New - Xiom Hayabusa Blades

Eh?

It is a FL handle and weighs (if I remember correctly) 84.6g. With my rubbers on it (TopENERGY Soft, max, and Renanos Hold, 1.9mm) it weighs a light 176g. 

Compared to my regular setup (see sig), it was ever so slightly head heavy. And I mean slightly. Not nearly as pronounced as my Carbo 7.6 but more so than my NR-70. TopENERGY Soft is a pretty heavy rubber (in the BWII black sponge range) so I'm quite confident that with "normal" weighted Tensors this blade would be even better balanced. And again, it's not bad to begin with, just noticeable. 

Despite the minor head heaviness, it's overall weight is less than my main setup by almost 10g. So I felt much more maneuverable with this setup, like I was playing with a wakizashi rather than with a katana . The blade also has a nice feel upon contact. It feels a lot like an all-wood blade with sharp feedback from the koto. The vibration is crisp but it is very short-lived. 

It is quick for how thin it is, although it is not as fast as my NR-70. Normally I prefer ST handles. Although I was excited by the fact that this particular FL handle felt nice in my hand, upon playing with it I realized I wasn't nearly as comfortable as I'd hoped to be. This FL is about the size of a Stiga Master FL. Not smaller, but not much bigger if at all. Without it filling my hand like my regular ST, I felt like the blade was unstable in my hand. This is no fault of the blade but simply my own preference... but it may have tainted my review in general. Hopefully not. 

Keeping serves and drop shots low were no problem. This is not a bouncy blade at all. Looping and hitting had very good speed. However, I think this blade matches better with Japanese (and presumably Euro) rubbers, as I liked my backhand with this blade much more than my forehand. While the speed was good, the spin was a bit diminished compared to my NR-70. It wasn't a ton worse but it was noticeable enough that all three of my training partners made comments about it. I should add though that I was using a new sheet of hard, tacky rubber which often requires some time to break in, so the spin may be there at a future date. 

I do like this blade, but it's not love at first sight. It performs very, very well. I will continue to toy with it in my spare time, but for me and my game it does not perform as well as my NR-70. I am grateful to fatt for putting it in my hands and I plan to add more observations to this thread in the future. It may eventually make it to the For Sale section... but not quite yet. 

 

He's waiting for my Photino.