Elivanes - What I Personally Use

Elivanes in the gold

As I said in a previous post, my favorite plastic vane is the excellent VaneTec Swift.  In fact, had I not found the vanes that are the subject of this post, I'd still be shooting Swifts.  However, after reading many encouraging posts on ArcheryTalk and seeing how many top-level archers use them, I gave Elivanes a try.  Now they're what I personally use.

What Are They?

Elivanes are mylar curly vanes.  They have a permanent helical molded-in.  They're extremely lightweight and are applied with fletching tape rather than gluing them on.  They come in a few different shapes and sizes.  I personally use the P3 vanes (P means Parabolic profile).  The S3 profile is also highly regarded.

How Well Do They Work?

Using my fletching jig set at 1 degree straight offset, I drew lines carefully on my Bloodsport One Series arrows using a mechanical pencil.  I applied the vanes using the double-sided tape provided with the vanes and taped the ends down using the provided black tape.

I've been using these vanes for close to six months now, with great success.  They have proven to be quite durable - I've not had to replace a single vane.  When the archer does his job right and releases cleanly, these vanes work remarkably well.  Because they're very lightweight, it gives you just a little more arrow front-of-center balance.  They correct any remaining wobble rapidly and get the arrow spinning for additional flight stability.  If you have a rough, plucky release though, they probably won't correct all of it out.  In other words, these are not good for beginners.

A Tournament Advantage

One advantage to using these vanes, besides the very good flight performance, is that you can replace them easily on the field or at the range - no jig required.  As long as you have your lines drawn on well and bring the tape with you, you can fix any ruined vanes at the tournament so you can keep shooting.

Summary

The Good: 

• Lightweight
• Fly really well - stabilize and impart spin
• Suprisingly Durable

The Bad:

• Won't compensate for a bad release
• Don't come with enough fletching tape
• Aren't good for beginners
• Aren't as pretty as the VaneTec Swift vanes

A Few Helpful Tips

As I said, the package doesn't come with nearly enough double-sided fletching tape.  There also isn't enough of the black end-securing tape.

Get a roll of Bohning fletching tape.  It'll last you several dozen arrows and besides sticking better, it's a tiny bit narrower and therefore works even better - provided you have your shafts cleaned well.

For the end tape, I picked up a roll of pinstriping tape from an auto parts store.  It was cheap and will also last for several dozen arrows.  As an added bonus, you can usually get different colors of pinstriping tape.

A Note About These Photos: the photos you see in this post were taken by me.  If you're wondering how I got such nice depth of field effects, I used a 1970s vintage Fujinon 50/1.8 (non-EBC) at f/4.0 on my Canon 60D.  No processing was done other than adjusting exposure and cropping/resizing.

My favorite plastic vanes - VaneTec Swift

The VaneTec Swift 1.87" vane

Since switching to recurve I've experimented with a number of different types of vanes for my arrows.  I've tried VaneTec SuperSpine in a couple of lengths, AAE WAV vanes, FlexFletch FFP187, and VaneTec Swifts in a couple of lengths.  While the WAVs and the FFP187s did fly well, each had their own issues.  Of all the plastic vanes I've tried, the ones that have consistently worked best for me are the VaneTec Swift series vanes.

What are they? 

Swift 1.87" and 2.25"

The Swift vanes are a low-profile, shield-cut, plastic vane.  They come in plenty of colors and are available in three sizes: 2.88", 2.25", and 1.87".  While not designed to be an ultra lightweight vane, they are comparable in weight to similar vanes from their competitors (except the WAV).  Even though they're marketed as a 3D shooting vane, they work great as recurve vanes.  I've personally used both the 1.87" and 2.25" vanes but not the 2.88" vanes.

How well do they work?

Swift vanes work with all fletching glues and have a narrow, but not too-narrow base, which makes them easy to glue on.  They have a nice shape that makes for attractive finished arrows.  They're also very durable and don't discolor much in sunlight or when exposed to adhesives.  Most importantly, they fly very well.  For me, they fly just as well as the WAV vanes and the FFP187 vanes.

Recommendation

Blue and Flo. Green 2.25" Swifts

If you're looking at trying out some high performance vanes and don't have to have the absolute lightest plastic vanes available, you'd have a hard time finding a better plastic vane than the Swift vanes.  Although they're heavier than the WAV vanes, they're far easier to glue on and are more durable.

AAE WAV vanes

Last year, AAE introduced a new vane that has caused quite a stir.  The vane is called WAV.  It's a 2" vane that's low-profile (0.33" tall) and weighs only 1.7 grains each!  A plastic vane of this size with that weight is truly remarkable.  In addition to the impressive specs, it's got a nice shield cut shape (which I like) and bold graphics (which I like reasonably well).

So, when they became available, I was in the process of getting some new arrows to try out so I grabbed some WAV vanes to try out as well.  Here are my impressions, experiences, and opinions.

Impressions: the vanes are noticeably lightweight.  The material is very thin, and the base where you glue them to the shaft is considerably more narrow than other vanes.  The material is not as stiff as other vanes, almost stretchy.  They have a matte surface finish.

In shooting, I found that these vanes do what they advertise - they fly really, really well.  I fletched mine up with 1 degree straight offset, which worked well for me indoors and outdoors.  I used my usual Flex-Bond adhesive, which turned out to be not ideal.  Because of the very narrow base, it's really tough to glue these vanes on, and unless you use the glue AAE suggests (AAE Max Bond Glue) they will literally fall off.  I didn't have a single shooting session in which I didn't have at least one vane simply fall off.  They do fly really great when they are still on the shaft, though!  Another issue I had is that they warp/distort quite easily.  If you shoot an arrow a little close to another, the impact can cause puckered, almost stretched vanes.

The Good: These are really light, very attractive, great-flying vanes.

The Bad: They're hard to glue on, will probably fall off if you don't use AAE's glue, and tend to warp/distort a little easier than I'd like.

My verdict: If you use the AAE glue, I'd recommend these vanes if you must have the lightest 2" low-profile vanes available.  They really do fly well, look nice, and are light enough to almost compete with mylar vanes.  However, be prepared to replace them a little more frequently than other plastic vanes.

In the end, for plastic vanes I switched back to my favorite - the VaneTec Swift.  The Swift vanes in 1.87" weigh almost double the WAV vanes (3.2 grains), but that's still pretty light.  They're much more durable, much easier to glue on, they come in more colors, and they fly pretty much exactly as well for me as the WAV vanes.  If you can live with the small amount of extra weight, give the Swifts a try.

Win & Win 2014 new risers

I'm a big fan of Win & Win products.  They consistently produce high quality, high performance gear that many top archers use.  Don't get me wrong - Hoyt does too, but I prefer Win & Win's stuff.

There are a few new risers from Win & Win this year - the Inno AXT, the Winact VT, and the Rapido.  I really like the Inno AXT, which is like an aluminum version of the top-of-the-line carbon Inno CXT or Inno-Max.  That should make it a little cheaper.

The Winact VT looks like a pretty nice riser too, with a more angular look.

More details can be found here.