Just for the heck of it, I bought some Carlton F2 Shuttlecocks and tried them out. They are totally different from those that Carlton put out previously, inferior ones at that. The new ones are cork based and the skirt resemble Yonex's Mavis 300. The F1 resemble the Mavis 350s. The main difference seems that the Carlton are harder plastic than the more flexible Yonex's. Flight wise, I would say it's better than the Yonex Mavis 300, but is quicker by a bit. But it is not as good as the Mavis 350. Where Carlton shines though is the durability, they seem to last a lot longer than the Mavis 350 and 300. I'm impressed with the Carlton F2's.
My club uses the Carlton F1. Very durable shuttle, but does fly faster than a Mavis 370 and gets faster the more you hit it. During matches we tend to grab a new one every couple of games, otherwise we keep hitting them long.
I believe the F2 flies a bit slower than the F1 that I remember trying. Oddly, I found the F2 to fly a bit slower after a few hits, could be temperature and all, I'm in Montreal and we're in a cold snap = extreremly dry air.
You paying? We used to play with 370s but found that yellow shuttles showed up better against the horrible off-white wall we have to suffer at one end of the court. I did email Yonex UK and ask them why they didn't make yellow 370s but they never even responded. We shouldn't have any problems next season as we are hoping to change venues and can go back to 370s again (which just about everyone else in our local leagues uses).
I play with the Carlton F1's (yellow) and I find them way more robust than the Yonex Mavis 300's which we were breaking left right and centre. The 300's plastic is fragile and falls apart if ever mishit and quite a few times the cork has come flying off after a smash. I have never had this problem since switching to the F1's. I find the yellow is easier to pick up as I use to lose the flight of the white ones in the halls tube lighting. I have had no problem's with how the F1's fly. Funny thing is I only got them by chance as they were on special offer 2 tubes for £10 or $20.
