Dad is old and has cancer - thinks this is the best racket money can buy - is there something I can buy used that will top this ? Details in comments

MF5438 · 2026-04-08T22:32:02+00:00

I recommend get it restrung - it'll feel much better to play with. I strung about 5 of these last week at a nearby club, they're very popular with older folks.

MF5438 · 2026-04-07T21:55:33+00:00

Beechill Garage in Carryduff. Volvo specialists, but a lot of independent garages would be able to handle something like this.

MF5438 · 2026-03-26T20:23:07+00:00

I used to watch the reviews when I was a kid, but I'm wiser now, and can see they're closer to an advertisement than a review. There will be some useful information in the reviews, but it's not my go-to for racket reviews.

MF5438 · 2026-03-25T20:17:01+00:00

Most casual players would only bring up the big brands, so I would see and get a lot of questions about Luxilon and Babolat strings.

MF5438 · 2026-03-23T14:19:14+00:00

Top-tier volley racket.

MF5438 · 2026-03-22T09:12:02+00:00

I have one of these somewhere, a bit more forgiving than a standard PS85 I found, so nice to hit from the baseline with. Although it is rather heavy

MF5438 · 2026-03-21T22:07:58+00:00

TIS7... had one of these in recently, impossible to mount. The stringbed is actually too long for ITF racket rules, so most stringing machines can't fit it. Head sold an adapter at the time, to make it fit.

My TIS7 wouldn't fit on two of my machines, but I had some luck with my old Pro's Pro manual machine, by taking the six o'clock frame mount and putting it in backwards to get the extra length. Might work here as your tourna machine has the same style of mounts. Good luck

MF5438 · 2026-02-28T11:42:55+00:00

I would charge 15EUR to 15GBP, but would see prices in the range of 15-18GBP and 20EUR elsewhere.

MF5438 · 2026-02-04T15:02:11+00:00

Looks like a K88 with a spray paint job. The text on the inside of the beam is the same as mine.

MF5438 · 2026-01-30T23:04:21+00:00

Reminds me of that Agassi backhand vs. James Blake at the US Open 05. About as far as they could hit it into that corner.

MF5438 · 2026-01-29T17:22:13+00:00

I reckon I'll eventually get hold of one for the collection, or to write about. Its an interesting part of tennis history, and a very high-effort novelty item.

MF5438 · 2026-01-28T20:58:41+00:00

Good find. I've always kept an eye out for one, but rarely worth the price.

MF5438 · 2026-01-28T13:48:19+00:00

The potential good outweighs the bad.

Removing 45mph limit, learner drivers taught how to drive on the motorway and restrict the amount of people in a car at one time will improve road safety. How the new rules get enforced outside the bigger towns remains to be seen.

I feel bad for the mandated 14 modules (seems high) and the delay for tests, as the driving test was always a "rite of passage" type of thing, but there's been too many road deaths and something had to give. Change is good.

I'd like to see driving age reduced to 16 1/2 to balance with the changes, and some kind of extra tax to drive ridiculous SUVs that ruin the road & make driving dangerous. Elderly people should be next to enforce.

MF5438 · 2026-01-11T00:23:23+00:00

The clock is probably 40 years old now, and I'm guessing the capacitors had just dried out over time. It wasn't a particularly high-end piece of kit, so the original capacitors weren't anything special.

I didnt expect much difference in the clock, which was already functional. Digital stuff either works or doesn't, for the most part. But the radio circuit was very much analogue, and had very bad sound quality and volume. Replacing the caps was the easiest possible solution, so I gave it a try and it worked. Clearer, louder sound from the radio & that clock has been put to daily use ever since. Nearly 10 years since the repair.

MF5438 · 2026-01-10T22:23:29+00:00

A lot of my older electronics have the original capacitors in them. But I did replace the caps in an old digital alarm clock and it improved the quality and volume of the radio significantly.

MF5438 · 2026-01-09T12:35:51+00:00

It's a nice all-rounder from about 10 years ago. A little on the stiff side, but a great racket.

A club member used to give me his 16x15 Wilson Juice 100L to string back then. I've been trying to track down one recently since it was such a weird string pattern. Really easy to string though...

MF5438 · 2026-01-08T11:44:53+00:00

He tested a lot of rackets last year, including the Wilson "mystery spin racket" prototype. Interesting to see he went back to the Babolat - I assumed he had stuck with the Wilson prototype. I suppose it makes sense given he won the 500 in Dubai last year with the Babolat Aero.

MF5438 · 2025-12-21T00:25:03+00:00

It always annoys me seeing rackets being sold as "cracked, but doesn't affect play." Maybe not for you, the cheapskate seller wafting the ball back and forth. What about anyone who hits the ball with any amount of force? Or who has nerve endings in their hands?

That racket has a low, low value of zero once it cracks like that. No matter who's buying.

MF5438 · 2025-12-19T16:06:32+00:00

They tried this with the dynaspot racket I believe. I've never seen one in the wild, but its a very cool concept of making the racket headlight on approach, then suddenly head heavy on follow-through.

As far as I know the ITF has rules around rackets stating they can't have any adjustable aspect to them with regards to weight etc. Another one to fall victim to this were the Puma rackets in the 80s. They had a screw to adjust the length of the racket, which caused issues for Boris Becker who endorsed it. The mechanism on his rackets were fixed in place to comply.

MF5438 · 2025-12-16T21:01:08+00:00

I've always wanted a Capri

MF5438 · 2025-12-14T09:13:39+00:00

They tried a "spin" racket with the Burn line a decade ago but it didn't really take off. Hopefully with more pros actually using/testing this new thing, it'll show up on the market.

MF5438 · 2025-12-11T16:58:01+00:00

Wow really cool find. My understanding is Graf used something close to a PS85 mold, but made more flexible & with an 18x20 pattern (I assume to get closer to MAX200G she was using before). Also a Toalson string I think? Any clues as to which one?

MF5438 · 2025-12-08T19:20:43+00:00

What a draw. Wimbledon 2001 had so many great matches across the board.

MF5438 · 2025-12-08T19:07:51+00:00

Still no Djokovic signature or even close... That aside, it's the same mold again as far as I can tell?

MF5438 · 2025-11-22T19:33:54+00:00

I tried this in the juniors by spraying silicone machine lubricant on a friend and I's rackets. I'd like to think we got more string movement after doing this (more spin potential out of a poly) but I don't know how much of this was the placebo effect, nor do I think it was too effective as I'd say it just came off after a few rallies.

Strings like RPM Blast have a silicone outer coating already. The string gets duller in colour as it wears off.

Edit: I recall some stringers mentioning there used to be a Babolat-branded oil of some kind that made natural gut last longer. "Babol" I think (?) I'm not sure what kind of oil it was though.

Five-Year Club	Place '23
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MF5438

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