Yonex AS-10

Found the following birdie in the badminton hall and adding it for documentation purposes.

Have not use the AS-10 before.

Li-Ning A-80 (***Updated***)

In the past we tried a tube of the A-80 upon recommendation from a 3rd party - hence reason for no pix of the birdie!

The shuttle provided an extremely nice feel when hit. 

Unfortunately durability was not one of it's main attributes. We had to replace a shuttle upon almost every smash which was above average strength (not even hard yet)???

5Nov2012

Discovered the following sample in one of smaller halls this morning!

The A80 has a 2-layer cork structure.

 

Yang Yang 300B and Li-Ning A300

Both the Yang Yang 300B and Li-Ning A300 are known to be good shuttles.

Both are heavier than the average shuttle and provides a good feel upon hitting them.

Both provide good pleasure for the game thou prices vary depending on locality.

In the past I came across "hear-say" that Li-Ning obtained the A300 from the Yang Yang 300B? Hence reason for the following cut-up of the shuttles below.

Yang Yang 300B vs Li-Ning A300 (LHS->RHS)

No need for intro

The Yang Yang has 3-layers whilst the Li-Ning only 2-layers. So not exactly twins!

Please note the Yang Yang 300B has recently changed their design on the tubes and the review is of an older variation of the same model.

Yonex AS-4

Found the AS-4 in the badminton hall the other day.

Have not played any games using this model. Hence not able to comment on the usability of this particular model.

Cork structure seem to be as per AS-05.

Aeroplane Black and Red Label EG1130

I remember the Aeroplane brand of shuttlecocks from my school days many years ago. In those days Aeroplane and Pioneer were the premier brands.

Aeroplane shuttles became available again over the past few years, and, priced above average range.

I have played with both the Red and Black label. Cork structure on both shuttles seem to be the same in the pix(s) below. Hence difference must be in the quality of the feathers.

Found the Red label lighter than the Black and can go quite a distance if you do not control your strenght! Unfortunately they was a tendency to be brittle as well.

The Black label behaves in a similar fashion to the RSL(s) e.g flight characteristics. Unfortunately it is so in terms of durability as well!!!

The colourful labels tend to loosen after a few hard hits.

Cork construction seem to be the same

Yonex AS-50, AS-40, AS-30 and AS-05

Of the following Yonex shuttlecocks, I liked the AS-40 the best - it has a very nice feel to it and quite durable when you play a smashing game. Unfortunately the AS-40 is quite expensive.

You can see the difference in the cork structure of the various models below. All the models featured were created with dual-layered cork deploying a varying degree of the thicker, denser cork.

AS-50,  AS-40, AS-30 and AS-05 from left to right

AS-05, AS-30, AS-40 and AS-50 from left to right

Feedback received on the AS-05 seem to be batch dependent - the bad are BAD and vice-versa.

I find the AS-30 lighter and not as durable as the AS-40.

The AS-50 is acceptable though more expensive than the AS40.

RSL Tourney No1, Classic Tourney and Supreme (***Updated***)

RSL shuttlecocks are quite popular and a favourite of many players.

Managed to obtain some used RSL birdies (Tourney No1, Classic Tourney and Supreme) from the badminton hall I frequent.

The following are pix of the various RSL models after the white covering over the cork on the birdie has been removed.

No1, Classic and Supreme (LHS->RHS)

Supreme, Classic and No1 (LHS->RHS)

The RSL models show the cork deployed in these models are the same.

Thus the difference in pricing for the RSL shuttlecock(s) are due to the difference in feather grade(s)!

Feedback from my regulars are that the RSL shuttlecocks have good flight characteristics but are not durable in a smashing game. We have performed a comparison before and after steaming. The shuttles do last longer after steaming but are not durable enough for a smashing game. Only Supreme does not require steaming but tend to slow down after several hard smashes.

In the past we performed an experiment to determine if the durability was due to different batches. Hence we bought a tube of Classic Tourney from Malaysia, Singapore and HK. The results were consistently the same - as per previously mention.

Atleast the quality was consistant!

Update - 17May2013

Last night, the group next door were using the RSL Tourney Classic and passed a sample four us to (re-)try.

The following pix was after a set of average smashes. The shuttle had to be retired before end of the set. 

Feedback was nice shuttle but durability could be better eg rib cage structure lobsided.