String Change

Hi all!

I’ve had my Insanity CPXL for almost a year now, and have really put it through its paces. As a rough estimate, I would say the factory Octane strings it came with have had about 10-12000 shots through them and they are getting a bit shot out and fuzzy. The time has come for a new set of strings!

I bought a bow-press recently so that I can work on my own equipment and change strings/fine tune so I got in touch with Kevin Weller at Wales Archery Specialists who sorted me out with a set of custom strings for my CPXL in hot pink and black that I could fit and set up myself.

They are superb quality, with tight serving and smooth even tension throughout. The clear-served sections for the roller guard looks perfect with the stripes visible through it and the end loops are small and tight. One of the bottom speed nocks has ‘WELLER STRINGS & CABLES’ on it, a really nice personal touch.

I was a little bit nervous as this was my first full harness change on a compound, so I took measurements of everything before making any changes. I have always known that my CPXL is slightly too long ATA (just shy of 1/8”) but everything on it was in time and it shoots very well so I lived with it. Upon taking it down I measured the strings on it and found that they are ever so slightly too long, which explains the ATA error.

I checked Kevin’s strings and they were spot on the factory spec, so I went to work setting them up. It was easy enough to install them and then it is a matter of adjusting the cables by twisting to get the timing marks lined up, and then adjusting the yoke legs to get the cam lean back to how it is supposed to be. Once this was all done, I installed the peep sight and checked the ATA – bang on!

I fitted a rough D loop and shot a few dozen arrows through it to settle everything in, made sure everything was in the right place and fitted a permanent nock point/loop. I checked the draw weight was still correct and shot a dozen arrows through the chrono which is showing 285 fps, about 10fps faster than before – result!

I printed off sight marks to match the new speed and fitted them, and did some tuning at the club to get things lined up. Here is the results of paper tuning once i’d adjusted the cam lean with the new strings, and a group shot at 35 yards..



Paper tear at 5 yards - perfect bullethole!




35 yard group - not bad!



Not bad! I’ve only been able to check my marks back to 35 yards but everything seems to be ok. There is a classification round at Fonmon shortly which will be a nice road test of the new config, no awards or pressure just shooting for a score and to see how the bow performs. It’s also 2 weeks before the Welsh Champs so time for final tweaks before the big one!