Reviewing big batch of rubbers

[Lazer]

Wow I just tested out the boosted Sanwei Gears Hyper, and I am just very annoyed. I am annoyed at Sanwei for making and "hyping" this rubber.

This is one of the absolute worst "bh" rubbers I have ever seen. I think its worse than the cheaper Gears 2.0. It's worse than Tornado v5 which is just $4. It's worse than Kokutaku $4 rubber. It's worse than Loki's $5 K1 or $4 Rxton 1.

First, the rebound is low. Even after boosting, it is just slow. Second, the topsheet grip is not great. But finally, the biggest weakness is that the throw angle is low and annoying. It's very easy to dump shots into the net. Most bh drives and loops travel low over the net, and often land short on the table.

Maybe your boosting trashed it…
Not all rubbers like being boosted…

Cheers
L-zr

 

[RomanAngerer]

View attachment 33941

I'll be testing and reviewing this big batch of rubbers over the next few weeks and months. If you have any specific questions let me know and i can keep an eye out.

First up, I have glued the RKT Hyper Power and Reactor Ckylin onto my Pro 05. Ckylin is matte, grippy with medium rebound. RKT is medium tacky with dead bounce. The rebound may increase with some break-in or after booster. I plan on boosting both after I try them out unboosted.

Feels like this bunch costs twice as little as a single sheet of Dignics

 

[olive-nguyen]

Today I tried out the unboosted DF Qiji and the Loki Kirin 1.

I had high hopes for the Qiji. But I was quite disappointed. The Qiji is nowhere close to being as good as the Volant Phoenix. Why does Qiji cost more. Qiji speed is somewhat lower, spin is way lower, and just had worse feeling and control and grip and catch and dwell. Everything is worse. In my experience, Qiji is probably one of the worst H3 type alternative rubbers that I have tried. Not to mention, after just 1 session, the topsheet seems to oxidize quickly. I'll give it a try with booster, but it is somewhat disappointing.

Kirin 1 is cheap at $5, but it was fairly decent. Catapult is low and speed is low-medium, but speeds up when you punch through it. The topsheet is quite nice though and grabs the ball quite well. The topsheet reminds me of Yinhe Moon speed. And overall the rubber is similar to Yinhe Moon or fake tenergy. It wasn't too bad at all. Spin was really quite good and the catch was good. Hopefully it plays even better with booster.

I know this is not in the review, but what do you think of double fish volant then. And are you talking about volant 1 or 2. 1 is Tacky and 2 is tensor

 

[TensorBackhand]

I know this is not in the review, but what do you think of double fish volant then. And are you talking about volant 1 or 2. 1 is Tacky and 2 is tensor

I mean 1. Volant is excellent in all regards, and also quite cheap.

Qiji got better after boosting, the catch is better, a bit more forgiving, fast. But it still seems overpriced and not as good as Volant or other options.

 

[piligrim]

Maybe your boosting trashed it…
Not all rubbers like being boosted…

Cheers
L-zr

Not every rubber like being boosted but he like to boost every rubber )))

 

[olive-nguyen]

I mean 1. Volant is excellent in all regards, and also quite cheap.

Qiji got better after boosting, the catch is better, a bit more forgiving, fast. But it still seems overpriced and not as good as Volant or other options.

I use it myself and for the price it's better than what other companies like for example dhs, pf4 for the same price as the volant 1, even without boosting it has more speed and higher arc.

 

[McSmasher]

Wow I just tested out the boosted Sanwei Gears Hyper, and I am just very annoyed. I am annoyed at Sanwei for making and "hyping" this rubber.

This is one of the absolute worst "bh" rubbers I have ever seen. I think its worse than the cheaper Gears 2.0. It's worse than Tornado v5 which is just $4. It's worse than Kokutaku $4 rubber. It's worse than Loki's $5 K1 or $4 Rxton 1.

First, the rebound is low. Even after boosting, it is just slow. Second, the topsheet grip is not great. But finally, the biggest weakness is that the throw angle is low and annoying. It's very easy to dump shots into the net. Most bh drives and loops travel low over the net, and often land short on the table.

I think the Sanwei Gears Hyper suits a particular playstyle... if you're a two-winged brush looper, this rubber will give you nothing (no tackiness, pretty much no dwell time). The tackier Tornado / Kokutaku etc will give you more here.

However, if you play close to the table, and hit "thicker" shots (e.g. most women pro players), this rubber can be extremely fast... for me on forehand, this was substantially faster than Bloom Power and LAC on thick shots. It's a fun rubber to counter with, and is like a cheat code for 3rd ball attacks. The rubber is very direct, and goes exactly where you aim.

In the below video, when she's using the Gear Hyper, you can see the difference in the speed of the shots when she hits a little bit thicker:

And this one, he's pretty much demolishing every 3rd ball attack with a thick contact (probably helps that he has great hip rotation):

So if you're the type that plays at the table, loves countering, and emphasises 3rd ball attacks, this could be an option. But for me, I prefer a more versatile rubber that is also good with looping as well as countering (such as LAC). I also think that this is more of a forehand rubber, you'd have to have a pretty strong, physical backhand for this to work.

 

[TensorBackhand]

Unboosted FC 218 is really fast and hard to control, the dwell time is too low and the catch is not great. But after boosted, the rubber is very good. Surprisingly, it seems like the rubber is actually slower with booster.

The dwell and catch got better after booster, and the rubber is much easier to control with good speed and spin. Overall I can definitely recommend the 218 rubber.

 

[Ultravisitor]

I recently bought 3 sets of rubbers.

Loki rxton 7 in 37° and 39°
Double Fish FC 218 Spin 39° and CRTL 35°
RKT Hyperpower in 39° and 37°

I just boosted the Hyperpowers with 2 layers of cheap seamoon. All rubbers played on Sanwei 54 inner carbon blades.

Playing impressions:
Rxton 7 feels like a super soft topsheet. But is so slow unboosted. On BH it played fine for me, but thats my stronger side. But didn't like the trow, too low for me. Will try again boosted on bh. Didn't like the 39 at all. Chooping was nice though.

RKT Hyperpower played nice, lots of control not to tacky. Faster than rxton 7, guess due to booster. I felt I could easily switch gears withbthis rubbers, but spin was not so impressive. Throw was higher than rxton 7.

FC218 39 spin is like TensorBH described: low dwell, surprisingly fast. Very easy to get speed. I had to really hold back to acces middle gears. If this was available softer I'd pick this as my main rubber. No need to boost to get speed here.
Highlight was the FC218 CRTL: Despite the different description it has the same tacky topsheet as the SPIN version. Mine was even more tacky then the SPIN. It felt very similar like the boosted Hyperpower but without booster and better spin and bite of topsheet. It came out of packaging perfectly flat, i dont know if its factory boosted. If not this is agreat spong for 20euro.