guys,

instead of yonex, carltron..... sort of big brands. any other small brands that u guys had tried which's in good value,performance and durability?
plz list them.

thx

red

Forza
I have 2 of their rackets, decent stuff

Try Pro Ace rackets..they are rather good...

Karakal, the only choice if you want a REALLY light racket :D

Black Knight, of course! though... i admit to have recently acquired a nanospeed 8000... and it's pretty sweet. i'd recommend winex too.

SOTX, all the way!

Incidentally, Gollum, I own a Karakal SL-70, and I personally hated it. I tried to like it, really i did, played with it for a few weeks, but I couldn't bring myself to appreciating it-- I just don't find that the impact feeling is all that good, the racket feels "hollow". For my store, I've discontinued carrying them, as there are other rackets that are just as light but have a better impact feeling and are more affordable.

Not that Karakal doesn't doesn't make some great products-- their grips for example, nothing compares:D... but I feel that the high end karakal's are overpriced for the value you get for them, compared to other underdog brands.

Well, I never said I liked the racket ;) I used to like it, but then it started to annoy me - it seemed unstable somehow on hitting, and under-powered. My At800-DE is so much better.

But if you absolutely positively MUST have the lightest racket in the world, there's no alternative.

Lol, sorry for misunderstanding. But that instability you refer to is what i mean by the "hollow feeling", I agree totally. It's that same instability that seems to plague most of the high end Karakals actually.

RSL makes wonderful & budget friendly rackets!

Someone in the forum is saying very good things about La Fleche. Haven't tried it though because the person selling it in the Philippines is in another island and there is no place near where I live I can try it. It is readily availble in HK and China.

Saw some Talbot and Babolat at the sporting goods store the other day, feels good and very wallet friendly!

I have heard a lot about SOTX, but they seem expensive! What do you like about them?

Also, what would you recommend in the Karakal's weight class rackets?

Thanks.


SOTX, all the way!

Incidentally, Gollum, I own a Karakal SL-70, and I personally hated it. I tried to like it, really i did, played with it for a few weeks, but I couldn't bring myself to appreciating it-- I just don't find that the impact feeling is all that good, the racket feels "hollow". For my store, I've discontinued carrying them, as there are other rackets that are just as light but have a better impact feeling and are more affordable.

Not that Karakal doesn't doesn't make some great products-- their grips for example, nothing compares:D... but I feel that the high end karakal's are overpriced for the value you get for them, compared to other underdog brands.

Ok, Hi-Qua. Not advertising for myself or for Hi-Qua, but to answer the question of this thread and giving my honest opinion, Hi-Qua do make a few models that have excellent performance vs price.

I used HQ-909 since 1995 and broke it in 2003 during a smash. HQ-909 plays pretty much like a YY Cab 21 (which I also broke). That was the best racquet I've ever tried for singles at that time, though I also owned YY Cab 20 Tour. Since then I've tried out many different Hi-Qua models and the ones that really impressed me were PRO 3800 & HQ-800.

The PRO 3800 (as it is called for the Asia & Europe market) has normal shaft length compared to the American version HQ-3800 PRO (Long Shaft), otherwise all specs are the same. The racquet is pretty light, but gives you very solid feeling when you hit a shot. Excellent control and stability, no hollow feeling. The one I tried was strung to 24lbs with BG-65.

HQ-800 is a classic all carbon racquet. Cheaper than PRO racquets but also give a very good control and overall performance. It does lack a little power when you smash, but it's a very well-balanced and user-friendly racquet, I just picked it up and get used to using it no problem.

lots of players in my badminton club are using shinny rackets! in fact the rackets were all cloned from yonex racket.no matter the color, model name, everything except the cap and the cone which was printed their brand shinny instead of yonex.
i'd tried one of the shinny at800 de clone. not bad! some of my friends even claimed that the performance is just as good as the real thing! besides, it's only $200 something hk dollars! that's pretty attractive!

For very light racquets, like those in the lower weight range of 4U or below 4U, you can compensate the lack of power with very high tension, up to a point. I have a 83g racquet (racquet and string) which was a little lacking in power, but I have since strung it to 28.5/31 lbs and I did manage to squeeze a little extra power from it. Light racquets and low tensions do not make a good combination. The champions of old used 17lbs tension on 125g racquets.

Someone in the forum is saying very good things about La Fleche. Haven't tried it though because the person selling it in the Philippines is in another island and there is no place near where I live I can try it. It is readily availble in HK and China.


Send a PM to Pball. I think he is the Metro Manila dealer of LaFleche rackets. He usually plays in Olympic Badminton Club and in Intramuros Badminton Center.

black knight, forza, karakal, hi qua, all very good.
some how i would classify black knight as mainstream though, since it's canada's most prominant brand.

Not that Karakal doesn't doesn't make some great products-- their grips for example, nothing compares:D

Well, the Karakal grips used to be the best. But they seem to have reduced in quality in the last year or so. Many shops stopped stocking them; last time I used a Karakal PU grip, it did not stick to the handle properly :eek:

There are now plenty of competitors too. Decreasing quality of Karakal + more alternatives = buy alternatives

Well, I tried many rackets, I didn't like Forza that much in the past, but they sure have improved. Karakal is not for me. I personally like Winex a lot. Cheap and playing extremely well. Actually I always used Yonex, but since they have the nice policy of making a racket only for a short time I tried a WInex copy of my favourite Yonex..and strangely enough I prefered the Winex, it seemed easier to handle without any loss on control of power. Currently trying the Nanotec 7700 of them, and I am amazed. It's a good racket. The last year I used their Armanetic 800 racket, playing great. And they also make "own" models....but I have switched to them because they are much cheaper than Yonex, and actually I love them...If anyone would have told me some years back I would have laughed in his face probably...funny thing...

Gosen Aermet 3600, light and budget value