This is less desirable because the racquet now becomes very heavy. A better way is to remove the plastic ballast inside the back of the butt cap to offset the extra weight of the new grip. For this you will have to remove the butt cap and 5 staplse from the wood handle/butt cap.
Oh. so the weight is in the wood? its not easy to remove the staples. . Is it hard to stick the butt cap back? really like thick grips but it always lower the balance point. and my family has problems with me putting lead tape. they think its toxic. =/
It's quite easy. Just use a sharp, strong needle and pull them out. Then the buttcap comes off quite easily. The plastic piece that is inside the handle is actually very light.. I don't know whether it will affect the balance point much. I have noticed that for head-lighter yonex racquets, the plastic part is bigger! and there's less empty space in the handle for the plastic insert.. While for more head-heavier racquets, there is more empty space for the small plastic insert.. Well, not exactly head-heavy, but slightly. ( NS9KS vs NS7700, both 3UG4. )
Oh. how bout putting the buttcap back? is it as easy? I will experiment with my cheaper rackets later.
Well yup. It's not loose nor tight. It just fits. Wrap a grip over it and it'll stay there.. Haha I found a broken NS7700, took the buttcap off and put it onto my back-up racquet.. now I have a racquet which says 'made in taiwan' on the shaft, and 'yonex japan' on the buttcap .. But this foam stuff can be slippery and might not hold the buttcap in place. Maybe you should use some superglue or something in this case..
I tried it on one of my old yonex basic racket. Now its head heavier than ever. Balance point from 350mm to 365mm. Lol. close to the t-joint. Anyways, Thanks. !
What?! So the plastic bit actually changesd the balance point by 1.5cm ?! Wow.. A balance point of 365mm.. that's insanely head-heavy. I might as well try that on my AT700 if I'm courageous enough.. Don't want to ruin the handle.. 315mm -> 330mm ...
yeah a change of 1.5 cm is indeed a large increment. ill buy a basic kido racket and try s tuff on it. i do every new experiment on them
Oh sorry. i was so excited i forgot about the grips. LOL. sorry. Okay, after putting back the grip, the balance point is about 356mm. the plastic that i found was quite heavy. =/ this racket was bought very long ago. and the racket head is made of steel.
I am quite skeptical on simply removing the plastic piece. It should not make a huge difference... I strongly believe if anyone were to remove the entire YONEX CAP at the bottom of the handle, it will make the racket very head heavy. But... without the cap at the bottom of the handle, you may risk slipping the racket out of your hands when smashing.... Thanks.
Haha but there's also a solution for that.. just thicken the end using some old replacement/original grip which is cut in half through the centre and roll it up at the bottom of the handle until the end's diameter is about 6mm thicker. But of course.. we still need to put some adhesive material onto the thickening strip to stop it from sliding. Well, here's an example of what I've done: And you know what.. thickening the end allows me to be confident that the racquet won't slip out of my hand, which allowed me to hold the racquet at the very end of the handle for smashing.. and it helped quite alot. Almost all the pro's do this too, ie: Lin Dan, Peter Gade, Lee Chong Wei, Kim Dong Moon, Shoji Sato.. etc.
Making the handle heavy is easy. Making it light is more difficult but it can be done. You can DIY by taking off the butt cap and replacing it with a lighter one, taking off the plastic piece stuck on to the handle hole, drill the handle hole deeper to remove some wooden material. Drilling requires some common sense to avoid breaking the handle. The hole should be drilled with a drill bit with a slightly smaller diameter than the original hole. Make sure there are 3 roughly equal lengths in the wooden handle for the embedded shaft, the solid core in the centre, and the drilled hole at the butt end. All these are within the DIY mods. For the ultimate you will have to break the wooden handle and remove the handle and cone, and replace with a lighter new handle and cone. This is not an ordinary DIY job. You will have to get a good fit new handle of the right weight and size, a new cone, and mix your own glue (no epoxy or super glue).
I have a question. Erm. How do you remove the plastic balast? cant seem to take it out in one of my rackets. =/
But... taking out the plastic ballast will weaken the structure of the hollow handle. By inserting the plastic ballast, it will reinforce the hollow edges when forces were applied when smashing... Thanks.
Not really, the tunnel hole can be a few inches deep and is used to break up vibrations as well. The plastic ballast is no more than 8mm deep and is not bonded to the hole for reinforcement. Other manufacturers use rubber ballasts that can be as long as 60mm, which serve no purpose other than as counter weight or ballast. It is the butt cap that reinforces the end of the handle. The tunnel in the wooden handle serves to break up vibrations too.
Simple experiment is to apply force to bottom of the handle with and without the plastic ballast in the lab. You will realize that with the plastic ballast inserted into the hole, the wooden handle will subject to more force before collapsing... Thanks.
