Contacted ashaway and they tell me the earliest I can get my hands on the bird 2 is in September now.. anyone come across any retailers that have these in stock??
New production line We are sampling the new tools in August and hope to set up the new production line in September. We will be supplying UK only to start with but we will follow on with a fully automated line to cope with worldwide distribution; we have launched an equity sale at https://www.syndicateroom.com/Bird to fund this work. Gordon
Shuttlecock performance markings We need much more information on a tube of shuttles. I think the minimum categories should be: Speed; Flight curve (peak & drop);Tumble stability; and Durability. Speed, flight curve, and tumble stability are all a direct correlated function of the weight and dimensions, surface area continuity, weight distribution from base to tip, and rigidity. All these attributes can be measured fairly simply in a standard test laboratory in any country. Durability is more difficult as it needs custom made test equipment, although not very complicated. BWF approves the use of shuttlecocks for international tournaments, it costs USD 3000 per shuttle type. My aim is to show that these tests can be simpler and more reliable than tests that involve ‘international male players’ and high speed cameras which are expensive and still subjective. I will be continuing with this work and would be interested in any comments. For now my priority is to complete the funding round for our high volume manufacturing processes and get everything working well for the new badminton season.
There's likely no substitute tests or measurements in the lab that can replace an actual real life test. Just like testing car performance, one can look at all the specs and can guesstimate how it'll perform on paper, but there's no substitute to an actual test drive to see how it feels and performs on the road.
Qualification and verification Thanks for the response. I agree but it is good to have some quantifiable information to start with. We are trying to develop tests which are directly correlated to the play tested characteristics and will publish the research for scrutiny. One of the problems at moment is that, at $3000 a go for a once-off qualification and only a slight chance of a re-evaluation, you can't be sure of what you are buying. Gordon.
We have sampled the new injection mould tools on schedule and they are very close to production standard. The first set of moulds took 4 years to commission so this progress is exciting. Some key people on holiday now but we should see some pre-production samples for evaluation in September. Equity funding process is well under way, we just need another £39k, so we should be able to get high volume production going for the new season. See www.syndicateroom.com/Bird and https://twitter.com/BirdDesignLtd Gordon
Just noticed these are back in stock at centralsports. I wonder if this is still exclusive to centralsports?
May I know the status of this bird, when and with whom this will be available in North America? Very eager to try it out. Thanks.
Great to see these up and running again. I have ordered a few tubes for testing. I have followed these shuttles since I saw a story about them on a website many years ago. I'm hoping for great things, well better than current plastic things.
For those who can order this, provide a review, majority of us want to know if they solved the separation problem from the earlier batches.
Just got back from the club I run on Friday evenings. We usually use Mavis 2000 red stripe. Before I get onto the club night and longevity etc my personal opinion is that they play a touch heavier than feathers, if I was to make a comparison it would be the difference between a head light and an even balance racket. However, they are certainly nicer to play with than the Mavis shuttles. They give a bit more feedback through the racket than the Mavis, and as a result offer up far more control. To make a completely fair comparison I would like to get my hands on the Bird2 red stripe as the blue's are just a touch too slow for our court. OK, so tonight I ran three courts for 90 minutes as usual. Two courts with the Bird2 and one with a new Mavis red. The standard of play varies from social to mid club level, a few heavy hitters and a good number of mis hitters There was no problem at all with separation of the two elements, and no sign of issues with the cork at the end of the evening. The Mavis started to show breakages before the bird2, but didn't degrade too much throughout the evening after that. By the end of the evening the bird2 was showing a few signs of wear but nothing significant, the pictures I can produce don't really show anything. One of the bird2 shuttles appeared to meet the bottom of someones shoe, the join split on the inside slightly (picture possibly attached if all works well) but the flight of the shuttle remained remarkably consistent regardless. The general consensus was positive. All but the newest players could tell the difference, and all but 1 player preferred the Bird2 over the Mavis. A few noted the feeling of more weight, but this could be put down to the speed difference. From my point of view, running the club, I will switch to the Bird2 once the Mavis shuttles have been used up. I may even consider doing so beforehand if I can get hold of the faster Bird's. At the moment I don't believe this shuttle is a revolution that will push plastics shuttles into clubland. However, this is a big step forward for plastic shuttles (an evolution) and I hope that social groups struggling with cheap feathers consider these as an alternative. Whilst they can't compare to decent feathers, they compare very favourable to cheap ones, and certainly last a lot longer! I'll update this as they get more use, I may even take them to the feather fanatics on Monday, and get their input. PS That picture involves me squeezing the shuttle slightly, it returned to being round otherwise.
Good point. Here in the UK Bird2 cost £19 per dozen Yonex Mavis 2000 cost £14.50 per dozen I would say the price difference of roughly 40p per shuttle is worth it on first impressions.
Mishta, Many thanks for the report. It is very important for us to get this sort of feedback. Your findings are much in line with our testing so far. People get used to what they are used to, so to get such a majority favouring Bird2 straight away is encouraging. We have found that feather users, or those who have used feathers get the most excited. Nothing will ever sound or feel quite like a feather but Bird2 moves enough in that direction for people to start to consider it. Then they start to appreciate the upsides: complete consistency in all aspects of play, no change through the rally, no constant changes of shuttle and no tampering or discussions about quality or condition of the shuttle, and of course, a fraction of the cost. Re the perceived weight, you should find that feather users do not find it 'heavier'. one of the advantages of the 2 piece composite design is that we can make a much denser lattice pattern in the flight section which gives a resistance to air passing through similar to a feather. This means a higher pressure inside the skirt when hit therefore more dynamic weight on the racket when hit even though the shuttle static weight is the same. This gives more feel and in particular a hysteresis effect on net shots such that it stays on the racket for longer and doesn't bounce up so high. It also means that the turnover and righting is faster. The broken support ring that you show will occur occasionally after thorough use.This feature is the essence of the extra rigidity and we can make it more or less durable. At the moment we are trying to achieve a balance between durability and playability. As you say, they still fly perfectly well when broken but will lose a bit of feel to the most discerning. Before very long we will be offering 3 models. One with even more durability but slightly less feel; Bird2 as is; and a new version which will be more rigid, have even more playability with a new simple feature, with which we will compete with the top grade feather market. We can produce faster or slower shuttles within a week so please place any orders with Central Sports. We are dealing exclusively with Central Sports at the moment so that we can monitor feedback precisely and respond to the market in a stratified way.
North America Now we are in a position to raise production levels we will be contacting leading on-line retailers in all overseas markets. Contact Goode Sport in UK who are our distributors if you have any leads.
Looking forward to the next version, Ordered some Bird2's the other day and they are heading in the right direction for sure...Little bit bouncy and too easy to spin around the net, and a little too fast. I did really enjoy how they sound quite similar to feathers off the racket, if this could be increased it would be amazing.
Had another (busier) night of badminton with a few more of the heavy hitters around. The two shuttles I used last week were finished off last night. The one pictured above lasted another 25 minutes or so. The other lasted for at least another hour. The shuttles from this week are fine for use next week. Very roughly I am seeing about 2 hours use per shuttle, probably a little more. But this is on very little data. I would expect this to rise slightly, rather than fall too much. Have decided to move away from the Yonex Mavis 2000 to the Bird2 from now on. Would rather run with a faster shuttle, but due to the overwhelmingly positive feedback the mild speed sacrifice is worth it.
With a small sample so far in use at my non-league club (as with mishta, "a few heavy hitters and a good number of mis-hitters") I found a similar longevity - about 2 hours of doubles play per shuttle. The failure mode was skirt-splitting and until then the play was completely consistent. The earlier development problems with separation at the cork or ring seem to have been completely solved.
