What breaks a disc in? What about it makes a disc become more understable?

How do you get a new disc to fly more understable short of throwing it alot? Any tricks? Thanx

[Twoputt]

Kevin McCoy showed me by taking a brand new disc, then going over on the grass and throwing it into the ground as hard as possible on its edge. Breaks it in without having to hit trees, walls, or anything else. I thought it was strange but it actually worked.

[Tony]

What it is about the impact that makes the disc become more understable? I guess that is the thing im wondering the most.

[Yeddie VanHalen]

I had a new champ valk that I needed to break in quick. I threw it at a wooden pallet from about 30' away about ten times. I think all the dents, cuts & scratches on the edge of the disc make it more understable. It gets "beat in".

[Ryan Cole]

The more a disc is subject to wind resistance the more its "high-speed turn" impacts it. When you get a new disc with crisp edges, it cuts through the wind nicely and doesn't produce a lot of friction. However when those edges blunt a bit, they provide a flatter surface that is affected more by the friction from the wind thereby giving it more "high-speed" turn and making the disc more understable.

It's just like when you throw into a headwind, an overstable disc is the best to use since the high-speed turn increases and straightens out the flight pattern (the disc will go straighter than if you threw the same disc without a headwind).

At least that's how I understand it. Anybody back me up on this?

Ryan
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http://www.Hazardiscs.com
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[THE J.P.]

Many many many many many many........trees, But not that many if its dx plastic.LOL The impact changes its flight charicteristics....ie... pounding a circle into a square. The edges develop a flater edge where it used to be rounded..when the spin is applied the weight ratio is altered and its aerodynamics are affected, thus making it less stable in its flight path. does this help u....?

[Tony]

Ok i must admit at first read this sounds like a bad idea... but my goodness it works like a charm! WOW! Works great w/ Wraiths and bosses.. im sure its the same w/ other high speed discs.

[mothergoose]

would this not be a rules violation?

[Lotto]

play a few rounds with just that disc. itll break in pluss youll get used to the new flight pattern faster.

[ROBEY the one.]

stand ten feet away from a tree and grip it and rip it! big tree about ten times and your done, hit it square and it wont damage the disc at all.

[4U2NV]

I would tend to agree with this post a lot. Typically when you see a disc hit something hard it has a tendency to bend/flx. Some plastics absorb this blow better then other like Champ or Z plastic. Others like DX or Pro-D have a tendency to crumble under the pressure (TACO) and never return. I am not sure if tuning would work or not but if you have a disc you don't like much you can try it and see how well tuning works for you.

Iceman said:

From Aerobie's website:

Tuning discs, by bending them, works on long range drivers. I do not recommend it for shorter range discs. A typical long range driver has a rim about 3/4" wide, which is about the width of a penny. Our new Epic driver has a variable-width rim which varies in width from one inch to 1.6 inches (fig 3 below). The wider the disc's rim, the more it responds to tuning.

To decrease the stability of any driver, you simply bend it downward. This can be done either by just flexing it like a taco, or by working your hands gradually around while bending just the rim. I prefer this latter method because it doesn't leave the disc looking like it just encountered a freight train. Fig 1 shows a disc rim being bent downward to decrease stability. Start at one place on the disc and repeat this bend about every 45 degrees around it until you are back where you started.

And of course, to increase the stability, you simply bend the rim upward (fig 2).

What's Happening?

Downward bending reduces the height of the outer edge of the disc and that's what changes the flight. Upward bending increases the edge height. It's as simple as that.

Many players whom I've taught about tuning have worried that the disc won't hold its tune but I can assure you that your disc will retain its tune very well. I often measure the heights of disc edges with a special instrument that I made just for this purpose (fig 3 below). It's accurate to one half-thousandth of an inch and has proven that discs hold their tune indefinitely. This instrument has been useful to my disc research, but you don't need it to tune your own discs. Just go out to an open field and start bending and throwing.

Of course any disc, tuned or not, will become distorted if you leave it in a hot car with a pile of heavy stuff on it. So, if you're serious about accurate flights, you should store your discs properly without any pressure that might bend them.

Most players have noted that well-used discs tend to become less stable with time. It's often thought that dinged edges are the culprit. However I've deliberately dinged the edges of discs and observed no change in flight stability. Thus I think it's likely that the disc's edge has simply been bent downward from accumulated encounters with trees, rocks and other hard surfaces.

[Donny Olow]

Dx is easier to break in.

[Robert Hargrove]

well i always thought that when a disc hits a tree it loses some of its plastic polymer characteristics making it a little lighter everytime it hits something. the power you have has alot to do with it as well. I can turn a boss over at about 171 but when i beat in a star boss 175 now i can turn it more and more. Thus, the term "Growing with a disc." Then again all this is in theory. I would assume the lip being rubbed off or hit off whatever has somehting to do with it. But, then again it would loose speed right because when you throw it out the wind would cause friction... Hmm interesting i would like to know aswell.