*THIS JUST IN* I've been informed that the head shape and material I have specified is factory warrantied to.... .....50lbs. No, that's not a typo. (And here's me thinking 40lbs was dumb.)
Dude, please read my posts. I do love the sound of my own typing, but I draw the line at repeating myself 3 times.
Oh goody! More exciting ways to injure my wrist and mash up my elbow! I guess now's as good a time as any for that bionic replacement I was contemplating...
Not that I'm doubting, but I find it difficult to believe that any badminton racket can withstand 50 lb string tension. Are there any strings that can even withstand 50 lbs? Perhaps the manufacturer meant a vertical compression pressure of 50 lbs?
To be honest, I don't really care. The macho postering of 'who can stand the highest tension' is beyond stupid and it's a game I'm not interested in playing. As you rightly point out, there's no point in warrantying above a tension that any string can reasonably withstand, so I'll probably only warranty it to 32lbs.
Okay, I'm going to come out and say something controversial here. Woven rackets suck. After last night, I'm completely off the idea of using woven materials with my brand of rackets. In theory, 'woven' or 2x2 twill as it should be referred to, should add some head torsional stiffness, and certainly in something like a Victor Meteor it's difficult to argue otherwise (although without having a non-woven one to test in parallel, it's still all subjective), but right at this point in time, I think it generally takes away from the feel of the racket. And feel is king, in my humble opinion. I had a play with both these first samples and didn't come away especially liking either. The 'Sword' was way too headlight, and the 'Meteor' was okay but didn't seem especially repulsive. Both were stable platforms but neither of them sparkled. So last night at competition I resorted back to the C7 and everything became right with the world. The think with the C7 is that it has a supreme feel to it, and that's something I really want to replicate with White Label. I don't want to do a woven finish just because everyone else is, especially if as I suspect, it takes away from the feel. The downside to the C7? It needs a slightly stiffer shaft and better torsional characteristics in the head - hit outside the sweetspot and you can definitely feel the head torque. If I can emulate the C7 spec and improve on it's stiffness, I think that's a racket a whole lot of people will love.
Never used a racket with woven except for a demo of the MX80, but I love to have feel in my rackets too. I haven't used the C7 personally, but I generally agree with your comments so if you can improve what sounds like an already amazing racket then it should be an absolute blast to play with!
I don't recall many people having anything much negative to say about the MX80, and that is a woven racquet. The SOTX Power Boss series are legendary (in my opinion, at least) and can still give the newest and bestest a run for their money. I feel that to just discard the woven implementation because of one bad experience would certainly be a mistake. If it helps, here are some of my observations of woven racquets, primarily SOTX, as despite visor's encouragement, I have been coy about wielding a MX80... Woven racquets usually have a modest BP of between 282 and 295, and 300 at the high end. Dry. Must be a good reason for that... The shafts are usually mid-flex to stiffer, and only rarely (as in the case of the MX80) awesomely stiff. Most of them use HM carbon... or 800D, whatever the hell that is... I know, the 2 major players (YY, Li Ning) have shied away from woven, but that means nothing, if the correct combination of materials between shaft and head can give you the results you desire. And I really don't care if the materials have been in use for the past 5 years. So in wrap-up, I urge you: don't discard the woven concept so easily.
I think there is a certain level of denial in any endevour, and certainly there's no reason why a woven racket wouldn't be okay for any particular individual, but I don't know whether it's the evolutions of the designs or what it is, but all the woven rackets I've had a hit with just don't have the level of refinement of feel that the unidirectional ones have. I'll definitely refine the design and specs and more than likely do back-to-back testing with one woven version and one unidirectional, so we'll see. Kevlar has better shock attenuation than carbon, so that might be an avenue to explore, too.
@Maklike Tier Have you tried SOTX W16? it is made of 100% Woven material as claimed by SOTX. In my opinion, it is one of the most efficient racket, despite of its light weight, it is able to launch a huge power.
Kevlar Woven - does that make it bullet proof? I don't get all the techie talk. So long as it plays well for me...it's good enough.
I have both mx60, sotx woven 8a and tried other no branded woven racket. Woven rackets general feel is differrent to "normal" rackets. It generally feels more dampened and less after torsion twist from not hitting the shuttle dead central. Personally, I like the feel of woven rackets. However, I perfectly understand why some people hate it. Shots wouldn't feel as pure, especially if you are so used to playing with non woven rackets.
They're much LESS damped than uni rackets. The only advantage they have is assisting with the torsional stiffness of the head, which seems to be the case regardless of model. Anyway, I'm not completely dismissing the idea at this stage, but if I'm going to go to all the trouble to make a racket, I'm not just going to go woven just because its the trend right now. There's actually dozens of variables making up how a racket feels and performs, so the only way to get to the bottom of what does what, is to make some prototypes, test them, try them with different materials, different specs, and repeat. Sounds like hard work
I mean the inversion of the colors on your avatar. Looks so much cooler! Actually, I'm not sure. Both versions look quite nice.
