Barebow Riser suitability for Barebow

steve Morley

New member
I thought we might make this a sticky for newcomers to Barebow Stringwalking when figuring what riser may be suited for Stringwalking, on paper all ILF risers should work but some just work better than others. To highlight things like practicality for Stringwalking, build quality, ease of tune, value for money, problems/drawbacks with riser. I haven't shot many ILF risers but if everybody contributes we should have a fairly comprehensive list of risers. It's all subjective but should give people some ideas what to look for and what to avoid in a riser.

W&W Pro-Accent. Light weight and reasonably priced riser, all W&W grips seem nice to use, limited on balancing for BB but as the riser is fairly light it's not that difficult to set up, light weight would make it a suitable choice for a woman.

Bernadini Nilo Good options for balancing the riser, good build quality, only draw back is the grip as it just didn't work for me, I understand Jager now offer a grip for this riser.

Best Moon Good value for money, easy to tune and balance, grip is too chunky but fixed buy taking a file to it.

Stolid Bull Vanquish Superb build quality and craftsmanship, some great innovation in the design, balances even without any BB weights. Drawbacks is it's very heavy even without weights 1.8kg, the support bar in front of the grip can feel awkward if you have smaller than average hands and it's very expensive compared to other risers, it's not over priced, just that you pay for quality.

SF Forged PLUS I've not owned one of these but I have set up 3 for Stringwalking for club members, for a first BB riser this is an excellent affordable choice, you get good value for your money, pretty good quality, tunes easy, not too heavy and a perfect ladies first BB.
 

blakey

Active member
Good idea Steve. I'm happy to share my experiences as long as no one takes me too seriously. I'm only expressing personal opinions. First up, I'd like to say that of all the risers I've played with, only one has had reasonable vertical balance in the hand. All the others when held bare with a loose grip have tipped back to hit me in the head, even those promoted as designed for barebow. The exception was the Stolid Bull Vanquish, which Steve shoots with. It's a really unusual riser. But for those with shallower pockets, such as myself, don't get disheartened, judicious heavy weights can help with balance. That's if you want a vertical bow, which is what I prefer.

Samick Polaris: I started off with one of these, attaching a 1 lbs lump of lead in the stab hole to get balance, and packing the limb pockets with leather to try to stop the limbs moving. I shot my first national record with this, and got the bug.

Bernardini Nilo: I tried a variety of club risers, including SFs and Spigs, but finally went for the Nilo on a recommend and because of the weight options in the bottom of the riser. My scores improved, and so did my understanding of balance. The lower weight holes on the Nilo do not help, because they are behind the pivot point of the grip, and in effect help tip the bow back towards the head.. It is a good bow but to get vertical balance you do need a serious barebow weight in the front stab hole. I still use this bow for indoors, and I think it's got a 14 or 15 oz weight in the front stab. I cast lead inside pieces of old vacuum cleaner tube to get the necessary weight inside the size restrictions.

Bernardini Luxor: I decided to get one of these because someone won the European Indoors with one, plus I was told that the longer length helped with string walking. The Luxor is 27". I backset the throat of the grip by half an inch, which changes the balance. This rig balances vertically with a mere 8 ozs in the front stab hole. It's my favourite target bow but I can't seem to tune it for Field. The shorter distances get me.

PSE X-Appeal: I bought one of these on another recommend, to shoot for Field. I like it, but it needs a lot of weight, about 16 ozs currently. It's a work in progress. It's a good riser, but definitely designed for Olympic Recurve.

Those are the bows I have owned. I always ask to pick up and hold any new riser that comes into the club. My opinion now, for what it's worth, is that you can use any riser for barebow if you hang enough weight off the front of it. There is no magic bullet, but I'm now leaning towards thinking that limb alignment is critical for successful string walking. A lot of risers and limbs are just not that finely engineered. Long crawls are going to exaggerate any deviations. But there are ways to get perfect alignment even with cheap gear. :)
 
My main bow is a Best Moon riser with med. UUKHA limbs I use a Jager grip..
My back up bow is an SF premium with SF Ultimate Pro long limbs with 2 weights (390gms in the grip stab hole and a 350gm in the lower) this gives a similar balance and weight to the Moon set up. The Premium also has a Jager grip
 

JohnK

Well-known member
I've a little experience with barebow. There are some target risers that work very well for it:

PSE Intrepid: Still one of my favourite risers. The sight window is a little shallow, which can make tuning with good clearance tricky in my opinion. However, with a single 350g barebow weight in the front stabiliser bushing it reacts wonderfully on the shot. Of course, it's been discontinued for years now.

Best Zenit: Not the barebow version, but the standard target model. Again all I need is a single 350g weight to make it hold steady. This has the advantage of not being discontinued :)
 

blakey

Active member
We have two archers at our club who shoot the Spigarelli Revolution barebow. I've tried them a few times. It is a riser with very little deflex, which I feel helps with vertical balance. It also has an option for a very simple additional barebow weight bar. And it's also relatively cheap. I think it's a good option for starting out. If you can handle the mod minimalist look.
 

Valkamai

Member
I'll play along, but my views are not based on any sort of expertise like some here...

First bow was a kap prostyle, basically a polaris with a metal riser instead of wood. Had lots of fun with it but made no real adjustments for barebow before moving on to. ..

Kap winstar, ilf riser with win and win winus limbs. Added a 350g weight in the top stab bushing for a bit more balance before the top limb bolt thread shredded (twice, once when at full draw, the limb spun around with the tip as the fulcrum and the thick part smacked me on the top of my head!) Lost confidence in the riser strangely enough and bought...

Samick athlete to go with the winus limbs. Lovely riser but really needed 2x 350g weights and still tilted back a bit on release. This bow us still my indoor setup.

I did upgrade to border hex 5 limbs, which I used on the Samick for a while before transferring them to their current home....

A spigarelli revolution barebow model which has better balance with the specific 250g revolution weight than any of my other risers have with a combined 700g added.
It's not a bow for everyone (the looks are kind of an acquired taste, though it makes me smile everytime I get it out) and you are kind of stuck with the zt rest (I was using one on the Samick anyway so not an issue). But i think for the money it's kind of hard to beat.
:)
 

blakey

Active member
Interesting observations about the Spig Revolution. The way it was explained to me is that if you draw a line through the throat of the grip (the pivot point) in the vertical plane, then weights attached inside that line are going to pendulum the top of the bow back towards the head, whereas weights attached outside the line are going to swing the top of the bow forward. So a riser with little deflex has in inbuilt advantage to gain vertical balance. The Vanquish is a great example of this. In effect with risers with a lot of deflex there is no point in screwing weights into the bottom hole. The weight would need to be in the main stabiliser socket. I hope I've explained that OK. I was shown with a diagram, but I don't know how to replicate that on here.
 

dfrois

Supporter
Supporter
It's great to hear about others experience with the Spigarelli Revolution. I have one, and intend to shoot in the summer with it, barebow and stringwalking. I have done some experiences with weights on it, and, as you said, the best reaction is with a fairly substantial weight (300g, I think) on the stabilizer bushing. Weight in other positions do not have as much effect. But this riser does not kick back very much even without weights. So, good for barebow, I think. Weight on the limb tips may also have some influence on this. The very few training sessions I had, shooting barebow with the Spig and my Border TX40 Golds, were very encouraging.

Daniel Fr?is
 

cweg

New member
Hoyt Matrix very forgiving, stable with two weights about 300g each, that makes the riser 2000g in the sum. A little Kick-back but easy to handle. Disliked the Grip, went for a Jager Best 2.0. Good built quality and durability.

Gillo G1 forgiving, middle stiff riser with very good BB tuning options. Replaced the Grip with the Grip from the Matrix (same fit) It bases on the same Geometrie as the Best Zenit, well/ strong built. Can be tillered or setup the limb alignment while strung. Different custom weights can be used. Special Gillo BB weight 270g, 780 or 830 g. In January 2016 will another 400g Weight be added to the G1 Program.
 

blakey

Active member
Hoyt Matrix very forgiving, stable with two weights about 300g each, that makes the riser 2000g in the sum. A little Kick-back but easy to handle. Disliked the Grip, went for a Jager Best 2.0. Good built quality and durability.

Gillo G1 forgiving, middle stiff riser with very good BB tuning options. Replaced the Grip with the Grip from the Matrix (same fit) It bases on the same Geometrie as the Best Zenit, well/ strong built. Can be tillered or setup the limb alignment while strung. Different custom weights can be used. Special Gillo BB weight 270g, 780 or 830 g. In January 2016 will another 400g Weight be added to the G1 Program.
How does the Gillo balance in the hand? It looks to be one of the most versatile of the promoted barebow risers, but I've yet to see or hold one. I'm hoping one will turn up down this way soon. Is it possible to get a forward roll with it barebow? Cheers
 

cweg

New member
First I shot the G1 with 38# Border CVs, now with 34# Uukha EX1. I use the internal Weight Set (about 180g) and I'm testing around with 400g in the lower Stab bushing or a 250g weight in the main bushing or lower bushing. I'm using a Jager Best 2.0 LOW Grip. With the 400g weight the G1 keeps dead stable. With the 250 it gets a little more dynamic, a little kick-back but easy to handle and I like this behaviour when the bow jumps forward and then kicks a little while falling in the Fingersling.

But it seems to be my personal technic, cause when I tested the Vanquish, Vanquish SX and the Black Thunder from Stolid Bull, I had the same behaviour ( the SX less the BT most). Holger did a video and in Slomo we saw that the bows kick after the arrow left, so no influence to the arrow flight. In January Gillo will present a 400g BB Weight, I'll get it, not cause it's needed but I'm curious about how it will improve the bows reaction.

Best Christoph
 

TrevorK

New member
Good thread, after shooting Olympic recurve, best part of ten years, took up bare bow recurve 6 months ago, started with the SF plus, button and flipper rest, and a little weight, shot well, but I felt something more solid, looking at You tube for clues, saw a Hoyt Nexus/ matrix, after seeing them being used, got a Nexus, very happy with it, Uukha limbs #36 and carbon one arrows and spig wrap around rest, three fingers under 55 meters point on, so happy with that :)
 

EVC

New member
Exactly what I saw here. Still I wonder how important is this for barebow (I shoot olympic). I guess one still needs to have weights attached to have dynamic balance regardless of the riser static balance, whether vertical or horizontal.
 

steve Morley

New member
EVC the Vanquish is not a Barebow riser, it's actually an Olympic riser that's just well suited for Barebow style. This year I had a shoulder injury and took off the BB weights from the Vanquish for a short while, the shot reaction is still very good even without any added weight, not other riser shooting Stringwalking have I had such a positive shot reaction/feedback when no weights added. I doubt any other riser will match this riser for stiffness because of the design and materials used.
 

blakey

Active member
Exactly what I saw here. Still I wonder how important is this for barebow (I shoot olympic).
Hi EVC. The thing with Olympic is that you have the longrod, which gives you a massive advantage with bow reaction after the shot. I'm a great admirer of the forward roll, and all of our best club shooters use it, though I understand now its out of vogue. Without a longrod or reasonable vertical balance you get a shot reaction that tips back and sometimes hits you in the face. What I aim for is a shot reaction that jumps forward with minimal movement in the vertical plane. The Vanquish gives you that.

Here is an example of the balance of an Olympic riser with no longrod or weights. It's one of my favourite risers and I shoot it bare LH when my right shoulder needs a rest. But as you can imagine the shot reaction is desperate to say the least.

PSE X Appeal.jpg
 
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