Factory Balancing Ashaway appeared to use a different technique to balance their rackets compared to Yonex. Yonex varied the depth of the hole in the handle to achieve the right balance. Ashaway on the other hand, used a rubber plug. The black plug shown in the pic weighted 3 grams. It seemed to me Ashaway would vary the length of the plug to achieve the right balance.
Post Surgery The surgery itself involved a propriatary modding procedure. Having completed this, the racket handle was reassembled, and a Yonex underwear was put on the assembly to achieve a desired shape.
Quality Check I wanted the new racket to match my optimised Ti-10 to the nearest gram at 120g. This would produce perfect synchronized timing for both rackets so that there would be no more need for brief adustment periods. A quick check with the scale, and voila I even exceeded my own expectations. My plastics playing friends won't know what hit them this Wednesday night.
Sorry to hear the racket didn't work for you. It did great for me and a few of my club friends. But all of them used my stringing. The racket is just a part of the equation. If you get the string right, even a lot of bad rackets can play well. Combining good string configuration with good racket, the combination would be unstoppable. Incidently, one of my plastic playing friends didn't like the Ti-130 either. He insisted that the racket should play well with the factory string. I tried to convince him otherwise to no avail. So I left him be. The Ti-130 is less flexible than MP88. If you can feel the racket twisting, I wonder if your grip is too small. I think the Ashaway G2 grip is equivalent to Yonex G5. At factory setting, the Ti-130 is probably too head heavy anyway. Getting the grip to a comfortable size should make the racket a bit more balanced and nicer to play with.
Hmm, I am not too sure about this; I have both rackets and just by simple 'bending in the hand' test i can tell that the Ti130 definitely flexes more. However I believe that the real difference in flexibility comes not in the shaft, but the torsional stiffness as the Ashaway twists much more than the MP88 and I'm pretty sure that's where the vibration and twisting feeling comes from. Also I found that the grip was originally too small, as you said, but I modded it to roughly the equivalent of yonex g4, which is fine for me. As for strings, I strugn it with yonex BG65 Ti at 27/28lbs a combination which I am familiar with and has worked well in other rackets. I'm fairly sure this isn't why I didn't like it. That having been said, there are however a number of players who I know who swear by this racket so I guess it's just not for me.
The Ti-130 was unsuitable for string beyond 25 lbs on my machine. Althought it would not break on higher tension, it would noticebly deform.
I'm very interested in this racket. Aside from the lower part of the shaft is there any other part of the racket that is made from titanium? It seems to me that the titanium on the Ti130 - unlike the TI10 - plays little real function other than cosmetic. I wonder if it is worth buying. Central sports are selling them for £44.99.
Rubber bung in the handle? So you can move/add to/remove this to affect balance? Is it specific to the racket/series or all ashaway rackets? I might have to perform surgery on mine to see if I can adjust the balance. Thanks for taking the time to review. What's up the the carrot-Handle though?
To answer my own question on the carrot thing, here is one possible explanation: "there is a way to reduce the bp and make it more headlight, which is to put 1 extra layer of grip at the bottom of the handle (and only this section, not throughout the handle)."
Looks good allyjack10, don't forget if you want another let me know because I have one still factory strung in very good condition. I'm selling some of my ashaway rackets off because I have bought some victor rackets to try over the summer for a change.
Will do. I was initially torn between buying a 3rd Carlton Vapour Trail Elite or a Ti130. I really like the VTE but after two hours of solid play it becomes a very tiresome racket to use. The Ti130 is much more user-friendly and less exhausting. Build quality is excellent, as you would expect from Ashaway.
They are good rackets, I have had a few of them over the years and keep coming back to ashaways when I get bored of other brands.
