Grommets, it's so often the grommets. Sometimes you can't see well, especially on the outside. This week I had a racket where I could see the red paint through the 'thick' part of the grommet.. The Li Ning box @s_mair has linked is my favorite so far as well. Also, BG80 is just very fragile when fresh and you mishit at the top. (an extra cross may help a bit) I just wouldn't recommend it for people who mis hit hard a lot. Better go with BG80P, or surprisingly, apparently ABBT (also lasted a long time in my racket). Then again, that would mean less stringing work
I did wonder the same thing as Ive always considered BG80 as durable, although in your case that is odd, as there is a lot more support in the centre of the racket, are there signs of fraying before it breaks?
Funny you should ask, I did think they looked more frayed/worn (where they've rubbed) earlier than normal.
I gotta say, before I switched over to ABBT for this winter, it was because the BG80's were breaking so quickly, like 2-3 times more frequently than my other winters. I thought it was only me that felt a bit off with BG 80 recently, but after hearing other people's experiences sounding similar to mine, maybe this isn't just coincidence. I took around 12-15 hours on average to snap strings during winters, but during this winter it seems to be around 6 hours.
I had a BG80 break within an hour of play once. I put it down to an inexperienced stringer. They redid it for free and it lasted longer, but since then I lost faith in the string and used primarily BG66Ultimax.
I've had the same experience. I've been stringing bg80 for a few different people at their unchanging preferred tensions for a few years. They are all breaking strings faster lately compared to before. I'm not sure why. Maybe Covid has something to do with it. Either players just play worse because they've not played regularly. Or because people played less, less strings got broken so there is more reserve stock. The average roll we buy now is surely older than the ones we bought before the pandemic? But then strings don't degrade that quickly in my experience. I don't really know what to make of it.
usually, strings that have been on shelves for a long time tend to feel less lively and dull, but the durability usually seems on par with fresh ones. The ones I broke this winter were lively as usual, but just snapped more quickly. Then again I'm not sure we've had a situation like this before with this much backlog. I'll try to string my BG 80 with the unpopular colors like pink, surely those were sitting on shelves longer than the whites and yellows. Theoretically those should be just as if not more brittle than my usual strings (BG 80 yellow).
Does anyone else find coloured strings are more brittle or last less time than plain white? Sent using Tapatalk
I found that the color doesn't matter, it would last the same amount of time compared to white.. at least for BG80
I can't say that I've noticed a difference between the colours in terms of durabilty, but the white and yellow do play differently I feel. Yellow seems to be a bit rougher as well feeling a touch harder. White does seem a little more elastic and therefore has a bit more repulsion at the same tension. Whether these differences translate into marginal differences in durability I'm not sure.
There's definitely a difference in the 'play' of BG80 between yellow and white, the yellow is rougher for sure. I tried EXBOLT last night as a possible alternative...I'm confused why people suggest it could be a BG80 replacement as it plays very differently IMO.
