A couple of pix as requested. I don't have a fancy Canon camera and a good macro lens so don't expect high quality. I really like the racket, but paint job is a tad worse than any Yonex I've owned, among which VT80LTD is the best. But who really cares?
A tad worse? I hope mine not To all actual lucky BS LYD owners: What is the bp of your racket? Please also notify if the stated bp is measured with overgrips and / or string.
I can see in some of the pictures that there are a few indifferences in the paint. Could just be the first batch. Btw Maklike, have they got LYD's in the eastern states now? After seeing Khoai's pics I'm tempted to get one now
I'm thinking of switching from my lovely YY NS990 to this BS LYD for getting a bit more power, am i right ? Any NS9900 owner to do a comparision ?
Yep, but the first batch sold real quickly. I think Lucas was saying more LYDs and the BS15 are due in a few weeks.
So yesterday, I had the opportunity to play with the BS LYD edition. To compare, I also brought my BS 10, 11 and 12. The BS LYD was strung with NBG98@11kg and is a 3U-G2 model. All the other BS models are 3U-G3. So this is starting to get confusing. Has Victor reversed the grip size and is G3 larger than G2? The colors are a little like the Yonex Arcsaber 10 PG edition, but different. It's a nice catching racket which will attract some attention just because it's white. The head looks more oval rather than isometric to me, but the 'Sword' blade is still there. I didn't compare the dimensions, because I just wanted to play with it! I'm not really into balance points because to me, it doesn't say anything about the playability of a racket, and it's easily influenced by adding tape or grip. The BS LYD editions is clearly the most head heavy BS of them all. Since I'm used to a Li Ning N90, this was not really a problem. I thing some of you might find the racket too heavy in balance. The weight made the racket easy to swing and has a lot of power. Because of the weight, the balance and control over the shuttle is very good. If you are off center, you can still have decent control. Too bad the grip size was a little too small for me, and during fast doubles, I mis hit some fast interceptions. Also the head heaviness, forced me to grip the rachet very high. The timing is slightly different compared to the other Braveswords. In terms of power, I would rate this racket higher than he other Braveswords, but just like any offensive racket, it's a compromise between power and speed. I hope to play with it upcoming Friday to give a more detailed review, but for now, this are the first impressions.
Had the opportunity to use my BS LYD today. I used to use the NS9900, so switching to a victor racquet all of a sudden is a pretty big change. After playing with it for about 2 hours, I think I have to say I absolutely love the racquet. I used to use the AT 900P before switching to NS9900, so I was used to head heavy racquets... But the BS LYD feels like it is light enough for me to maneuver around the court and react like the NS9900, but also gives me the head heavy power needed to drive, smash, and hit birdies downwards with enough power. It is definitely not as heavy as the AT900P that I used to use before, which is perfect because I found that racquet too heavy for me before, and it is not so light like the NS9900 that I am not able to do hard smashes. Definitely more stiff than the NS9900, but just swinging it for a bit and you can already tell this is quite an offensive racquet. No wonder lee yong dae uses it. Great racquet and will probably switch from my NS9900 to BS LYD for all my doubles games now.
Thanks for sharing, mate. BS LYD is more stiff than NS9900? :-S NS9900: 5/5 BS LYD: 4/5 What kind of rackets did you play before NS9900 (except AT900P)? I'm still waiting. Unfortunately my vendor has confirmed that he will receive the racket in mid March 2012
I mean that I play with the N90, so the BS LYD is lighter to play with. The BS LYD feels heavier than the other BS's. I had 2 days to play with the racket, so I can give a more detailed review of it. First of all: balance. despite the smaller grip, the balance of the BS LYD is very simular to the BS10 and 11. The balance of the BS12 is lighter/more towards the handle, but this was expected from a even balanced racket. If you wonder if it's as head heavy as a Voltric 80 3U-G4, it's not! The VT80 is more than 10mm head heavier. I forgot to mention that the BS10, 11 and 12 were strung with VS850@11 kg. Even if the balance is the same as the BS10/11, the feeling of the rackets are not the same. The BS11 feels as the lightest of the 4 when holding in the hand, followed by the BS12, 10 and the BS LYD still feels the most heavier one of the 4 BS's. It's still very easy to play with this racket. Clears and drops were very easy and I can play the shuttle wherever direction I want. Netplay is very solid, but as soon as I want to play some trickshots changing directions fast, or fast defenses trying to get the shuttle back in the backcourt, it let me down. The racket losses his accuracy when I want to accelerate from my wrist. It can be the smaller grip size, but a part of it is due to the wrong string choice. More of this later. To compare with the other Brave Swords, I used the 10, 11 and 12. The 12 is really different, so I dropped this one first as direct replacement. It's a even balanced racket and the flex is different. Closest is the BS10 and 11, so I used these close to each other. The BS10 and 11 were easier to play with. Not only the VS850 has more repulsion, because of this repulsion, both racket had more power at the same speed. At the same time, you can feel that the string is softer and doesn't give the solid hard feedback from the NBG98. Both the BS10 and 11 felt lighter and it was easier to defend with the BS10 and 11 with the BS10 being stronger in power, and BS11 faster in maneuverability. I really have the feeling that the BS LYD would been better if it had been strung with VS850. The NBG98 is just to hard feeling for this racket. I let some of my friends play with the racket, and all of them dislikes the LYD because of this feeling. I think this racket would be at his best playing with some softer high repulsion power string like a BG66Sharp or the VS850. The type of player would be more the swing type player and not the wrist player. With the right choice of string, this would be more powerfull than the BS10 and 11. With the current string, the power would be even to the BS10. Hope the string breaks soon, so I can replace this. Really cannot enjoy the combination of the string and racket.
nice review, your accuracy could have dropped due to the smaller grip size. in my experience fat grips give better accuracy and small grip have slightly more power especially if you snap your wrist just cut the string! i've done it so many times when i dont like a string or particular tension as i experiment
You can stay with the string if you wanna get used to it. If you don't, then cut it. For me it wouldn't matter that much due my low intermediate play level. But I can't imagine that NBG98 is hard in feeling because it was my first string on Arc10. The feeling was great (especially the superb repulsion) when I remember btw: you mean it's easier to play with BS LYD because you were used to N90 (too), but LYD is still not that head heavy like N90, right? If you would rate the head heaviness and stiffness of these both rackets with x/10 points, what would the results look like? I think BS LYD is still far away from MX-80's stiffness right? Also far away from the stiffness and head heaviness of VT80?
The NBG98 has a great repulsion, but it just didn't match with the BS LYD edition. I have the NBG98 on the ARC10 also, and it's my best combination for that racket. The BS LYD isn't even as head heavy as the VT80. The N90 is even more head heavy, so they are not the same.The N90 is the most heavy feeling badminton racket I have so If I have to rate the LYD head heavyness, it would be round an 8 for both heavyness and stiffness. The BS LYD is really not that stiff. The MX80 is one of the stiffest rackets currently around. In terms of balance, the BS LYD is not that far away from the MX80. If you compare the stiffness of the BS LYD and the VT80, it's rather complicated. I would rate the stiffness about the same, but different due to the differences in shaft thickness.
what about power n defense of BS LYD compared to mx80? I used to play with mx80, but cant resist the stiffness, hurts my arms when i love to played smash, but i love the way i defense with my mx80
