Flypower Arbi fan club

no pics yet. but i recently got 3 Flypower rackets:

Tornado 900
Warrior 7
Kalderra 779

i am quite surprised by the quality of the rackets. i was expecting it to be just another 2nd tier brand but the quality of the design as well as the quality of play surprised me.

overall, here is what i would rate them:

Warrior 7 - one of the best light headed racket i have used. crisp, fast. better than NS9900
Tornado 900 - good offensive racket for the strong smasher. i had so much fun going all out attack with it.
Kalderra 779 - good offensive racket for the intermediate player, slightly more forgiving but better feel than the Tornado 900.

wait for full reviews in the next couple of weeks.

 

Flypower Tornado 900 Badminton Racket Review

Flypower bursted into the badminton scene a couple of years ago touted as the brand that former Indonesian world champion Heryanto Arbi started. In a very short time Flypower has signed sponsorship with number one Indonesian pair Markis Kido and Hendra Setiawan as well as the whole Djarum badminton club of badminton players.

Needless to say that I have been very curious with the quick rise in popularity of the Flypower brand. Flypower USA shortly signed with Flypower to be the main distributor and have provided BadmintonCentral with a few test rackets.

One of the racket is the Tornado 900 which is the racket currently used by Markis Kido. Needless to say then, that this will be a racket for attackers with Markis being one of the best in the circuit right now. But before we dive more into that, let’s look at the racket itself.

Upon holding the Flypower Tornado 900 I immediately like the color scheme, a very original design with a predominantly dark gray / dark red and white color balance. This is one of the best color combination for contemporary design. The weight tends to be on the dark side with the dark gray and dark red taking up 90% of the balance but a little bit of white blending into the top part of the frame.

The dark gray is in fact not just vanilla dark gray, upon closer inspection reveals what make this racket special: Woven CF. Yes, we love woven carbon fiber as almost all of the latest woven carbon fiber rackets we have seen all give the racket an excellent feel. Flypower didn’t even attempted to hide the expensive material as they exposed 80% of the shaft and 50% of the frame’s WCF with a clear coat.

Plus a dab of silver accents finishes the racket. Very nice design and thumbs up to Flypower for such an original and professional design.

The frame shape is mid-isometric with a moderately slim frame, a standard 76 hole stringing pattern with 3 pair of non-shared holes occupies the 1/11 o’clock positions. What is special about the Tornado 900 is the unique double ridge cross section at the 3/9 o’clock part of the frame, this must be a special mold that Flypower designer came up with.

My sample racket weighed in at 87.4 grams and have a BP of 295mm. This is on the boundary of the advertised weight of 85g+/- 2g and BP300. Which makes it moderately head heavy. The balance felt good on my hands.

On the stringing machine, I didn’t have any issues lacing it up with Victor VS850 string to 28.5lbs on my electronics WASE. The racket was solid and didn’t exhibit any deformation at all despite the relatively high tension, very solid. Even though the rating of the racket is 26-30lbs, i have a feeling that it take take a couple of pounds for those high tension fanatics. Grommets are of high quality and appropriate use of different sized grommet for different holes is well appreciated.

Now onto actual testing....

Employing a full woven carbon frame this usually tells me that this will be a racket with great feel as well as exhibit excellent liveliness. And it didn’t disappoint me, on the first few drives the shuttle impact the stringbed and quickly and crisply flies off. This is a lively racket even at high tension. Which is great appreciated. The moderate head heavy balance means that it take slightly more effort to propel it and certainly won’t help anyone who is weak and slower in defense.

The racket has a medium to high stiffness and that contribute to the overall crisp feel of the racket, it means that it likes to be used fast and hard.

Initial feel of the racket though I think it might be slightly overdamped. I don’t feel a lot of vibration coming back to the handle and that maybe a good or bad thing. Personally i like to feel a bit more feedback for the touch shots but some other people prefer to be hitting with a dampener. This has marginal impact on delicate touch shots which is used more at the net as well as in mixed doubles.

Offensive is the soul of this racket and the reason it is being used by Kido. And what joy it is to be smashing with the Tornado 900. The stiff shaft and frame really ideal for someone who is strong and powerful. The liveliness of the racket means that energy transfers well from your muscles to the shuttlecock. The sound and acceleration it puts on the shuttle at full power impact is quite incredible. Especially when coupled with a string like the VS850 at high tension. I basically smashed my way through a whole evening of badminton, having so much fun with it.

With all the attack though I got an appreciation of the balance of the racket, it is slightly head-heavy but not overly so like the VT80, which also make it decent for defensive shots, smash returns isn’t the most effortless but at the same time, not impossible. The compromise makes it a good choice for doubles players who prefers to player a power game while still maintaining defensive speed.

Net shots and delicate push shots are ok. I did managed to play a game of mixed with it and while adequate i think games with more delicate shots can benefit with slightly more feedback.

And fortunately, I was also able test out the durability. I had a very severe racket clash during a doubles game, one of those clash that makes on cringe and pretty sure that some carbon fiber lattice structure will be cracked as a result. Well I am happy to report that the Tornado 900 passed with flying colors on durability. Not only was the racket ok after the really hard clash, it held up so well I was unable to find out where the impact occured until after the game. There was no dent, no big paint chip. It is so strong as if nothing happened. Only upon inspection after the game did i find a small chip at the silver accent. That’s it.

Overall, the Flypower Tornado 900 is a beautifully design racket which is excellent for offensive doubles players. The feel for the racket is lively and provides a good balance for strong attacking players. It will take good power and technique to use this racket to its full potential. The only downside is that slightly overdamped feel which i do not prefer.

 

Flypower Warriors 7 Badminton Racket Review

Flypower bursted into the badminton scene a couple of years ago touted as the brand that former Indonesian world champion Heryanto Arbi started. In a very short time Flypower has signed sponsorship with number one Indonesian pair Markis Kido and Hendra Setiawan as well as the whole Djarum badminton club of badminton players.

Needless to say that I have been very curious with the quick rise in popularity of the Flypower brand. Flypower USA shortly signed with Flypower to be the main distributor and have provided BadmintonCentral with a few test rackets.

The Warriors 7 is the 2nd Flypower racket i have tested. The Warriors series is Flypower’s head light series and was the series that Hendra Setawan used. Being the control player of the Olympics gold pairing we will expect the Warriors 7 to be super fast. And it is.

Firstly, let’s look at the aesthetics of the racket itself. The Warriors 7 has a gray/red/black color scheme which is very striking and professional look. Again I am as impressed with the graphics design as the Tornado 900. Very professionally done which means anyone who look at it knows that it is done properly and looks expensive instead of some cheap imitation.

Closer inspection reveals yet again full woven construction in both the frame and the shaft. Flypower isn’t afraid to show off the beautiful woven carbon fiber which is right now very popular and all the woven rackets i have tried all provide excellent feel and responsiveness. Beautiful as the woven CF maybe, I question Flypower’s choice to expose the woven CF at the t-joint. By necessity the wrapping of the fiber there is uneven and do not show up as nicely as on other locations. At the end of the day though it is just aesthetic and make no difference to the performance of the racket itself. Finally, add to that a couple of gold accent completes the overall design of the racket.

Gray/silver occupying the top of the racket as well as the cone area, plus red accent in 3/9 o’clock position and the rest are exposed woven CF give the color scheme a very good color balance.

My sample racket weighed an 87.25 grams with a BP of 292mm. Which is slightly heavier but head lighter than the advertised 85g and 295mm BP.

The frame shape is mid-isometric with a slightly round profile. The head is quite slim at around 10mm +/- 0.2mm throughout the head. A 76 holes pattern with 3 pairs of non-shared holes at the 1/11 o’clock positions which is very standard and any stringer worth their salt will have no problem stringing it. In particular the 11th main strings at the sides hugs the 3/9 o’clock of the frame quite snugly. The extra support there means that pre-mature string breakage at those positions will be minimized.

The shaft is slightly tapered with thickness of 7.3mm on the ends to 7.05mm in the middle of the shaft. As result of the thinner shaft, it feels medium stiff leaning towards medium.

It holds up well with a fairly high tension of 28.5lbs laced with Victor VS850 string on my electronic WASE stringing machine. The racket hold it place pretty solidly and only gave in slightly with the 6 point support. With the relatively slim frame though I will be a bit uneasy to string it beyond the recommended tension of 30lbs. Perhaps it will be ok with a new racket but not after it has been used and abused in a doubles game.

Grommet are again high quality with size matching on different locations. Shared grommets are flared appropriately to aid routing and protection of the frame itself. I had no problem threading the 0.67mm VS850 string through them though i would appreciate top non-shared grommets be offset to aid routing, they are not.

Now onto actual testing...

Similar with most the other rackets employing full woven carbon fiber, the Warriors 7 is a VERY lively racket. The impact with the shuttlecock is very crisp and solid, without much dampening felt at all. But not to confused that with excessive vibration, it is not. It is just the right amount of snap and the shuttle just bounces off. I really like the generous amount of feel, feedback and lack of dampening.

Even though measured BP is 292mm the racket overall feels head light, which means it is incredibly fast for drives shots and super fast at mid/front court interceptions.

This is really the soul of the racket, a head light racket that is fast and solid makes it an excellent doubles racket for those who like to drives and defenses very well. Drives are easy to execute. The repulsion provided by the slim shaft pushes the shuttle back as fast as it came. Furthermore, it does it with a crispiness that is rare to find even among the best of rackets in the market.

Smash defense merely require a snap of the finger and wrist which was a joy to perform. I think this racket will be good to compensate for people are lacking in defense speed.

I played a few mixed doubles games with it and find that the mid-court delicate touch and push shots are excellent. While i felt it is adequate, it would’ve been better if the racket provide a bit more stability.

Net shots are surprisingly good with ample feedback and feel. Manuverability means that i also have no problem doing tricky cross court net shot with it.

Clear and drops are simply just a relax snap of the wrist, and the shuttle just goes of with crispness.

However, being a head-light racket i find it hard to do full out smashing with. The lack of head-heaviness means that smash technique needs to be adjusted. The Warriors 7 favor fast wrist smash instead of full out hard smash. When one figures out the intricacy of the balance, it is possible to do fast smashes but not particular heavy ones. It favors the mid-court interception type smash instead of the back court full power jumpsmash. Speed instead of strength.

This is really a style difference as i know many people who attack better with light-headed rackets instead of heavy-headed ones. Unfortunately I personally prefer heavy-headed ones.

Overall, the Flypower Warriors 7 is with no doubt one of the best head-light racket that i have tried. I have enjoyed using it for doubles drives and mid-court attack game both in regular doubles as well as mixed doubles. A lively racket with excellent feel and crisp impact contribute greatly to that. The only drawback being slightly weaker in smashes.

 

sorry i missed your message. was so dizzy writing reviews after reviews.

being a 1st tier brand means a lot more than just quality products. Yonex has many years of producing quality products but what makes them special is that they have incredible marketing ability and distribution channel and very much the brand is grown into retailer and consumer's minds.

Victor also have quality products for years but the penetration isn't as good even until today. They made huge stride over the past few years with big sponsorships esp with the Korean and Taiwan team.

Up till today many people still question the quality of LiNing's product. Some people have used it but the review isn't that stellar. esp given the price point. they did have good marketing and their distribution channel is growing in strength.

So being a "brand", asg/Flypower (well, that's one thing they need to figure out, is it ASG or Flypower?!?!) still has a way to go. They are definitely starting off in the right steps as I have personally tried and see that they have quality product with quality design (as much as we want to disregard it, aesthetic design is part of the brand). now that they seem to be sponsoring much of the Indonesian team is also a good development and a great marketing win. We will have to wait a couple of years longer to see how much market penetration they are able to achieve.

For now, i think they have already surpassed other 2nd tier brands, say Apacs, Fleet, Winex, etc. But they are not at the level of LN, Victor and Yonex yet. but i think their marketing strategy and the resultant speed of their growth in the market has shown that Flypower has a lot of potential.

For the future, they need to start growing beyond Indonesia. The Flypower brand and their products has a lot of roots in Indonesia, the sponsored players as well as the design (with all the Batik pattern). They will have to start considering whether those developmental direction will benefit them into bringing themselves to the rest of the world.

I know that they already have distributors all around the world and they are working hard to market the products. but so far they are still much smaller in scale than other 1st tier brand and it will involve serious marketing muscles to push into other markets.