OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Hi,

First post on this forum.
I'm armature who plays for about 30 yrs on and off with friends. I have decent technique (I think) even that I did not took any professional help. I'm an attacking near the table player and my blade is " donic waldner carbon senso v1" and for the last 1.5 year I played with 2.0 mm Cream Transcend rubber. This is an all-around setup I belive.

Now, I want a new faster rubber. I don't want to invest more than about 40 euro for both BH/FH sides.

I saw that in dandoy-sports.com there are promotion prices on some rubbers. My questions:

There is a special price on the Airoc s/m 2.3 mm. What do you think about it ? Is the 2.3 mm is too thick? Is it a good option for me?
The other option is the Stiga Mendo Ennrgy which is totally different option. I read that is more like to the Mark V. Will it be faster than my current Cream Transcend rubber?

Which option is better for me?
Other options that I consider is the " focus 3 snipe", but I want to try European rubber if possible

Thanks for your help

My inclination is that if you want to try a Tensor then try a Tensor. Which one in particular? It probably doesn't matter, pick one of the slower or middle of the road ones. The differences between them will be subtle at best. I would be inclined to buy what I can get at a good price. Whatever is on sale. You will either like it or not like it, or, like me, can't figure out what the fuss is all about... 40 euro a sheet will buy you almost any sheet you want. If you meant 40 euros for BOTH sides, then you will be looking pretty hard..

Iskandar

Make sure to check out our Weekly Specials offers too to find great deals for rubbers: http://www.tabletennis11.com/other_eng/special-offers

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I suggest YASAKA Mark V or STIGA Mendo MP. They are in the class of your Cream, but act more Japanese (if that makes any sense)

You'd be hard-pressed to pay 40 euros for two higher class rubbers like Airoc without specials, buying in bulk or something other. Some cheaper Japanese/Euro rubbers that still have good performance are the XIOM Vega series and STIGA Boost.

Other Chinese-made rubbers that still have good performance and have Euro/Jap-like characteristics are RITC 729 Battle I and Aurora, Air Assassin and Illumina, YinHe Moon and Moon Speed, Gambler Outlaw, LKT Red Diamond.

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SPW/Solo

Idly looking through the TT11 sale list, I notice that Mark V HPS is on sale for EUR28.33. Looking at the regular priced stuff, plain Mark V is EUR27.42. Mendo Energy is a lot cheaper, EUR23.33. Boost? EUR33.25. I don't see ANYTHING Japanese or European under EUR20, to be honest..

As far as "good performance" - I can't honestly say I've ever come across a sheet with BAD performance (other than Reactor Ckylin - just waaaay too slow). Some is faster than others, some a little grippier, but you're paying money for small increases in performance. If you want Chinese rubber just go for the $5 ones (Yinhe 9000, Mercury II, Batwings, 729FX, 868). There is precious little difference between these and $10-15 ones (CJ8000, Palio Dragons, 729 Cream Higher Lower Snipe Whatever.. ). Jump to $20-30 Chinese rubbers, OK, maybe they're a little faster yet, but again you're now paying 4-6X the price for a little difference. Mind you there is poor QUALITY - that's a different issue (Palio made stuff comes to mind), and weight is another issue yet.

If you want to buy expensive rubber, buy expensive rubber. If nothing else, it'll give you some perspective.

Iskandar

Sorry but I have to concur; there's a difference between the $5 or less rubbers like 729, Corbor, 9000 to CJ8000, Emperor/Drunken Dragon, FS Origin etc. due to the topsheet's flexibility. Strokes that give enough spin&speed on CJ8000 just aren't sufficient in either spin or speed depending on the bat-angle of the cheaper rubbers. That may not be noticed if you're just slow-looping from the hip and below but it will be an issue on the early attacking strokes. It's the same with over the table wrist-chops and some service-techniques.
And I've had only minor issues with chinese rubbers so far, and none I couldn't cope.

There are a lot of rubbers that would be sufficient to fulfill the wishes of @notato, like the already mentioned Focus III Snipe or the AK47.
The Mendo Energy has quite a low throw which could feel uncomfortable the first few weeks. My guess is you'd be unsatisfied with the spin this rubber delivers.

But maybe it's just the blade that got softer and slower over the years? Removing the rubbers and letting it dry sufficiently before sealing it anew could also give a boost to your existing equipment.

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Thank you all for your inputs.

@ iskandar :I'm aware that quality cost money, but sometimes it is possible to find deals that worth buying.
For someone who plays once a week as a hobby (sometimes twice..) I try to limit myself to reasonable price (for me).

My options are as follow:

• The Airoc 2.1 mm is 40 euro per sheet but the 2.3 mm is 20 euro per sheet (need to add 7.5 euro for shipping). I know that usually there is a reason for lowering the price on a specific product…..Is the differences are major between 2.1 and 2.3? I'm afraid this rubber will be too fast for me….anyone used this tuber? Any feedback?
• The Yasaka Raksa7 is 26 euro (need to add 7.5 euro for shipping)
• The Mendo Enrgy is 17 euro (need to add 7.5 euro for shipping)
• The Cream Transcend is 7 euro per sheet including shipping
• Focus 3 snipe is 10 euro per sheet including shipping.

So I understand that from this list ,Mendo will not give me a substernal improvement.

I'm trying to decide between Airoc 2.3, Focus 3 snipe or to by new Cream Transcend as I use to.

What do you thinks guys????

Thanks

Just based on discounts, I'd go for the Airoc 2.3mm myself... Though the Mendo Energy might be OK too. The 2.3 is on sale not because of any defect but because they put SOMETHING on deep sale every week and this week it happens to be that particular rubber. Maybe they have too much in stock, or maybe they ONLY have a few sheets in stock (when they're gone they're gone.. ). What's the difference between 2.1 and 2.3? 0.2mm of sponge.. For topspin shots, especially loops, the 2.3mm sponge will give you a little more spin and speed. The price will be extra weight and less control on pushes. The difference will actually be pretty minimal. The EUR7.50 shipping is a big turn-off, see if you can buy more than one sheet and have it shipped at the same time, or get two or three friends together and order more stuff.

IF you are buying Chinese - there are cheaper places to get it. AliExpress is sort of like ebay but in China, there's a shop there called Eacheng. Do a search of the forum for "eacheng", should be quite enlightening. Shipping is usually free. Start here:

https://www.aliexpress.com/store/202364

That's Eacheng Number One. There are six others. Click here:

https://www.aliexpress.com/wholesale?ca ... yinhe+9000

Every store selling the black/red two-packs of Yinhe 9000 is an Eacheng. The prices are all different, if you find something you want, just search AliExpress for that item (e.g. "729 Cream Transcend") and you can easily see which one has the lowest price.

https://www.aliexpress.com/wholesale?Se ... +Transcend

This seems to be the cheapest at the moment, but I haven't checked the coupons for the various stores yet:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/RITC-72 ... 17262.html

Eacheng Number One (GH Sports) is the most useful because of the way they organize their index, makes it easy to browse by brand. They're all different for some reason. They are also on ebay but let's keep this simple for now..

Iskandar

Thnak you for you informative post, you helped me a lot.

Just a quick question for other topic...

1.5 year ago I bought Donic formula glue, and used it to glue the Cream Trnscend sheets. I checked and saw that it left with glue. Is it OK to use it after 1.5 year, or should I buy a new one?
I checked, and it seems that the glue flow outside the bottle normally, but will it work as expected?

Thnaks

If you kept it sealed it should still be OK. Water based glue doesn't evaporate as much as the older organic solvent-based glues.

You can always test it, too.

Iskandar

Thanks

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

Come to think of it.. that's another use for cheap rubber (and blades) - practicing your rubber gluing skills!

Iskandar

Come to think of it, the stated prices by @notato are great. Where do you buy?

I mean, without Ali etc. CJ8000 standard would be priced sub 50 Yuan...

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Red is blogging here >> http://ooakforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=58&t=30522

The Transcend Cream:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/2x-RITC729-TRAN ... s0D0dEggBA

The Airoc:
http://www.dandoy-sports.com/stiga-airoc-s.html

The Focus 3 snipe:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/2x-RITC729-FOCU ... SwrklVJmpi

Hmmm.... I guess good_tt is china-friend is eacheng is GH-sports is DHS-pro Tabletennis...

I almost forgot that he's on Ebay too. And on Amazon, but I failed to notice a bargain there so far.

By the way, are you in .de? (due to Ebay only showing me his/their articles if I switch the country-code)?

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Red is blogging here >> http://ooakforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=58&t=30522