Hi there, Was searching for a good head heavy racket . Came across the HEAD - Power Helix 7000 and I found the specs quite appealing: Flex Index: Flexible Weight: 86 g Balance: 290 mm Is anyone using this racket regularly? If so, could you please tell whether the racket is a Head heavy or head light one? The reason I am asking is that I am getting confusing answers at various website. The Balance point is given as 290 mm which indicates that its Head heavy and yet its is rated as Head light at various websites. Also, is the shaft too flexible or is it Medium- flex?? Regards!
You highlight the problem that badminton players have. We are willing to pay good money but in return we are not giving proper clarity of basic racket specifications! The head racket is headlight (290 refers to strung balance point) and flexible. Flexible shaft means its easier to generate high power but its maximum power (provided you have the technique) is lower. hope that helps makes sense
Amleto is right - 290mm is almost certainly NOT the strung balance point. If you look on the DirectSports website, they have themselves, measured the weight/balance/flex of all the rackets they sell - so it's possible to compare different brands on equal terms. According to them, the strung BP is 295mm, and the strung weight around 89g. In my experience, HEAD like to throw the term "head-light" around quite a lot. I have an Airflow 3, which they describe as head-light, yet the BP is over 300mm (and certainly doesn't feel head-light to play with). I would assume the PH7000 is actually pretty evenly balanced (I don't really call 290mm head-heavy).
286 - 287mm or so is pretty close to even balance. As it increases so does the head heaviness. 290 a bit 295 noticeable 300 prominent 305 and over very head heavy. So under 286- 287 you are going more head light.
gotta be careful with head new range though - the 2010 power helix is specified as 286mm, the same as the 2008/2009 model, but there is easily 10mm difference in balance point between the youtek model (1x that I've had) and the older ones (2x that I've had).
Again, according to directsports, the difference is only 2mm. I'd imagine the specified BP is only accurate to the nearest 3-4mm anyway, so you probably just happened to get rackets at opposite ends of the spectrum - and as you won't get to test the individual racket in advance, it's really not worth worrying about.
Think you are refering to non strung rackets. direct sports measure balance point of strung rackets, hence 295 is head light.
Thanks a lot for that! Had read in a previous post actually that a BP of 280-285 is even balance and anything less than that tends towards Head-light and the other way around! I didn't take into account the fact whether the racket was strung or unstrung!
Sorry have to disagree BP295 strung is still moderate to slightly head heavy. Checked with a fellow who has measured many just to make sure.
If you look on direct sports you will find very few rackets below 295 (strung), nanospeed 9900 is measured at 295 which is a headlight racket. There's no convention or rules to say whats head heavy or not. 295 means its headlighter than all yonex rackets apart from a minority of the nanospeed rackets. headlight, maybe even but no way would I call it head heavy. sure your friend is measuring the right way
Head have just updated their product catalogue and introduced several new models, including a revamped Power Helix 5000 and 7000. The specs appears to be the same as last years' models, albeit in a new colour. The new 7000 in blue looks pretty awesome. I am generally very pleased with their performance so far having bought two Power Helix 7000's (YouTek) several weeks ago. Having read other peoples' previous entries there seems to be some minor confusion regarding the specs for the 7000 - namely its 'balance point', which I totally sympathise with. According to the HEAD webpage, the BP for the 7000 is approximately 290mm, around 2mm higher than its bigger brother - the 10000 (288mm) thus making it the least head-light racket in the Power Helix range. Assuming that 290mm is its 'unstrung' weight, a fully strung racket would make it - in my eyes at least - a fairly head-heavy racket. I've owned heady-heavy rackets before, namely the AT700, which has a BP similar to that of a golf club, yet the 7000 does not feel head-heavy at all. Whilst I have added a thin over-grip to the handle, the 7000 feels more evenly-balanced - comparable to my Arcsaber 10.
