String twist question

[James Park]

One thing I have noticed on all single cam bows: The string starts at the cam, goes up over the wheel, and then down to the cam again. Aside from a couple of exceptions (some Hoyts and High Countries with twin track wheels) it is one continuous string. Invariably, after the bow has been shot for a while, the inner string ends up with tighter twists than the outer string (the one you put the arrow on). One would think that because the string is continuous the rate of twist in each part would be the same, but in practice that is definitely not the case. After just one day of shooting with my new bow, you can certainly see that the two portions of the string have different twist rates (as I would have expected from past experience).
What is going on here? I have thought about it quite a bit, but have no satisfactory explaination. Any ideas?

[TomL]

I never noticed this phenomenon on my old Jennings, but I got curious and I just went to the attic to check my old bow, and your correct, I have about 16 turns on the outher part of the string and 20 on the inner part.

Just an idea, by drawing the bow, you'll get one long and one short part of string. You would expect that the longer part is more vulnerable to changes than the shorter part, and since the long part is the one that holds the arrow and get's released, it actually does undergo external influences.
We also know that the string has to be turned to the left or right depending on the bow (left or right handed model), and so depending on the release of a specific archer.
What I'm trying to say is that by releasing a shot, the string won't make a straight movement, but it will make a slightly curved movement. This curve will unwind the string locally, but due to the shot, and the rapidly decreasing lenght of the long part of string, the string will be cought in this position.
Since the string is attached on both sides, unwinding one side will automatically result in winding the other side.
I would think that after a while this comes to an equilibrium, where you first wind the string a bit by drawing, and then unwind it by releasing.

Another idea that pops to mind, is what roll plays the peep in all this, maybe it does make the string to unwind even more.

It would be interesting to see some high speed movies where you can atcually see the string travel very clearly.

[OldDog]

Just checked both of mine Jim, I have equal twists either side of the wheel, Dont know what this means but both strings have been on for some time, whether the mathews zebra and tiger twist strings negate this prob or not I do not know, Interesting post though

[James Park]

Noel,
Leigh's Matthews has unequal twists. Don't know what sort of string he has.