Okay, here's the deal. The Victor MX80 is my go-to and has been for about 6 months now. I also have a Victor BS11 as my "boo hoo I'm having an off day / I'm sleepy" racket. Got some money from a recent sale so I was thinking either getting another BS11, or being adventurous and trying something else. I'm actually contemplating something similar to the BS11 but another brand. Something mid-stiff and forgiving, slightly head heavy at about 295mm net. The MX80's are 299mm BP so I could handle anything under that. Brands? No Apacs. I do like to be leftfield so probably no Yonex and LiNing might be out of my budget. Suggestions?
RSL X5 Silver from RKEP. Going for around $140. I was contemplating on getting this racket since it is slightly head heavy and mid-stiff. Sorta like the MX70 in terms of stiffness/head heavy. But I recall you didn't like your MX70 so I'm not sure if you'd enjoy similar specs. It may or may not suit you but the only way to know is to try.
Nah it's not like I didn't like the MX70, it's just that it didn't really accomplish anything my BS11 didn't, and I already have the MX80 so it was really just more of the same / too similar. RSL might be something to look at, I'll do some research.....
What about Gosen Ryoga series from MBS? But I think they have an Oval head instead of Isometric. So a smaller sweet spot.
You're right, they do look top shelf the Fleets. The 888 or whatever it is is essentially an MX80 though.What about a TC700? Do I want to inflict myself with one of those? lol
I am on a limited budget! I sold my MX70 for what I paid for it, so technically it only cost me 65 bucks! That's how it works, right Anyway, now as a Kason user I must argue that LiNings are just rebadged Kasons and that if they didn't buy out Kason they wouldn't know how to make a racket! Haha!
Okay, so here's some all important statitics! Kason C7 Twister 85g dry, 91g net BP 304mm String VS850 @ 24lbs Grip RKEP Ultimate replacement For reference, both my MX80's are 92g / 299 BP, so through no good judgement on my behalf, my new Kason is a very nice specification indeed! A bit head heavier than the MX80's, and a smidge lighter. Interestingly, I weighed every C7 they had in the shop and I stopped weighing them because they were all exactly 85g. Now for some crap photos!
Okay, very, very short term 'review' ie: I've only played two matches with it. Like Cai Yun, the C7 is pasty and almost trasluscent, like the weapon of some really pissed off Elf, having being exiled amongst us petulent humans for doing something nasty to one of their women. The design is fairly stripped back, perhaps slightly reminiscent of the Arc10 but only if you desperately need reference to something already in existence so your head doesn't explode. The sharp red-fade-to-black prongs are nice simple accents to what would otherwise be a fairly bland pearl white racket. I'd actually like to see some silver or light metallic grey at 3 and 6 o'clock just to break things up a bit more. Weirdly, I found the black handle, cone and fade at the lower end of the shaft gave me no visual clues as to how to change my grip, which I know makes no sense but I often found myself gripping the racket too high up, so I added some red grip finishing tape to it instead of black, which helped. Thing is, just by looking at it and in light of the guy using it, you'd expect this racket to be super light and nimble, something akin to an NS9900 maybe or a BS10. If you thought that, you'd be wrong. Oh so wrong. This thing is a complete bruiser. Actually watching Cai Yun play now, I have extra respect for him, or at least for his arm. It's stiff, it's heavy, and when you hit the sweetspot it makes a sound like Cai Yun crushing a skull with his foot. Seriously, I have never heard anything like it. The first smash I actually managed to get right, the whole facility stopped and looked to the sky, wondering if a storm was brewing. The feel for me was a bit reminiscent of the Victor SW35, and users of that racket wanting to try something similar, but different, should take a serious look at this racket. I found it slightly more accessible, and slightly faster than the SW35. It doesn't carry it's weight exactly the same - it's slightly less evenly distributed and more contributed towards the head (but nothing like a VT80, more an MX80 on steriods). Unlike the SW35 though, you get a speed boost but it is at the expense of a small amout of head stiffness. If you catch a shuttle right at the top of the head there's a very pronounced 'trampoline' effect as the head flexes and releases. Of course Cai Yun would argue what sort of a **** player wouldn't hit that superlative sweetspot every time, but hey, sucks to be a Mortal, what can I say? You'd think that the extra 5mm of balance point over my 299mm MX80's wouldn't make much difference, but it does. It's like night and day. The difference between 295 and 300 isn't remarkable, but when you go from 300 to 305, that's when you start to get into the realm of the warhammers, where I'm less Thor and more Thor's less gifted third cousin. Weight also becomes critical, because at 2g lighter than my MX80s and 3g lighter than my BS12's, it feels about 5g heavier than both - or like a small child has grabbed the end of my racket and I'm frantically swinging around trying to shake him off. I'll post more up the more I play.....
