Love this thread, just got a few Karakal PU Super grips and Yonex 102EX to go over them and i love it. I like the thickness of the Karakal and sponginess but not the tackiness, put the Yonex loosely over the top and amazing, nice and spongy and soft to play with
^^ That used to be precisely my preferred combination until my go-to grip size went through the floor: the KSPU deforms perfectly under the "impact-tightening" and the Grap gives excellent "lateral traction". Sadly, Grap also wears smooth a bit too quickly for my liking. Now I'm on RK Nanos (perforated 1.9 replacement grips) and they're excellent, but Dink is sending me some Kings, which are apparently even better.
Hmm, I didn't know how good the Karakal PU Super Grip is before reading this thread. It was fitted on my Karakal MTEC 85 and when it started showing visible wear after 6 months I replaced it with something I bought in Malaysia, which seems OK. But I can get PU Super Grip for £2.50 at my local sports shop, or a boxful for a lot less online, they're very common in the UK I think.
I am looking for a non tacky, dry and overgrip for sweaty hands. I used to love Wilson H2Overgrip. They discontinued the product. I have tried Yonex Dry Overgrip, it's not very good. Doesn't last long and not much comfort there. Also, tried Prince No Sweat Overgrip, this seem to be the best so far according to me. But Prince No Sweat is not great either. Any recommendation?
Go for towel grips. They are absorbent for sweaty hands and cost about half to one third the price of all the grips you have mentioned and used before if you buy in bulk. The durability of towel grips is also misunderstood a lot. The cotton fabric material is in fact a lot harder to tear through with your fingers compared to the synthetic leather esque PU material of other overgrips and even if the towel grip lasts you half to one third the usable time (before you need to replace it) of the other overgrips, you're only paying that amount of money for it relative to the other overgrips so you're not overpaying as a lot of people think at all. Towel grips are also thick and should be used as a replacement grip itself. Using it as an overgrip on top of the original grip will of course lead you to think of the many cons people rant about all the time regarding the towel grip changing the racquet balance point too much.
Yonex Dry Grap (140) feels really nice. I haven't played with it yet but will probably soon. Nice spongey and soft material, like the 102 after it has absorbed my sweat but before it rips. The Kimony one feels really nice and tacky, but I haven't seen how it'll hold up in a game. It absorbed my sweat nicely, but there's a stain where my sweat was. Also, the tape ripped while I was putting it on, very weak. I pull the tape very hard, and have always done so. This is the first time it has ripped on me. Yonex ones have always worked fine. I have to wait until next week to get to try the Karakal.
Towel grips are all but the same per brand. The Yonex SP and EX ones are a bit overpriced (as much as an usual overgrip which is just wrong IMHO) so it is better to avoid them unless you can get them for about RM3 in Malaysia and below S$1.5 in Singapore which the other brands mostly cost. The Ashaway towel grip rolls cost just below RM3/S$1.5 per racquet gripping for example. The cheaper brands are slightly thick although the white and yellow coloured ones are relatively thinner and more comfortable (which explains why the Indonesian professional players swear by the yellow coloured local towel grips). The more expensive Yonex JP towel grips in comparison are a lot more durable and can last about as long as an overgrip due to a certain quick dry formulation in the material (same as what they use on the JP clothings) although it also costs about the same as the latter. It is also as thin as a double layered Yonex AC102(EX) overgrip compared to the local ones (yellow/white local towel grip = triple layered AC102).
oh...so how long towel lasts? my syntethic lasts about 3months ++ ..and the last towel i bought costs rm5 and is bick hard after a week ....
Personally I can't use synthetic grips as my finger punctures through the material too soon and my sweat is too much for the tackiness or dryness of synthetic grips to work properly. My towel grips lasts about 1 month ++ Personally I play both singles and doubles and in both cases the towel grips I use last about the same amount of play time. I tend to sweat more when I play doubles due to the intensity, speed and concentration of play. For that I also use a wrist band on top of the towel grip to capture extra sweat dripping down from my forearm. For singles play I rarely use wrist bands and have less dripping sweat from the forearm. The towel grip's durability depends a lot on the amount of sweat it absorbs, which I believe in your case is that you don't use wrist bands and have the sweat dripping onto your towel grip ruin it pretty quickly. Try a wrist band next time you play.
Try the Victor towel grip. It is much better than ashaway towel grip and you can get them from RKEP. Do some search and i believe you will find the answer you are looking for.
sadly i cant find rkep near my area...i think i will try to find victor towel...how much do they cost?
Well, the Kimony failed already; began ripping at the thumb after three hours of play. Thus I went out and bought a couple of the Karakal grips. The replacement grip is VERY THICK, but it didn't show any signs of wear after one hour of playing. There was some softness developing on the grip where my thumb rested though. I'm starting to think that it's my grip that's the problem. The tackiness was not the greatest, and it felt slippery when I sweat (using wristband helps a bit). Next time, I'll be testing the Karakal Nano 60 grip, but my new grip is ridiculously thick now. I've never used something this thick, so maybe it'll solve my problems, or maybe not. It feels very good right now though. Is ebay the only place I can get the RKEP grips? They look like they cost quite a bit... scratch that, $11 for 10? Wow, that's cheap. How long do they last?
Here is the link to RKEP store http://stores.ebay.com/RKEP-racket-expert ... or you can even email ERIC at rkepracket@gmail.com Hope this helps
Hi, im looking for super soft and less stick replacement grip. The kind of grip the u need hold tightly... somewhat opposite to karakal super pu grip. that means i have to look at the one that stated as poor/average on the benchmark right? Pls give all advice and suggestion Your time and consideration is highly appreciate.
