mrfritz44

I was forced to consider another cable slide when my shield cut feathers lightly clipped the cable of the Patriot. I've since used three slides and settled on one given how smoothly it draws. Hopefully, someone considering a new slide will find this useful.

1. The factory slide is rough. You can almost feel the cable dragging across the slide when you draw and the cable shows the wear. From what I understand from this forum, others experience wear from the factory installed slide as well.

2. Bomar white virgin teflon slide - This one is very similar to the Sims slide for a little less cost. It provided a little more fletching clearance, but I could still feel the cable moving through the slots. I took it off after a few shots.

3. Alpine Archery roller slide - This is the one I'm sticking with. It's not as simple as the others, and it has two of those dreaded e-clips to hold the axle in the bracket, but the draw was noticably smoother and caused no noticable wear on the cables. I've shot this slide about 1200 times without any issues.

This slide holds two plastic rollers on a steel axle mounted within a rubber bracket. The bracket also holds a white teflon cylinder, the inside of which makes contact with the cable guard rod. There is quite a bit of friction holding the wheels together in the bracket, and they're hard to turn at rest. However, the pressure of the cables moving through the slide turns the wheels and eliminates any potential friction on the cables. It seems that this keeps the slide quiet, despite the moving parts, and creates the smoother draw that I liked.

I chrono'd this slide against the factory installed Bowtech slide and it was about 2-3 fps slower, but the ultra-smooth draw cycle outweighs this trade off - for me anyway.


Just my two cents for those considering a replacement on their Bowtech...........

Fritz

PABowhntr

Thanks for the tip Fred. I may have to give one of those Alpine slides a whirl. Do you think a roller slide with less friction between the wheels would be even better? Personally I have found the NAP and PSE slides to both work reasonably well in terms of clearance and overall perceived feel but am always looking to try new things.

AllenRead

I installed the Alpine Archery slides on my son's PSE and it was noticably smoother. A big improvement.

His bow is the Nova model which is PSE's least expensive model so almost anything that we do to it is an improvement. It is a pretty good shooting bow, just not as smooth or as fast as the top of the line models.

I did not check the change in speed.

mrfritz44

I'm sure that less roller friction would be a good thing in terms of speed and cable wear, but I'm not sure what kind of noise might be generated from loose rollers. Maybe a Mathews guy can comment on how easily the cable rollers function on their bows and if anything is audible from the roller assembly. I'm not even sure it would be possible with this design given the softness of the rubber bracket. The rollers seem to act as spacers as well.

Is that another Mathews patent? It would be nice to see a Bowtech with roller cable slides.

Fritz

PABowhntr

I don't know if it is a Mathews patent...probably Martin or PSE as they seem to hold a patent for everything.... On a related note, I think there are other "issues" with those roller cable guard setups and that is why you are not seeing them on other companies' products though I could be mistaken and it may just be a patent issue.

Swamp Dawg

Thanks for the tip Fritz. I was having the same problem. I switched to the Sims Teflon with no problems so far.

PA.JAY

I have 2 mathews 1 has the rod I got A muzzy zero effect rest with their slide. any how on my new bow it has the wheels I feel no differance BUT I never thought of it till now!
I really did'nt need A new thing to think about when I'm shooting

Trushot_archer

I switched to the Alpine exactly 1 week after I got my Pat Dually. World of difference. I used a bit of gear oil I have for fishing reels on the spacer btw the wheels and lost no speed. They still don't spin with your finger but they spin easier than before.

mrfritz44

I may try oiling them myself.

PABowhntr

I have a feeling that after all the comments about the cable slide that there may be an upgrade in the offing.