I've been looking for a site that offers the most up-to-date carlton equipment, and possibly the official carlton site as evident of my question, i'm not much into carlton, but i'm willing to convert from yonnex, i am curious about the quality and such, just wanna see please provide me with the necessary information so i can make an informed decision about converting over...
i've gone from yonex to carlton, back to yonex, and right back to carlton. and that includes racquets like the ti10, at800de, ns8000, etc. but each time i've gone right back to the airblade superlites. now i've got a handful of them and planning to stick with the carltons. they're perfectly fine. nice racquets overall. carlton just has a different approach to the market than yonex does. one thing to keep in mind is that carlton has no warrenty that i know of. the quality of the racquets shouldn't be a problem though.
i just wanna know which racquet is the latest model for carlton? my friend saw a red one "superlite" with a spring looking thing at the handle not sure wat the name of the racquet is
Powerblade? I don't know what the latest models are. Online info on Carlton is scarce, as you know. We need a Carlton insider on this board.
it cannot be powerblade unless it had an 'iso' head. There are several diffeent powerblade rackets though, about 6 in total. I believe the high end ones are powerblade tour, and its lighter (head-light) version
it's the red powerblade superlite and yes, it's iso-head it's okay feels better than my iso 65 light hahaha
Check this out.... http://www.badmintoncentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=26961 I got the Powerblade Elite and it is a fine double racket.
Yeah I also would like it if we got a Carlton insider on this site, like Nathan Robertson, I mean, he posts on badders, so maybe we can convince him. As for a site that has the most up to date Carlton rackets, check out www.centralsports.co.uk. By the way, IMO the Airblade Superlites are the best rackets. it plays better than the higher end muscle powers. Their quality is excellent, I believe thier durability is better than Yonex's. I hope your conversion goes well b. leung!
i wouldn't say carltons have better durability than yonex. it just seems that way because there WAY MORE users of yonex than carlton, so definitely theres more breakage of yonex than carlton, and that also means there more reported breakage of yonex than carlton, right? i've owned both yonex and carlton, and i've never broken, fractured, or cracked a yonex. i however have broken a carlton on a smash mishit, and severely fractured/cracked another one, doing the same. both airblade superlites. the posted site for central sports is an excellent place for new models of carlton, but i wouldn't place too much faith on their information for each model. they put up very vague descriptions, and very basic "Generic" stats. they originally had a bunch of series for their racquets, including the popular airblade models. in 2002 or 2003, they came up with the megaflex line, followed by the powerblade series in 2004. all carlton is oval except for the powerblade series which is isometric in shape. the new models include... a few low end airblades, then theres the airblade superlite, tour, and elite models. same goes with the powerblade. the powerblades are generally a few grams heavier than their airblade counterparts. george is kinda right with the superlite being an excellent racquet, but as i've said before, carlton racquets tend to be good for only particular users. yonex covers a wide spectrum of users, whle carlton fits only a smaller niche of players. you gotta try them out before knowing if your dollar is worth it or a waste. more people have hated my carltons (including both airblade lites and superlites), than those who have liked them. so basically, just try before you buy. and trying it for an hour won't cut it. you might be just having a good day or just got lucky, right? you have to really put it through its paces.
Canadian Tire is selling them for $50. Better value IMHO than the MP23/25 that Sports Chek has at $80 or the MP30 at $100.
I've been a Carlton user for the longest time (the first one I owned was a steel 3.1; currently have a powerblade superlight). These are pictures I downloaded early this year. Sorry, but Idon't remember the source, and I can't find the source URL anymore.
wow very useful hard to find info like that on the net about carltons so what year was airblade superlite released? if early, is there a recent year (05,06) version?
The airblade superlite in the picture is the 05 version and weighs 81 gms. The '04 version was the Rasmussen Airblade superlite. That was 84 gms.
in 2001 or 2002, there was an airblade superlite Ti (grey, black, red). that was around 83g. ~2002-2003, airblade superlite (all carbon, grey/black in color), 81g. 2004-06, airblade superlite (all carbon, red, black) 81g. there was also an airblade rasmussen line in 2004 as shoebox stated. this rasmussen line had a variation of existing racquets. the superlite in this line was 84g. why they had this extra line? retirement of peter rasmussen i guess. real purpose behind the racquets? nothing really.
There is a new Carlton series right now, something call Nano. The top model is Power 9900, then Lite 9500. Check them out in the Google search. I was told that they are very stiff rackets, something like the Yonex Nanospeed 9000.
i have a powerblade elite amongst many yonex rackets...i actually prefer it to to my mp99 and ns9000x although i only played once with the Ns900k though i havent played much lately...also the carlton is extemly good value...it was less than half price...rrp£150 i got it for £69 so thumbs up from me on this top of the range racket
I just picked up 2 Carlton PowerBlade TT and I notice it is made in China???????? I know that Carlton is a British company but are they manufacturing their rackets in China? I shouldn't be surprised everything is made in China now
Actually this statement is not correct. If Yonex's official release is to be trusted, ALL Yonex high end rackets are made in Japan. In many markets in Asia, Yonex rackets are grouped into 3 general categories: Top Range - made in Japan Mid Range - made in Taiwan Low Range - made in China The production country is usually engraved on the shaft or shown on the butt cap.