NCode Tour 90 vs 95

[alan-n]

Having played for one full week with the NCode Tour 90, I'm really confused with TW review of it. I'm not a tall person or have massive forearms (5'9", 150lb), I do have good grip strength and loose swing and have no difficulty with handling 13oz rackets over the course of 4 hours of match play in 4.5 league.

When I first picked up the Tour 90, I thought it weighed exactly the same as my NCode 95... Infact the NCode tour 90 with the exact same setup on it (NRG2, Wilson pro overgrip, rubberband dampener) turned out to be only 3 grams heavier than my NCode 95. Once I took a swing with it, I immediately notice that it swung LIGHTER than the NCode 95???? How can this be, I double checked the print once again, made sure this was the 340gram racket and picked up my NCode 95 and took a swung. Yes the NCode Tour 90 swung lighter... I got hold of another NCode Tour 90 and confirmed the same thing, it swung just slightly lighter. I can only guess that the smaller head size and less string area means less air resistance and that definitely helped the swing.

Top Spin Ground Stokes:
I didn't have to change my ground stroke technique much at all going from the 95 to the 90. The 95 does noticeably have a larger sweet spot which helped me return shoulder level and higher heavy top spin shots, this took much more concentration with the Tour 90 to return these types of groud strokes.

Flat Shots:
Even though the 95s sweet spot was larger, it didn't matter for flat shots as the Tour 90 sweet spot was large enough that when I did mishit a flat shot, it wasn't due to its difficulty to weild. The Tour 90 definitely has the upper hand in the control department, the 95 easily provides power for this one while it took slightly faster swing with the Tour 90 to achieve the same pace. Both rackets control are well beyond adequate of my abilities at the 4.5 level, the Tour 90 having the slight upper hand.

Slice:
Both can easily get the job done, but it just felt better and more precise hitting these shots with the Tour 90. I tended to unintentionally float a few of my slices with the 95 due to not fully concentrating, but this went away with the Tour 90. Leisure slices with the Tour 90 didn't have a tenancy to "float", this must be due to the slightly denser string pattern.

Serving:
I could generate good racket head speed with both of these rackets so power was roughly the same. For spin the 95 is a moster the 90 took slightly more brushing of the ball to generate the same amount of spin... I'd rather serve with the 95 on windy days. For pin point flat serves / first serves, the Tour 90 gets the nod.

Volleying:
There is no comparison here, the Tour 90 is just one of the best sticks there is, the NCode 95 can't hold a candle to it. My results in doubles play concluded this as once I hit a few volley winners, then turned every volley into a one shot winner due to confidence with the feel of this stick. The absolute control, pace, precision, manuverability and feel had the 95 beat... How could this be that the NCode Tour 90 was more manuverable and faster at the net than the 95? The specs say it shouldn't, but my results and hands on play concluded that the Tour 90 was a winner in this department.

Conclusion:
I have picked up a pair of NCode Tour 90s and kept my 95s for heavy topspin baseline singles play when I'm having any kind of trouble returning heavy topspun shots cleanly.

 

[RyanC]

Mate, that's just a perfect example of 'horses for courses'. The NCode Tour 90 works for you, even if it doesn't for most people. Personally I think its one of Wilson's worst frames and Im a coach so that goes to show reviews can only give you a set of opinions, the actual truth is in the playing. Im not sure what your playing level is but, in my opinion, unless you're playing serious competition at a high 4.5 plus level you dont need to be overly finicky about equipment. If most of your tennis is played against people of the same or lower standard to yourself then use what you feel comfortable with and enjoy the game.

As for any abnormal differences in swingweight you could put that down to the rather lax quality control from a lot of the main companies. A racquet should spec the way its meant to spec, if it doesn't then there's been a glitch somewhere along the line.

 

[loubapache]

alan-n:

I agree mostly with your review of the Ncode Tour 90. Good ground strokes, good volleys, and good serves.

The only disappointment I have is touch and feel. My drop volleys are sailing long and wide. What is your experience on this shot?

This is in comparison with PS 6.0 85.

Topspin strokes/spin serves go to Ncode Tour.

Normal volleys are about the same.

Flat strokes/serves and drop volleys go to PS 6.0 85.

What string and tension are you using on the Ncode Tour?
The only disappointment I have is touch and feel.

 

[alan-n]

alan-n:

I agree mostly with your review of the Ncode Tour 90. Good ground strokes, good volleys, and good serves.

The only disappointment I have is touch and feel. My drop volleys are sailing long and wide. What is your experience on this shot?

This is in comparison with PS 6.0 95.

Topspin strokes/spin serves go to Ncode Tour.

Normal volleys are about the same.

Flat strokes/serves and drop volleys go to PS 6.0 85.

What string and tension are you using on the Ncode Tour?
The only disappointment I have is touch and feel.

loubapache, I had much cleaner drop volleys with my NCode 95. The NCode 95 has way less feel but I attribute this more to not fully adjusting my technique to put more underspin with the Tour 90... as the NCode 95 is a spin monster. My drop shots sat up a split second longer in the few doubles matches I played, but those shots forced an error from the opponent or an easy putaway volley / overhead rather than the typical drop winner. This in 4.5 league play.

As of the current time I was comparing both rackets with freshly strung (I string my racquets myself) technifibre NRG2-17. The NCode tour was at 55lbs, NCode 95 at 60lbs as the string pattern is more open and racket can be a rocket launcher.

After this set of NRG2 I will be going back to Natural gut as I nolonger misshit often and do not break strings. NRG2 plays well for 3 weeks or 15 hours of play for me before it is inconsistent and goes dead requiring me to cut them out. Natural gut may be more expensive, but since it retains it playability and tension holding for much longer period of time, I'll pay more for it.. very tired of restringing every 3 weeks of synthetics and overall cost for this would be equal or maybe worse than natural gut. My favorite string to play with is ALU, but it has the same problem I have with other synthetics so its back to Natural gut.

 

[BreakPoint]

alan-n:

I agree mostly with your review of the Ncode Tour 90. Good ground strokes, good volleys, and good serves.

The only disappointment I have is touch and feel. My drop volleys are sailing long and wide. What is your experience on this shot?

This is in comparison with PS 6.0 95.

Topspin strokes/spin serves go to Ncode Tour.

Normal volleys are about the same.

Flat strokes/serves and drop volleys go to PS 6.0 85.

What string and tension are you using on the Ncode Tour?
The only disappointment I have is touch and feel.

loubapache,
You mix the PS 6.0 95 with the PS 6.0 85 in your comparisons so it's a bit confusing. Did you mean to compare both or was that a typo? Thanks.

alan-n,
I agree for the most part with your comparisons of the nCode 90 vs. the 95. I thought the 95 had more power and spin but the 90 had more feel. Both have very good control and I found the swingweights to be comparable.

 

[ShooterMcMarco]

alan-n, i am curious, what strings/hybrids have you tried with your racquet so far and which string/hybrid did you like the most? i also use an ncode 95. i ordered 17g hurricane from tw which should be coming in this weekend, and i'm debating whether to do an all hurricane job or hybrid it with a synthetic gut.

 

[alan-n]

alan-n, i am curious, what strings/hybrids have you tried with your racquet so far and which string/hybrid did you like the most? i also use an ncode 95. i ordered 17g hurricane from tw which should be coming in this weekend, and i'm debating whether to do an all hurricane job or hybrid it with a synthetic gut.

I have 3 NCode 95 and have tried many different string combinations. I use a thin rubber band as a dampener (easy to adjust dampening by # of knots). Over the past year I have played with the following strings: NXT OS-16, NXT-Tour-17, NXT Sensation, Technifibre NRG2, Bow Brand Natural Gut Championship (16-17) and Professional, Klip Natural Gut - 16, Luxilon BB-ALU, Technifibre Spinfire-18.

Just a quick note about strings and racquet... Make sure you play with new balls before drawing any conclusion about how your strings are playing. Some days I hit with a few older balls that my hitting partner brings out and I'm scratching my head about why everything feels so dead when it was just really the balls LOL... I bring out my week old Dunlop Grand Prix and they play better than his two day old Wilsons/Penns LOL.

NXT OS-16: It doesn't have the playabilty of NXT Tour or maybe even sensation.. but it does hold it tension and playability roughly a bit longer, or just over 25 hours of hitting for me before it felt like a pan.

NXT Tour-17 / Sensation / Technifibre NRG2-17: Tour just felt extremely soft and lost tension quite quickly, but played well for around 15 hours. Sensation doesn't play (stiffer, less pocketing feel) as well but lasted longer, around 20 hours. NRG2-17, almost as close to feel as natural, well for around 10 hours at least, after 15 hours of play forget it, just cut it becomes unplayable for me.

Bow Brand 16-17 Championship / Professional, Klip Legend-16: Bow Brand 16-17 Championship were some of the best strings I've hit with, very consistent play (after the first couple of hours of play / initial tension loss), till the time I broke them at close to 30 hours. I then tried Professional, and thought it was too stiff, not enough pocketing feel for a naturual gut. Bow Brand went up in price and then tried Klip Legend, and didn't like it at all as the coating felt too stiff... but I will try them again as most people seem have a favorable rating for them and maybe I just had a batch that had way too much coating applied, because it didn't feel like natural gut at all, it felt like hard plastic worse than poly's I played with.... I tried knocking the felt out of balls and serving the heck out of this string to wear down the coating a bit but gave up.... I'll try another batch of strings again soon.

Technifibre Spinfire-18: I didn't care too much for this one. Its not a bad poly string for the price at all... it just didn't stand out in helping me in top spin potential as I thought it would. Not a bad poly for the price, if you don't mind the stiffness of poly as this one seems to be on the slightly stiffer end of polys... but it just isn't as good as BB ALU so I didn't care for it.

Luxilon BB-ALU @ 52lbs: If money were no object this would be my string of choice for baselining singles play but only if the string is fresh or had less than 10 hours on them. It is just so easy to rip heavy short-angle-short-angle top spin winners, the kind that you see professional players hit and wonder how they came up with such an angle... The feel is soft for poly but is muted so, if you depend on feel for drop volleys than you won't be using this string.... nor the NCode 95 for that matter. Once you play them in the strings do not move at all.. I've never hit heavier shots than with this string. Downside is that playability starts droping at 12 hours and is a frying pan just past 15 for me.

Luxilon BB-ALU crosses - Bow Brand Natural gut hybrid mains (54lbs / 60lbs): If money were no object this would be my choice for doubles play and all around play, where volleys or feel is required. String bed does not move so the natural gut doesn't get sawed and would potentially last a long time except that once again past 15 hours and ALU goes to the crapper and the string bed just feels weird and inconsistent with lively mains and dead crosses. Top spin potential is still good, but I need to simply be in the zone to hit those heavy short-angle-short-angle shots, while with full ALU I can do it leisurely when I'm not hitting my best topspin shots.

Having said all that, I have not broken a set of synthetic strings the past year. For me I'm not at an extremely high level of competive play, and I hate having to cut and restring my racquet due to dead strings so its back to the consistent feel of Natural gut for me.

 

[ShooterMcMarco]

alan, thanks for your time in that post. it was very informative and thorough. after i am done with hurricane (depending on whether i liked it or not) i think i will try bow brand based on what you have said (i'm on a tight budget, but i'll try to fork out a few bucks).
anyways, based on your experiences with polys, would you suggest that i string my hurricane in a hybrid? or a full poly job?

 

[alan-n]

alan, thanks for your time in that post. it was very informative and thorough. after i am done with hurricane (depending on whether i liked it or not) i think i will try bow brand based on what you have said (i'm on a tight budget, but i'll try to fork out a few bucks).
anyways, based on your experiences with polys, would you suggest that i string my hurricane in a hybrid? or a full poly job?

For the current price of Bow Brand, I would consider other brands also. If you have never ever played with full poly before, I highly highly recommend that you try hybriding it with synthetic gut on the mains and poly on the crosses first. What ever tension you are confortable playing with synthetics now, simply string the poly on the crosses around 5lbs less. Full poly is quite a shock on your arm, especially when you mishit, I haven't had any arm problems playing full poly, but I have not played full poly for years and years to develop any tennis-elbow related problems and will not risk doing so... even though my forearm and grip are stronger than the average of my body size, I have a long ways to go so no need to constantly bash heavy winner type shots with full poly every time I get some practice time in.

 

[loubapache]

loubapache,
You mix the PS 6.0 95 with the PS 6.0 85 in your comparisons so it's a bit confusing. Did you mean to compare both or was that a typo? Thanks.

Sorry. That was a typo. I meant 85. Somehow I never liked the 95 as much as many on this board.

 

[The Pusher Terminator]

Some of the reasons that the two raquets swing differently are as follows:

1. BALANCE!!!: Balance points are key here! Two racquets weighing exactly the same amount will swing completely differently depending on the balance points. For example....swing a hammer...then swing the hammer again but this time grab the hammer by the head and swing it.... you will see that the hammer swings much faster. This premise is exactly the same with racquets...the more headlight...the lighter the racquet feels.

2. Another reason they feel differently is that the 90 has a much thinner beam than the 95.

 

[textbook strokes]

ncode tour 90

I've tried both, 90 & 95, and the ncode 90 really work for my tennis!. The 95 felt cumbersome and gave me arm sore after 2 weeks. On the other hand. the 90 is very manuverable despite its static weight.
I'm just about a 4.0 player (w/good mechanics as my nickname states ), and many of my friends think I'm crazy to use such a heavy stick, but as others posters said here, swingweight can be low depending on the balance.
I strongly encourage intermediate players with good fast swings to test this beauty! .

 

[kenc9265]

I play with Pro staff Tour 90 for over 2 years and before that I played with Pro staff original 85. These racquets required skill to master. I would say unless you're 5.0+ player, don't mess with it and that's including Ncode. And don't mess with any other string. Go for the best: Natural gut either babalot tonic or VS thermo gut. I hybrid with Luxion ALU Power and it is great.