nice to see some good new rackets, and to me it seemed obvious to replace the wooden handle... guess it must be expensive
Okay, so speedysport.be will have the rackets end of Aug / early Sept. Shitty deal though. They want the money upfront and will only ship via DHL, but couldn't tell me how much it would be. Vapour Trail Elite is 144EUR/286SPD/184USD. I reckon shipping could be as much as 50 Euro.
Newitts say July. I guess these Vapour Trail are for the European market only, like the Fireblades and Aeroblades. I need to get my hand on the Elite, it looks nice and heavy.
I saw Dunlop 4D racquets in Bangkok and the specs are pretty similar to Vapour Trail except that it doesn't have the Optimetric head. It also says Hand Made like the Carlton.
All racquets are handmade. Hardly a selling point, no sure why they bother. Could be handmade by a blind Chinese lepper colony for all we know.
Most Taiwanese and Chinese rackets are 'hand molded'. i.e. stuff the carbonfibre and T-jounts + extras into the mold. And then hand painted. Is that what they call hand crafted? Not sure about Yonex though, but I guess it would probably be the same.
well, it is just placing the carbonfibre sheets, roll, whatever you can find inside the racket into a metal cast with the proper racket shape. Heat it up and apply high pressure, i.e. autoclave. I don't know whether this is the correct description or not, somebody has to correct me.
That's roughly right. Seems like they're made in three pieces usually - head, shaft, and T-Joint. You can see that pretty clearly in the photos of the Air-Rage (which FYI looks very different to the one on newitts.com). But anyway, that's a whole other topic.
Okay, so speedysports.be is a no-go. They want a minimum order of €500/AUD887/USD690. As for why, I have no idea. At this rate I'll probably wait until the local distro has them in stock. Kwun, what's the deal from your end mate? Whats the ETA in the US?
Just ordered the vapour trail s-lite on Newitts.com My bank account may never forgive me... £80. But I couldn't resist, head light and flexible. Ideal for a defensive doubles player. Will try and post a review of it in a few days. Keep in mind I'm not a badminton ace!