grommet has a larger interior diameter!!
That last discovery made stringing the racquet sooooo much easier. And made me feel stupid for note noticing last time.
Maybe my sharing will prevent someone else from enduring the frustration.
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