Head to head

Solinco Tour Bite 16 Soft vs Volkl Cyclone 18

Cyclone 18 leads on 5 of 6 measurements. The widest gap is energy return, where Cyclone 18 is 6 percentile points ahead. Every figure is a testing-machine result at a fixed reference tension.

Measured, side by side

Solinco

Tour Bite 16 Soft

Polyester · 16 ga

Volkl

Cyclone 18

Polyester · 18 ga

Stiffness lower = softer, kinder on the arm
18451st pct
18148th pct
Tension loss lower = stays where you strung it
5089th pct
4885th pct
Energy return higher = livelier, more free power
8412th pct
8517th pct
Spin potential higher = more spin off the string bed
6.989th pct
7.191st pct
Ball bite higher = grabs the ball harder
0.54990th pct
0.58094th pct
String friction lower = strings slide and snap back
0.08024th pct
0.08229th pct

Bars are percentile against all 791 strings, and the marked side is the one that measures better, which is not always the one you want. A firmer bed is worse for your elbow and better for your control, and no measurement knows which of those you came for.

Which one wins, by problem

Each string's standing on the site's rankings, out of every measured string in the database. This is where a comparison stops being arithmetic and starts being a decision.

Swapping between them: what tension?

Bed stiffness is published at one reference tension, so the only honest conversion is to scale it. These are starting points from 52 lb, not prescriptions. The calculator takes your own tension.

Coming from Tour Bite 16 Soft at 52 lb

String Cyclone 18 at 53.8 lb 24.4 kg

Coming from Cyclone 18 at 52 lb

String Tour Bite 16 Soft at 50.7 lb 23.0 kg

Hybrid: what if you used both?

Estimated, not measured. No hybrid combination has been tested as a bed. These figures are the two strings' own lab measurements weighted by how much of the bed each one actually is. Treat them as a guide to which way a pairing moves, never as lab data.

Tour Bite 16 Soft mains / Cyclone 18 crosses

Stiffness49th pct · 1 measured
Tension loss88th pct · 1 measured
Energy return13th pct · 1 measured
Spin potential90th pct · 1 measured
Ball bite91st pct · 1 measured
String friction25th pct · 1 measured

Cyclone 18 mains / Tour Bite 16 Soft crosses

Stiffness49th pct · 1 measured
Tension loss87th pct · 1 measured
Energy return15th pct · 1 measured
Spin potential91st pct · 1 measured
Ball bite93rd pct · 1 measured
String friction28th pct · 1 measured

Open this in the hybrid builder

Which goes dead first?

Estimated from tension loss, which is the only thing the database measures about ageing. This is when the bed stops playing the way you strung it, not when the string breaks.

Tour Bite 16 Soft

~13 hours of play

Cyclone 18

~15 hours of play

Both strings in full

Every published measurement
StringGaugePriceStiff lb/inLoss %Power %SpinBite COFFriction COF
Solinco Tour Bite 16 Soft Polyester16$13.9918450846.90.5490.080
Volkl Cyclone 18 Polyester18$9.9918148857.10.5800.082

Add a third string Tour Bite 16 Soft in full Cyclone 18 in full