OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Have played one practice session with the Red dragon Red Sponge Red Rubber with T05 on the FH. Some tests suggest that it is neither as spinny nor as fast as the T05 (simple static tests). But it does seem to be quite usable on the BH.

Despite not being as spinny, it still has decent grip (no tackiness), and has enough speed to enable a good BH flip or chop. I can get some spin on a BH serve. I do like it. It's probably closer to T64 than 05, which suits me for BH, as that is what I have on my Viscaria (old T05 FH, old T64 BH). I try to avoid passive blocks, but when unavoidable this does quite well at getting the ball back on the table.

I prefer something a bit less lively than brand new Tenergy, and this may be that.

It is also quite light, bringing my dynasty carbon to 183 grams, including the T05 and 14mm edge tape, down from about 187 with Xiom Intro, the last rubber I tried. I am going to stick with it for the summer league.

Tried to take some photos, but having a hard time making one that looks useful.

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Other setups:
SDC Custom Blade/Butterfly Dignics 80/Butterfly Glayzer
BTY Viscaria/Tibhar K3/Tibhar K3

WOW. My sheet of Red Dragon (I chose the black sponge) arrived. Not sure how good the rubber is, but the PACKAGING and presentation are top notch. Reminds me of opening the package for a European Tensor four times the price. Nice cardboard cover, really cool printing. The rubber does NOT have the plastic "protector sheet" but a piece of paper on top - a very NICE piece of paper. The surface is - well, at first glance anyway - really GRIPPY. The sponge seems harder than that of Rakza 7 (to be expected), the pores are large but not huge. Strangely enough.. it's got the words "BIOS" and "Tensor" molded into the front, but the logos are not the same as the ones used on real Tensors from ESN.

I'll make some scans of the cover and packaging, and will post weight and other info on my "Training Rubbers" thread. Can't wait to try this out.

Let's see if it's better than Butterf-- Tenerg-...

Iskandar

Try it! You will be surprised.
On the Fextra it is way to fast unless you are a mid-distance player.

P.S.: found my black 999 national 38° and tuned it 2 times with Falco long. Try it today with PG7 or H-WL, on BH the Three Sword Zeus ox

Yeah, tomorrow it's going on a new M8 I varnished today. The other side will have that yellow sheet of Tuttle Octopus so there will be two interesting rubbers that will be tested..

Iskandar

Incidentally... the black sponge "new" version can be had for $10.50 including shipping at the moment:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/33001853942.html

XVT claims this is their special custom version, the sponge is the same as is used on XIOM Vega and is 36 degrees (which degrees, I'm not sure.. probably not ESN degrees). Oddly enough the "normal retail" black sponge version is also 36 degrees.

Worth a shot if you're curious, I suppose.. Only in red. Apparently packed in a plastic bag, sans the very nice Three Swords packaging. I'm currently playing with a sheet of this stuff (though I paid the extra $5 and got it in a proper Three Swords package. Didn't like it at first, seems OK now.

Iskandar

Any updates on how this plays and whether it is worth a shot? Is it truly better than Butterf-- Tenerg-??

The suspense is killing me...

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Thanks!
LTT

Paddles
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Primary: Sanwei Fextra, Sanwei Target National on FH, Palio AK47 red on BH
Backup: Sanwei Fextra, Palio HK1997 Gold on FH, Sanwei T88-Taiji on BH
Motto: Always Learnin'