As far as i know, Lining is the most durable racket between the 3 big brand. Never hear 72 & 76 affect racket durability. Theoritically, 72 vs 76. 76 makes string more durable coz the surface is more dense with additional 4 string thus as a whole it hold the tension better. At least a friend of mine always snap his new strung N99 but fine with N9. Ofcourse the person itself is the factor, but who knows, just a theory.
Yea sun seems more popular but I was more interested in the moon just cuz of its stiffness rating still trying to find a Li Ning equivalent of jetspeed 10..
Following Li Ning and their racket releases over the last ~8 years I only ever heard about the N90 IV being somewhat prone to breaking as far as highend rackets are concerned. I broke one racket during that time period which was a N99 too, that one had a crack right between the inside of the frame and one of the Airstream vents after a clash while playing doubles iirc. While all rackets I have seen from the Airstream or Aeronaut range seem to be sturdy in general the vents at the bottom definitely are another potential point of failure. But not comparable to the problems Victor and Yonex had over the years with sinking grommets, somewhat fragile racket heads (in various positions), grips breaking or shafts snapping...
Tectonic is the older series of head-heavy, box-frame, power oriented rackets. Their main unique feature is that the frame is thinner (when viewed from the side) at the 5 and 7 o'clock locations, allowing it to flex more, for added repulsion (apparently). AxForce is the newer head-heavy, box-frame, power-oriented rackets, which replaces the Tectonic series. As far as I can tell, they don't really have any unique features (maybe some newer materials?). 3D Calibar (previously known as "3D Break-free", before Li-Ning decided to rename many of their rackets), are designed as more of a compromise between speed and power. They have a unique frame profile which is a combination of box and sword, so they swing faster than a pure box-frame (Tectonic), but are more stable and powerful than a pure aero/sword-frame (Turbocharging). Many are also slightly shorter (670mm instead of 675mm) and have a longer handle, again making them handle a little quicker at the expense of some power. All three series contain rackets in a wide variety of weights and flex, so while Tectonic and AxForce are designed more for power, you can still buy one that's a flexible 5U, which obviously won't be that powerful in the grand scheme of things.
I find that the new Li-Ning rackets are not as durable as before, I had 3 Axforce 90 Dragons break when the strings snapped but that could be because I had strung it to 34lbs. The Tectonic series was my favorite in terms of durability, I test with the tectonic 7C with Li-Ning No.7 and got the racket up to 42lbs with 5% pre stretch before the grommets started to sink.
Who's playing with 42lbs tension anyway... I guess what do you expect, you're exceeding the recommended tension for the racket.
I just had a quick glance over at the BadmintonCN forum. With the amounts of users who post there you can usually get a good idea on whether a racket is prone to breaking (f.e. lots of people were posting about the Ryuga 2 that was prone to cracking at the bottom of the head just shortly after it's release). Couldnt find any hints to the 90 Dragon being more brittle than any other LN racket... You may be correct though that the new rackets potentially could be less sturdy, but numbers seem to indicate that this only applies at those ludicrous tensions that you mentoined
I was just testing to see the durability of the Tectonic rackets as they seems the most durable of the Li-Ning line up and it was just to see how far I could push the racket.
Well from what I noticed, if I string the racket at 34lbs, after a few string breaks the frame cracked, it was consistent with the rackets. If i dropped the tension to 32lbs, frame is fine even after several string breaks. Currently using the Axforce 100 3U and nothing so far but I haven't strung it up to 34lbs yet.
Hey everyone, Just wanted to share that due to a shortage of 3U 100zz rackets locally and with their suppliers, I decided to grab the 3U Axforce 100. Managed to snag it for less than $200! Super excited to give it a whirl. I've always been a big fan of Li-Ning rackets. Used the N90-III and N99 in the past, with the N90-III being my top pick and feeling like my best performance racket. If the Axforce 100 is just a tad less stiff but head heavier than the 100zz, it might become my new go-to racket for sure. Cheers! Sent from my RMX3363 using Tapatalk
Anyone have used Aeronaut 9000 4U yet? (The white colour racket). How is it compared to the 3U, and what can it be compared to for Yonex and Victor?
Thats a very good price for it. I got mine for about 200 AUD imported from Indonesia on Tokopedia (through the actual store that currently supplies the national team) by one of my close friends (retail was about 400 ish). It is definitely more flexible compared to the 100zz. I didn't vibe with that racket at all but the Axforce 100 felt so much more playable. My sample did however a bit head lighter compared to my 100zz also in 3U
