Have been playing with them a bit recently. IMO, RSL Classic are still more durable (VIPs were unsteamed but I've played many times with unsteamed RSLs and have an idea about their lifespan) while both have very similar flight. But that was just one tube of VIPs, so long-term experience with more batches can be somewhat different. Would they be priced about 0.9 of RSL I'd consider buying them though.
We've been paying £18 a tube for AS30's, the Forza's are nearly £2 a tube cheaper. Are they better and more durable than AS30's?
Can't answer that, sorry. Never played with AS30. But I'd prefer them over AS50 just because personally I don't like the latter (not for durability though).
Considering the pretty large difference in price i'd say Forza VIP and AS30 are about equal price/quality ratio. I agree on not liking AS40 and AS50, just too expensive. And a mishit on AS50 will destroy it just as easily as on AS30. AS40/AS50 are almost never seen in Holland because of this. Forza VIP is, imo, the only decent Forza shuttle. Forza S3000 and S5000 have good durabillity for the money but the flight is just awful. Forza S6000 is ok, but when you go there it is better to spend a little more and get VIP. One of my favorite shuttles remains RSL Classic when it comes to good value shuttles, unfortunately in Holland lately I've seen a lot of RSL Classic which seem to be from a bad batch, many players switching to RSL Gold which seem to last longer now than Classic. Other favorite is my own brand hehe Rapid Blue
I brought a tube of Forza Tournaments ages ago (mistakenly thought they were higher than VIP) and they were good. I would have definitely given the VIPs a go, if centralsports offered free delivery on them. As a side note, for the UK market, shuttlecocks will need to be steamed, especially if they're not Yonex. I believe that people's perception of the durability of Yonex shuttlecocks is only down to the popularity of the brand and therefore you're nearly always getting a 'fresher' tube.
I got a tube of Forza VIP. It seems a bit light compared to Lining A300, hence the shuttles do not go as far as Lining A300. Probably the Forza VIP I got has the wrong speed.
We use Forza VIP here. Also Used the S6000 and RSL Nr1 and Classic. And I used some AS30 on tournaments. For mee it would bee S6000 > VIP <> RSL nr1 > RSL Classic > AS30 VIP and n1 are very close, but stil the classic are beter. AS is way more durably in matches for me. But maybe for training the VIP or S6000 are pretty good
No they are not better value for the sake of 2 quid unfortunately....I find the purple Yehlex still best value at approx £ 13.95 a tube
Speaking from a lot of experience in shuttle testing, only the yellow Yehlex are worth anything. Victor Gold Champion are still considerably better than AS30 and they are cheaper too. There are so few quality shuttles around and too many clubs buy on price rather than value. Our club changed because I set up a shuttle test. We had Yehlex orange (our usual shuttle for many years), Ashaway 500 International and Gold Champion. We set up one tube per court and played for one hour. All players had to ensure they played on every court. Used shuttles per discarded next to the tube. After one hour we had used 9 Yehlex, 4 Ashaway and 2 Gold Champion. There were approximately 25 players testing the shuttles so i had NO influence whatsoever. The results shocked the committee and they immediately agreed to change the club shuttle. We have saved money this year because we have actually used less shuttles. I wish other clubs would test this way. They would learn that price is no reflection on value. The cost per hour at the rate we were using shuttles proved so much to so many. Paul www.badminton-coach.co.uk
I'm setting up a similar test to decide our shuttles for next season. What's the point of paying £1 per shuttle instead of £1.50 if you're using twice as many like for like?
Meanwhile we just got a selection of various stuff and no controlled testing. Sigh. We're finding yehlex yellow very fragile. I've used the yehlex duck feathers and they seemed comparable but a lot cheaper.
Maybe I'll have to convince my club to do something similar Paul, we use AS30s at the moment. The club bulk buys 25 tubes, all the same speed, and I don't know why really. They think it saves them money, but the AS30 is good for one game at most. I also found similar things with the Yehlex Orange, the flight was a little on the fast side but overall ok, but the durability was pretty worthless. I'm still more than satisfied with the Li Ning No.1 shuttles
Good test Paul. I managed to get our shuttles changed to RSL Classic to No.1. Only trouble is, my committee has a lot of issues with social players not understanding the requirements of the competitive players. So the social players in the committee simply did not see the point amongst other things (because to them, the shuttles lasted the same length of time) My issue now is that Classic seems to be going down in quality. Remember the days when No.1 were THE brand in UK? That time there was no RSL Classic.
Hi, I just wanna try the Forza S3000 to S6000 bc all the other brand became to overpriced for their value in my country T_T here is a quick example : -AS20 from 18€ to 23€ -AS10 from 13, 5€ to 18,5€ -RSL4 from 11€ to 17€ -VM from 15€ to 20€ Is it expensive or not!???
