OOAK Table Tennis Forum

REVIEW: Palio Hadou Biotech

This is the last Palio rubber I had to test, and I did just that tonight at the club. A friend of mine was using a 2 year old sheet of hurricane 3, so I forcefully took his Bty Kumpuru (soft carbon, maybe off-) and slapped on the Hadou Biotech.

My friend started hitting with it, and all of a sudden his anemic loop had a huge dose of kick and curling arc. Flat hits had excellent pace with a very nice glue-esque crack at impact. I immediately extricated the racquet from his hands, gave him my chop blade, time for me to demo!

I peeled the rubber off and put it on my latest chopping blade, Stiga Allround Classic. This soft blade, IMO, performs poorly with soft and even medium soft rubbers once you back off the table where I like to play. The rubber performed beautifully on this blade for my style of play. I was able to perform arcing loops with heavy spin and enough speed to put away the point. Nothing else offers the kick on counterloops that a fast, tacky chinese rubber can. Here is the official review format:

1. The reviewer: My US rating is 1750 with a hardbat. Sponge I think I am stronger than that. I play a modern defence game with TSP curl p1r 1.3 on the backhand and a faster rubber on the forehand used to counterloop/fish/occasional chop. I am trying to be more aggressive with the forehand.

2. Physical Properties: It is a traditional Chinese type rubber. I tested a red rubber. The red sheet is not as tacky as a brand new sheet of Hurricane, more like the tackiness when that initial DHS tack wears off after a couple hits. I liked this better, as the rubber did not seem so slow out of the pack. The black topsheet is tackier. The sponge is very impressive looking, stamped 42-44 degrees with a pleasing odor . The rubber comes vacuum sealed in a foil package and makes a nice hissing noise when you open it. Weight of uncut 2.2mm sheet was 65g, maybe 50-55g when cut. Sponge firmness I would rate about 38 on a dhs scale. Feels like the prov sponge softened with glue or tuned a bit.

3. Speed:
- Speed on slow strokes (slow, not as slow as brand new hurricane due to the lack of initial uber-tack)
- Speed on power loops (medium. initial speed not too fast, but ball explodes off the table very fast after bounce)
- Speed on power drives/smashes (fast, sponge is firm enough to flatten the ball hard)

4. Spin:
- Spin on a loops is prodigious. high arc, lots of kick.
- Spin on serves/pushes is excellent as with most tacky chinese rubbers.

5. Control:
- excellent here. attack placement very good, serves very well, pushes nicely. it is a great rubber for fast attack, but it is quite controllable.

6. Other Playing properties: throw on the blades tested was medium to medium-high, sensitivity to incoming spin was fairly high due to the tacky topsheet. i had to be careful on my defensive guide blocks vs. very spinny loops. missed some long. counterlooping at high speeds felt natural with no hint of bottoming out. the sponge feels nice and elastic for a chinese type loop style. you let the ball sink into the sponge and throw forward with great result.

7. Reference: HMM, this feels familiar, like some other rubber I used to use..... oh wait, that was Provincial H3 with a little glue! Forehand counterloops had the impressive arcing spin that I have been missing since the glue ban. The ball drops like a rock at the end of the table. Flat hits had satisfying speed and a nice sound, serves were juicy.

8. Other comments: This is my new forehand rubber. It is a great product, especially for the price. Anyone looking for a pacy, tacky, firm sponge rubber with a little glue/tune feel should give this one a try.

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blade BTY Photino ST/Palio HengDa #1 ST, fh Palio Macro ERA 42deg MAX, bh Palio CK531A OX

TT Armory, N. America Palio distributor. Macro ERA Tensor, Biotech rubbers, and more.

Babe factor??

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USATT 1700 ··· 11/02/2013 ◄ ПЕШ

Nice review mdjenders. Did you ever use the original Hadou? If so how does it compare?

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I'm always in the dark, but the Dark sheds lights upon everything!! Beauty is only pimple deep! Beauty is in the eye of the pipholder!
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None of them were particularly good looking, but i had a couple female gawker noobs eyeing my looping abilities with the Hadou ! Two competent chinese style loopers with tacky rubber can have some pretty intense counter rallies way off the table. i see that VIONCELLO in your sig. every time i see that, i wish i hadnt sold mine, haha. a slower blade is better for a chopper of my lowly level to develop a consistent defence, but the wood and feel of that blade were ultra quality.

I tried one of the original hadous some time ago. this biotech sponge is springier, a little softer, and more forgiving than the older sponge versions. it is much better for looping and loop driving.

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blade BTY Photino ST/Palio HengDa #1 ST, fh Palio Macro ERA 42deg MAX, bh Palio CK531A OX

TT Armory, N. America Palio distributor. Macro ERA Tensor, Biotech rubbers, and more.

Real nice review mdjenders! Very happy to see it in the new rubber format... looks like it work very well!

This sounds like my kind of rubber! I'm a little surprised to hear about the sound... and also that it came in foil packaging... does that mean it may be factory tuned? Would not be a bad thing since it's quite legal.

The 42-44 would normally mean quite hard... but Palio may well be using a different scale... can you compare the sponge hardness to another well known one?

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i need to get some more info from palio regarding the manufacturing process of the biotech rubbers. it would seem that the only reason for vacuum packaging would be to preserve some sort of tuning, but i dont want to put out any misinformation until i have definitive word (i will post on this next week). the glue effect isn't huge, but it isnt your run of the mill hard sponge rubber. the elasticity of the firm sponge is what makes a good chinese rubber to me.

the rubber definitely plays softer than a typical 42-44 deg china sponge. i would estimate it as 38-39 on a dhs scale (think 39 degree provincial or so). it also comes in a 45-47 deg version, which i presumed was brick hard, but i think not anymore.

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blade BTY Photino ST/Palio HengDa #1 ST, fh Palio Macro ERA 42deg MAX, bh Palio CK531A OX

TT Armory, N. America Palio distributor. Macro ERA Tensor, Biotech rubbers, and more.

I played with the Hadou quite a bit in the off season and had similar results to mdjenders. The Hadou comes with a decent reverse dome out of the packet and although I wouldnt describe it as glue feel it did feel more dynamic than the standard Chinese rubbers I was testing it with. The one thing that makes me think it is tuned is that cracking sound. It would only happen on hard hits but it sounded kind of 'wet.'

Against a sheet of Globe 999 and 729 SST I liked the Hadou better over the table, probably because of the harder topsheet. The 999 and SST were both easier to open with but after that the Hadou wins hands down. I don't remember it being all that fast but the kick off the table when looping/counter looping is just vicious. When flat hitting the speed goes up a gear.
The only thing that didn't work for me was the blocking. It felt kind of ambiguous, even playing the same shots the results were different sometimes. Although that might have been because the sponge was thicker than I usually use. All in all it's a great looping and driving rubber but I didn't usually glue so I couldn't say whether it works as a replacement.

update:

i am having issues getting used to the close to table touch shots, esp pushes. the rubber is very slow and reactive to spin on these shots, and i really have to adjust vs. the macro era tensor i also use.

like rom said, close in this rubber requires a confident stroke. babying the ball usually results in a miss.

back off the table, this rubber is really a beast. i played a very consistent 1800 looper today who i usually am pretty even with. he neutralizes my chop normally with slow, spinny loops that i am unable to put away with my forehand. today, the sheer amount of kick on my forehands really bothered him, and i pushed him off the table and hit lots of winners. I LIKE!

i loved glued chinese rubbers like 999 nat and h3 prov. i hate unglued chinese rubbers, until now. this one isnt a 100% replacement in terms of effect or feel(nothing yet is), but there is something different about it. i havent seen this kind of wicked kick on my forehands since i last played with glued h3 prov, and the result of the shot is what matters most.

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blade BTY Photino ST/Palio HengDa #1 ST, fh Palio Macro ERA 42deg MAX, bh Palio CK531A OX

TT Armory, N. America Palio distributor. Macro ERA Tensor, Biotech rubbers, and more.

It's not just because it's quite tacky? Tacky rubbers ARE a lot more sensitive to spin, and if you've just been playing with the macro era, it would be even more noticable...

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Recent Articles: Butterfly Tenergy Alternatives | Tenergy Rubbers Compared | Re-Impact User Guide

for sure, but I feel like i should state even the obvious drawbacks/differences to make the review complete. its not a bad characteristic of the rubber, just something different that will take a little fine touch and practice to get used to. i also noticed that with a firmer sponge on the forehand, my pips backhand changed to a lower throw and a much crisper feel. throw was high and too soft/disconnected feeling with a softer rubber on the forehand. it is very interesting to see these effects.

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blade BTY Photino ST/Palio HengDa #1 ST, fh Palio Macro ERA 42deg MAX, bh Palio CK531A OX

TT Armory, N. America Palio distributor. Macro ERA Tensor, Biotech rubbers, and more.

I don't know about the Hadou but I tried the HK1997 biotech version and wasn't impressed with the so called 'glue effect' or any other aspect of this rubber. I used it for about 1 week and found it wasn't very quick and it had very little spin. I gave it to Fred for another week and he used it 2-3 times (including he last vid) and got on quite well with it but when I felt it after that it time it was dead so I stuck him a couple of sheets of Sword RG on which is quicker, spinnier and better in every way even though it claims no glue effect.

The plus side of Hadou Biotech is that you could buy the cheapest sheet of Hadou available (very cheap), tune it to death and explain away the sound and speed of the rubber as the Biotech sponge. In my experience Hadou has a pretty good tacky topsheet too.

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Fred 28

Great review! I'm definitely intrigued...

Now the only question is: How durable is it?

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Currently playing classic defensive style (a la Chtchetinine)
American Hinoki Single Ply 9mm Bald Cypress
Palio CJ8000/1.2mm Dawei Butter
Saviga V 0.6

hk 1997 biotech needs a firm, fast blade if you are using the softer sponge version. it feels mushy, dead, spinless on a slower or softer blade. i thought it was really nice with a good sound on a boll spirit and one of my palio carbon blades, but very terrible on stiga allround classic and energy wood. the firmer 39-41 version is a more "universal" rubber, and i do like the japanese-like grippy topsheet a lot.

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blade BTY Photino ST/Palio HengDa #1 ST, fh Palio Macro ERA 42deg MAX, bh Palio CK531A OX

TT Armory, N. America Palio distributor. Macro ERA Tensor, Biotech rubbers, and more.

well, it is in the mold of traditional chinese rubbers like hurricane, skyline, so should be very durable. topsheet is thick and firm yet supple, sponge appears quality, and the topsheet/sponge bond on these biotech rubbers in my experience has been quality. this is not something that is going to delaminate or start chipping around the edges.

should last a very long time if the tacky topsheet is covered and kept clean. once the tack wears off, it is gonna be toast. i will be able to give a good idea of longevity of the tack once i play with this rubber longer.

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blade BTY Photino ST/Palio HengDa #1 ST, fh Palio Macro ERA 42deg MAX, bh Palio CK531A OX

TT Armory, N. America Palio distributor. Macro ERA Tensor, Biotech rubbers, and more.

Well, that is half the battle. I'm happy to hear that the top sheet and sponge will last a good long time.

But my question was more directed at the foil packaged vacuum-packed shipping container. Is this a factory tuning job that will wear off after a relatively brief time, rendering the rubber just another tacky Chinese rubber?

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Currently playing classic defensive style (a la Chtchetinine)
American Hinoki Single Ply 9mm Bald Cypress
Palio CJ8000/1.2mm Dawei Butter
Saviga V 0.6