fritzhimself
Hall of Fame
After the success of my Head Century project, I would like to introduce you to another project.
It is a Kneissl Reach Lite, a racket from the 90s—which doesn't really do anything special, but had an innovative design.
Its tour version, the Reach More, advertised that the 635 cm² frame had a continuous groove and that the string pattern only transitioned into the frame at 660 cm²,
thus generating a larger sweet spot (in theory).
Since the frame was on the lighter side and I was able to remove the bumper guard without any problems,
I hid a good 16g of lead underneath it to make the frame more playable.
The unstrung SW was around 260 or so. The huge plastic part in the heart area was installed on almost all Kneissl frames and was supposed to be arm-friendly.
Unfortunately, I can't say whether it actually made a difference.
In the past, large grips (in this case a 4 1/2) were always used, so I was inclined to change that.
With the Reach More, the grip contour is the same as the carbon outer contour, so you can't change anything there.
Similar to today's Wilson Clash models. The Lite version has a foamed contour, so you can make it smaller.
Oh dear – that was no good – it was that weird hard rubber compound that you can't really work with.
So the good thing had to come off. There was also a niche where the good folks at Kneissl had installed some lead.
What was also strange was that they had brutally “nailed” the lead into the frame.
Since this hairpin is not compatible with any commercially available pallets, I designed and printed a 3D handle in Head TK82_S_4 1/4 form.
This time, the printing material was ABS, which was easy to work with.
Since I didn't want the lead in the racket anymore, I printed two 8 mm holes so that I could add silicone if necessary.
I then decided to use a leather grip tape from my collection and, if necessary, to close the two holes with adhesive tape.
The specs are strung with overgrip at 329g, a balance of 334mm, SW at 330, and RA of 60.
The frame has a string pattern of 16/20 and was strung with 24/22kg and String Kong Yeti string in 1.18.
As I will be testing this frame today, I cannot comment on its playability at this stage.
It is a Kneissl Reach Lite, a racket from the 90s—which doesn't really do anything special, but had an innovative design.
Its tour version, the Reach More, advertised that the 635 cm² frame had a continuous groove and that the string pattern only transitioned into the frame at 660 cm²,
thus generating a larger sweet spot (in theory).
Since the frame was on the lighter side and I was able to remove the bumper guard without any problems,
I hid a good 16g of lead underneath it to make the frame more playable.
The unstrung SW was around 260 or so. The huge plastic part in the heart area was installed on almost all Kneissl frames and was supposed to be arm-friendly.
Unfortunately, I can't say whether it actually made a difference.
In the past, large grips (in this case a 4 1/2) were always used, so I was inclined to change that.
With the Reach More, the grip contour is the same as the carbon outer contour, so you can't change anything there.
Similar to today's Wilson Clash models. The Lite version has a foamed contour, so you can make it smaller.
Oh dear – that was no good – it was that weird hard rubber compound that you can't really work with.
So the good thing had to come off. There was also a niche where the good folks at Kneissl had installed some lead.
What was also strange was that they had brutally “nailed” the lead into the frame.
Since this hairpin is not compatible with any commercially available pallets, I designed and printed a 3D handle in Head TK82_S_4 1/4 form.
This time, the printing material was ABS, which was easy to work with.
Since I didn't want the lead in the racket anymore, I printed two 8 mm holes so that I could add silicone if necessary.
I then decided to use a leather grip tape from my collection and, if necessary, to close the two holes with adhesive tape.
The specs are strung with overgrip at 329g, a balance of 334mm, SW at 330, and RA of 60.
The frame has a string pattern of 16/20 and was strung with 24/22kg and String Kong Yeti string in 1.18.
As I will be testing this frame today, I cannot comment on its playability at this stage.
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