Yesterday I had my Yonex Armortec 500 racquet restrung with Yonex bg80 yellow @ 22x24lbs tension. I played with it for 1.5 hrs today and already noticed that the vectran coating has begun to break in 2 places outside of the frame. The location of the breakages are on 1 side of the racquet only, and occurs as the string enters the a grommet (where the string forms a rounded corner). It has not totally broken, just the outer surface only; and u can see the multifilament core. I did smash a lot, but is this normal?
It sounds like the grommet might need to be changed in that area or possibly stringers fault. Did you happen to scoop birdies up a lot on that certain area?
I liked bg-80 very much while I was using it, but it used to crack like that after only a few hours of play, only to break soon after. It was getting really expensive, so I was forced away from the string. Weirder yet is that I'm no super hard hitter, just slightly above average in terms of rec play.
Oh... but I thought the outer yellow layer is the Vectran layer? Cos like Glacyus said, once the yellow layer breaks, it doesn't take long before the string snaps in that location. (I used bg80 before, and last time the breaks occured at the top of the frame). So what is the yellow layer/jacket for? I do hit hard most of the time but I've stopped scooping the shuttle off the floor, as I was told this damages the strings.
I don't understand the point of the outer yellow jacket if it breaks so easily resulting in the string itself breaking quicker.
It could be that the grommets needed replacing. The grommets can get sharp edges over time. But, to see this damage after such a short time, my guess would be a problem during stringing. Maybe the stringer did something bad that damaged the string. Is the damage near a shared grommet?
It could be the awl that does the damage. If you see any awl at your stringers make sure you tell them not to use it. Or you can go somewhere else where no awl is seen, let alone used.
I personally don't think it's a problem with the stringer, as I have used 2 different stringers to restring my racquets with bg80. One of them was in the Yonex stringing team at the 2004 Olympics in Athens. I still had the problem of the bg80 yellow layer cracking as soon as I played with the racquet. 1 stringing job only lasted me 2 sessions which was strung @ 23x25lbs, which isn't as high as some of you go. Looking at the grommets, some of them dont lift the string off the frame, ie the string has dug in deep into the plastic gromment and rests on the frame. Would this be the cause? Although the cracking of the yellow layer isnt inside where the string touches the frame, but on the outside. I dunno lol, not gonna use bg80 anymore... might go back to bg68ti unless someone can recommended me another brand / model that is as good as bg80, but obv more durable .
I think it could be possible due to: 1. Stringer's awl usage 2. Broken/spliting of gromments 3. Scooping up shuttles
others posters can only guess but no real expert of bg80 can understand u becos u talk funny like vectran coating and yellow jacket - no such thing by yonex. However, my previous answer still stand. yellow jacket is a wasp. 2nd use of yellow jacket is a industrial trademark of steel pipes. http://www.brederoshaw.com/solutions/Yellow_Jacket.htm
the crack on the outside coat of BG80 string is rather common for myself and yah it always happen at the gormet (facing outward) where the string make the corner and goes through i accepted as it is part of the BG80 experience since i've tried to be gentle, change gormets, change stringer, change tension, convince myselt that i will never mishit.. and nothing seems to make it go away My final vertict is called BG65, and yah i get to abuse my string freely again
Sorry for the confusion, I just based it on what you said. As you mentioned it is the "cracking of the outer jacket", which incidentally is yellow;so I just called it "yellow jacket/yellow layer" for short. I did previously call the "yellow jacket/yellow layer" the "Vectran layer" due to this image: In the description within the image you can clearly read: "Tension retaining braided oval Vectran maximises durability". And as you can see from the image above, it is only the "outer yellow jacket/yellow layer" that shows an 'oval profile' and also 'braided' together. But you have told me that this is not the Vectran layer...
That's interesting to see that pic saids 0.70 and 0.68 of the same string. Personally that was one main reason why I avoided this string 8 years ago because of jacket cracking, or should I say pre-mature breakage more likely when I was using it. That until I had enough with that string and swithced over to Gosen B505 which was about equivalent of that (while it was in production).
I remember the brittleness of the BG80 outer shell. I do believe it is the vectran shell that is breaking because of the acute angle the string is bent at the grommet. But I don't believe it is fatal for the string. I think you should be able to carry on with the string until it breaks in the string bed.
what about ye 'ol mishits? those things happen...or do you have experience with other 0.68mm strings (68ti?) which don't do this? haven't had this problem myself actually...
well, ok, u did make reference to yonex's package. Japan companies are notoriously famous of writing funny sign and labeling. www.engrish.com for ex., http://www.engrish.com/detail.php?i...g.jpg&category=Bags/Packaging&date=2007-02-21 http://www.engrish.com/detail.php?imagename=pin-prick-design.jpg&category=Stationery&date=2006-04-16 As other posters said, it supported my first post that bg80 has brittle outer jacket. Next time, don't make reference colors, since we dunno what color string u had. r u sure u got that pic from the yonex site? Matt had point out that thickness was specified 0.68mm and 0.70mm.
