OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Hi,

I'm a newbie here and also on the table but improving fast (for a 49 year old ). Just wondered if anyone on the forum has any experience playing with these Chinese, European style soft rubbers. I've found a UK supplier who is currently offering pairs of these (1 red 1 black, 2.2) for £15.95. Just to be clear, that's just under £8 each rubber!!

Currently using Donic Vario Big Slam and happy with them for now while my game develops, but was thinking these might be good reserves halfway through a season when the Vario Bigs get too worn. As you can guess my budget can't stretch to expensive rubbers although I am willing to pay more at the beginning of a league season.

Any thoughts?

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"The journey of a thousand miles starts with one step" Lao Tzu

Yasaka Sweden Extra FH: DHS Skyline Neo 2 2.15mm BH: Donic Acuda S3 max
Donic Waldner Exclusive AR+ Palio Hidden Dragon 2.2 x 2

You should continue to use what you are used to. Switching mid-season seems like a risk to me.

Or run the risk of losing a game which you will then look at your equipment and wonder...."would I have won if I didn't switch?"

You could also just EJ and get a cheap blade and those rubbers to experiment with.

Palio seems to make good quality rubbers that are more euro style for cheap.

Yeah ok, point taken. I guess what I was trying to find out was how similar the Hidden Dragon rubbers might be to the Vario Big Slams. On paper they seem to be, but I realise ratings are one thing and experience is another ... by the way what is EJ?

_________________
"The journey of a thousand miles starts with one step" Lao Tzu

Yasaka Sweden Extra FH: DHS Skyline Neo 2 2.15mm BH: Donic Acuda S3 max
Donic Waldner Exclusive AR+ Palio Hidden Dragon 2.2 x 2

You think that's cheap??

http://ttnpp.com/store/cj8000/746-palio ... ers-6.html

I'll bet he's getting them from here and reselling them...

It's excellent rubber. I bought a dozen sheets last time. No idea what a Big Slam is like, but these will be quite different, because they're tacky and Chinese. And they're similar to a whole bunch of other tacky Chinese sheets.

Iskandar

That's interesting ... I know I've been warned not to pay too much attention to the reviews on the table tennis database site, but all the various Hidden Dragon versions reviewed there are rated either completely non-tacky or only slightly tacky. Now I'm confused

Oh and for a UK dealer, believe me that's cheap! Especially since they have them in stock and can send in a couple of days

_________________
"The journey of a thousand miles starts with one step" Lao Tzu

Yasaka Sweden Extra FH: DHS Skyline Neo 2 2.15mm BH: Donic Acuda S3 max
Donic Waldner Exclusive AR+ Palio Hidden Dragon 2.2 x 2

Some table tennis players are equipment junkies.

ttnpp is offering training rubbers, so apart from the sponge the top-sheet may seem to be Hidden Dragon but still could be different from the standard Hidden Dragon. Hence, it's just a stamp. I've yet to buy one but shipping costs make them a little less attractive to me.
I've thought the Hidden Dragon to be non-tacky while Drunken Dragon and Emperor Dragon should be the tacky ones.

I've found various Dragons at GBP 14.94 for 2 sheets on ebay-UK (one of the various Eacheng-accounts, I guess. Is it a franchise?), that's quite cheap for sure. And yes, at Ali you can get 2 pieces of Drunken Dragon for $14.67, shipping included.
Nonetheless, I'm actually at +-€6 w shipping for a sheet of CJ8000 which is absolutely sufficient to give the creeps to my opponents and it's w/o biotech (factory tuning).

So, sub GPB 16 for an UK-supplier is still cheap and if you're not too picky it will serve you well. But please, let us know how they do!

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

Hidden dragon is a very decent quality, pretty spinny, medium fast (much slower than new AK47s) euro style rubber, still it will be both faster and harder than Vario Big Slam. You should ask the seller for 2.0 mm 36-38 deg version (somewhat slower/softer than 39-41) for easier transition.
Compared to CJ8000 in the same hardness, HD is closer to euro/jap rubbers in feel and is also faster.

If there's anything constant about the stuff Palio makes, there's an incredible amount of variation. CJ8000 is just the most egregious example. Biotech, non biotech, GP Sponge, Japanese sponge.. The "generic" sheets are definitely different from the ones you find in the vacuum packs. What the guy in Britain is selling, I've no idea - it might be the stuff in vacuum packs, or it might be the generic "training" stuff that's "loose". I am not aware of any of the Dragons packed two sheets to a sealed vacuum pack, like some of the T88s are packed, so I suspect it's generic. Even the generic stuff - the last time I got a batch in, there were several sheets of Emperor Dragon and a few sheets of Hidden Dragon and maybe a couple sheets of Wildish Dragon. They all had sort of medium-ish sponge, some were tan, some were purple. As far as I could tell the Hidden sheets were as tacky as the Emperor sheets, both had the removable "tacky transfer sheet" on the front. I did buy a few sheets, a couple years back, of Emperor, Hidden and one more, probably Wildish - in the vacuum packs. Weird. The Emperor sheets appeared to be boosted (or "tunned") - really thick glue on the sponge with a thick plastic sheet on the glue, just what you find on the back of "tunned" sheets of Haifu Whale. But nowhere on the pack did it ever mention tuning or even "Biotech" (whatever the heck "Biotech" is). Most of these sheets had the same "dish" problem I've seen on CJ8000 and Yasaka ZAP (another Palio product). And one of them had a topsheet/sponge separation bubble (luckily low on the sheet and to the side, most of it was cut off when the rubber was glued to the blade). As with Yinhe 9000, I've found the "generic packed" rubber actually better in quality and playing characteristics than the ordinary retail stuff in the vacuum packs. Better weight, AND the sheets have been dead flat, so far. Price wise, no competition at all.

Iskandar

Thanks red and al for confirming that Hidden Dragons are non-tacky as I thought. I can see that they will be harder than the Vario BS I'm using but I have used CJ8000s before so I'm kind of used to that (the Palio blade I'm using had them on as a premade bat set-up).

I don't think the retailer I've seen offering these has them in anything other than 2.2/36-38. As my Palio blade is slow I shouldn't find the HDs too fast should I?

_________________
"The journey of a thousand miles starts with one step" Lao Tzu

Yasaka Sweden Extra FH: DHS Skyline Neo 2 2.15mm BH: Donic Acuda S3 max
Donic Waldner Exclusive AR+ Palio Hidden Dragon 2.2 x 2

Iskandar, here's the link to the relevant page on the UK retailer's site:

http://skilltoyz.com/2-x-palio-hidden-d ... ers-36-38/

_________________
"The journey of a thousand miles starts with one step" Lao Tzu

Yasaka Sweden Extra FH: DHS Skyline Neo 2 2.15mm BH: Donic Acuda S3 max
Donic Waldner Exclusive AR+ Palio Hidden Dragon 2.2 x 2

OK, that's definitely not the generic stuff. Sure, go ahead and try it, nothing to lose, really, other than a small amount of money.

Iskandar

If the blade is slow, I don't think the HD's speed will be much of an issue. Also, most old-gen Palio rubbers tend to actually have 2.0 sponge while being marked 2.2. To get some extra control, you can ask the seller to pick you the lighter, visually thinner sheets from his stock (both thickness and weight variations will be there ).