ookay, so after today's 3 hour session, i've come to the conclusion that mavis 300/350 are weak. well, its re-confirmed my conclusion from last week. and the week before that. they're perfectly fine, except for whoever glues the cork should be fired. we effectively destroyed 4 birds and nearly gave someone a cork for an eye. black knight control 2000 ones seem durable enough, but do not fly as natural as the mavis series... not a big difference, but easily acceptable as they don't fall apart. has anyone tried these before? talbot tarro shuttles? i might grab these off an auction on ebay to try if anyone gives them the thumbs up. any other suggestions?
oh, and before anyone starts laughing about newbs hitting the frame with every shot, i don't think frame-hit rates are any more normal than usual with a regular game? i wouldn't be complaining so much, but the costs for birds here are outrageous. comes out to almost two dollars canadian per shuttle!!! i wouldn't mind taking the beating, but my wallet sure can't!
maybe u guys keep hitting shuttles on racquet frames. LOL for both feather and plastic shuttles, the skirts wear out first before the cork loses integrity, 95% of the time hahahaha, i type in the above before i read your 2nd post. You think nylon shuttles are expensive, try using feathers
Victor nylon Try Victor nylon! I have the same experience, Mavis 350/370 tend to lose a cork now and then, at least 1-2 shuttles out of a dozen. In 2 1/2 year I have *never* seen the cork pop off a Victor nylon. Also think they are more durable otherwise and fly better, cheaper (in Sweden)......only advantages cmp to Yonex Mavis. Only problem is the "name recognition", people without a clue only knows Yonex and sometimes hesitate to play with Victor shuttles /mats
Ashaway Quills! Not sure if you can get the Ashaway Quill where you are, but they're excellent. There was a big discussion about them a while back.
the plastic on Victor ones can be trashed after 10-20 minutes of play from people who slice their shots a lot. Personally I wouldn't go with those (from experience). So far around Vancouver there are only Yonex and BK that's obtainable... well... through convenient channels. And since the BKs dont tend to last as long as the Yonex 300s there's not realli the point of getting those. And yes I agree that Nylons are expensive (but the feathers even more expensive) On an average drop-in session, a group of us could go through 2-4 Nylons (either breakage to the plastic parts or flattened side of the cork due to too many power shots) not seen a cork fall off in a long time tho! I guess my friends n I jus dun rim as much as we did before Each tube of half a dozen is at the cheapest $13... man... it's definately a luxury to play badminton in Canada... so expensive
hrm, slicing... i have a friend who consistently slices... and in combination to the odd off-hit and hard smashes, i guess that might be the reason. haven't looked into shuttles at stores in a while, and when i did yesterday, a half dozen of mavis 350's are 18+tax. its saddening! the only decent names i see here are the yonex mavis, the BK, and carlton... the others dont' inspire much confidence. the carlton's were priced okay i guess, but the reviews on these say its not worth it!
I cannot understand why plastic/nylon shuttles are so widely used in the US and Canada. In Asia we don't use them-it is all feathers. We had a guest who raved about Mavis 500 nylon shuttles when he first played with us; he insisted we try it out. After a few hits warming up with Mavis 500, we politely put it away and resumed with feathers. Maybe there are other better plastics. But if the Mavis is any indication of how plastics play, then I don't for the life of me see how Asians in Asia will ever take to them.
i have played with the Mavis and Carltons. no way near the feel of feathers. period. all the plastic users here in the bay area are high school players. the local HS league standardizes on plastics. probably due to cost. some high attitude locations uses more plastics as slow speed feathers are not available.
I disagree. In my experience, Quill skirts are stiffer than 300/370 skirts and break quicker. Flight stays consistent when the skirts are broken but the speed changes (they become faster). And they feel heavier on impact with the racquet. IMHO
The price. Usually, quality feather shuttle in US cost USD$12 above. On top of the expensive drop in fee, travel expense, member fee, training fee, other equipment (shoes, rackets, gears, bag, strings, etc), not everyone can afford to change a feather shuttle every 10 min.
I understand the higher cost problem. On the other hand, Americans and Canadians are wealthier, and should find feathers more affordable, than Asians.
That's quite a simple generalization. Higher cost isn't just a characteristic solely to badminton equipment. There's a high cost of living that comes with higher standard of living in US and Canada. Perhaps the sport just hasn't gotten to the 'wealthier' North Americans to make it more affordable for the rest of us. Asia benefits from proximity to source of labor and manufacturing. I think it's safe to say that almost all feather shuttles (good and bad quality) in North America are imported. Feathers won't have cost so much if we didn't have to pay shipping/handling and customs on them. We pay premium on everything to participate in the sport. Not enough interest in the general population to encourage government support equates not enough new facilities for growth. Any new badminton dedicated facility being built are solely initiated from private sector.
as u all may know i play both plastic and feathers. There are advantages and disadvantages for each kind. taneepak, the economic of making shuttle choice is quite complex with some psychology thrown in Beside north america, europe is quite big in plastic shuttle too. Lucky for lazybud, local price here is 20 C$ (16 USD) if bot by single tube privately, more if bot at retail store. Bulk purchases would cut that price by 10%. This is victor blue/AS 20 grade. When i was back in the populous city of guangzhou, i bot a tube of feather for 5C$ at full retail, grade wise, probably similar to 18 C$ in canada. In term of cost, it really depends on how often one have to replaces shuttles. A mavis 300 can last 3 games match easy where as it would take 3 feathers (as20 quality) to do the same job, and that's including if we push the roughed up feather shuttle as far as possible. If we want to have similar consistency as plastic, we would have probably needed 6 to 7 feather shuttles. Costs add up over weeks of playing as u can see.
u should view it as not between asian vs canadian wealth, u should see this as feather vs plastic, which item is lower cost.
Whether in Canada, US or Europe the feathers vs plastics price difference is still there, isn't it? So, why do players in this part of the world still choose the more expensive feathers when they can save a bundle with plastics?
Cus feather simply got the feel...last week played badminton wif a carlton plastic and it sux...doesnt have the clear hitting sound(im using Gosen pro 66) den i switch to a feather the sound was clearer and feel of impact is better...for me i prefer feather over plastic...
Also in Belgium we use a lot of nylon shuttle. The reason is : Cost and Classement The price of Yonex Mavis 300 (widely use) is +/- 13 euro for 6 shuttles. One shuttle can be use for more than 1 match. The feather shuttle is +/- 13 - to +/- 16 for 12 shuttles. One match can use 4-6 shuttles. We have here 6 classements (low to high) : D, C2, C1, B2, B1 and A. The beginner is D. Belgium badminton associasion has a rule which says : D and C2 habe to play with nylon in competiton or official match. C1, B2, B1 and A use feather. If the low classement play againt high classement, the low one has a right to choose which shuttle he/she want to play with. So... if you want to play with feather, you have to 'raise' your classement. When I arrived in Belgium years ago, I got surprice that so many players play with nylon shuttle. When I asked why, I got answers : Cost and Classement.
What you are saying applies only to competition or official matches, where the players do not pay for the shuttles, I presume. What about all other matches where the players pay for their own shuttles? Surely, you are free to choose your own shuttles if you have to pay for them.
