Hi, I am wondering why wood is still a part of our modern rackets? Why it isn´t replaced by a new "spacy" material like in frames and so on? Today the wood in my AT700 broke and I hope that it could be replaced
hey same thing happened here! my AT700 handle was broken as well... but apparently u can get them exchange if u brought yours in europe.. I have to bin mine away as brought them elsewhere... Yonex tend to have poor record when it comes to durability...
surely theres some physics behind it... yes and it is cheap too... but quite disappointing.. I've come across quite a number of Yonex users who have encountered the same problem.. Im really doubting Yonexs' quality control now, overpriced and break within a year
Probably the newer models, no? I've never heard of handles breaking before from my brother about his Cab 8 Sp as well as my previous Cab 13, Cab 20 and current Ti-10 (touching wood).
Any part of a racquet can break from clashes or hard knocks. The handle is no exception although it is less frequent as it is protected by the hand. But a clash of the racquet even in parts that are far from the handle, will also transfer some of the force to the handle. Wooden handles are used because they are more versatile, as different grip sizes and counter-weight adjustments can be fine-tuned for a particular brand of racquet in a single design mold.
i think the reason why yonex(while the rest copying) still use wood as a handle is obvious.Yonex has made lots of new tech n materials for the shaft,cone shape,frames for the last decade,but still using wood as the handle for all this time.It might not be the coolest to look at,but it's still the best to built a handle with.
wow.... you don't think too highly of any other brand, do you? on topic: I read somewhere about rackets with graphite grips (true one piece stuff) bad vibrations, weird feel, and easy breaking... I wouldn't know why wood is bad (light, easy to find, easy to shape, easy to replace, good shock absorbing..)
As others have pointed out, it is cheap to manufacture. To have different cone shapes and sizes only requires basic wood tooling. I haven't disected one to confirm but Victor claims to have carbon-wood handles on some models. See the Super Nano, Powerwaves, and Artery Tec models. http://www.victorracquets.com/racquets.html#columbia
My good old Carlton Powerflo 600 AC single piece racquet had at least a partly carbon or plastic handle I think. I wore out the grip so that you could see underneath it and there's no wood there. Maybe they just layed carbon above the wood though :\
Hi guys, first thread I've read on this subject. I've broken the handles off of 4x Karakal SL-70s, 2x Yonex Mp-99s and 1x Yonex AT-500. They start by clicking at the cone and then its only a matter of time :-( All the Karakal's were replaced on warranty - didn't bother with the Yonexes cos I got so down about it all - ended up giving up the game for six months. Btw, no racket abuse or clashes - probably just bad smash technique. I'm going for a flexier racket next time (maybe Ashaway SQ78) so hopefully the middle of the shaft will take some of the force rather than the handle. My ancient Carlton PowerFlo Boron and POS eBay Browning 1-piece rackets are fine - great.
One of the advantages of wooden handles is that it can be replaced. But you need to be careful in stripping the old broken handle from the shaft to avoid breaking the shaft. You can also change handles of various sizes and lengths to replace unbroken handles, i.e. changing an AT700 from a singles racquet to a doubles racquet by changing to a longer handle that covers more of the shaft. But the devil is to strip the old handle away cleanly.
handle hardly break at all! they r so well protected by the plastic bottom cover, layers of grips and your hand!