Setup too heavy

The only blade I've played with in recent years is the Donic Burn Off- all wood at 92g which combined with two Andro Hexer 2.1mm rubbers ends up weighing in at 200 grams total. Is ~200 grams the new normal for an OFF playstyle, or is this easily fixed without losing speed, spin, and feel?

What's the best way to shed some 15-20 grams of weight?
The only problem with my current setup is the weight, I like everything else!

Hexer is great in the short game (for this, i think it helps that it is medium+, not soft). Perhaps I should use softer rubber on the backhand because it's lighter. Softer rubber I fear may either hurt the short game (bouncy), or lack speed, making my backhand attacks slower than my forehand attacks. Does it have to be a choice between the two?

A lighter backhand rubber alone won't save enough weight, so I guess I need a lighter blade too. As long as it does not reduce topspin potential and as long as it's not slower or faster, because I've got just the right amount of speed as it is. I don't know much at all about blades because up to this point I deliberately decided to keep using the same blade to make it easy to EJ with and compare different rubbers until I found rubbers I liked.

Thanks...

Current blade specs:
Elasticity: nearly stiff
5-ply
1+5ply: Mahagony
2+4ply: Awan
Centre ply: Kiri
Weight: 92g


Edited by roenie - 06/26/2013 at 1:25pm

Would that be similar to Tibhar grip tape (which is like Butterfly, but marginally thicker)? I already added that and it does help the balance a little bit, but it's only 2-3 grams. Without it, the setup was 197 to 198 grams.


Edited by roenie - 06/26/2013 at 1:14pm

92 grams blade, is very difficult for you to go to 72grams or 77grams.
So if you like to reduce the weight, then blade maybe 10 grams, and then the rest will need to come from your rubbers

Try and find a donic burn all+ in the low 80s and once the hexer is worn out on the backhand use Sriver EL or Mark V on bh

mhnh007 wrote: That means your rubber is > 50g each, if you switch to light rubber, even on the BH side, you can probably save 10g.  If I remember correctly my Nitaku Fastarc weight just slightly over 40g.

silva7 wrote: T05 cut generally weighs around 46-47g for me and Hexer cannot be heavier than T05. can you weigh the blade again to confirm???  your hexer weighs 50+ when cut?? that is a really heavy Hexer you are using.

I have two Donic Burn Off- blades.
Using my digital Kutchen scale one measured 90g, the other 92g.
Why is "k-i-t-c-h-e-n" without the "-" automatically changed into "Kutchen" every time I try to change it back?
I double and triple checked their weight.
(I chose to use the 92g blade for this setup because the 90g blade has a much higher pitched ball bounce sound.)

After glueing both Hexers onto the 92g blade, the setup measures 200g on the same digital Kutchen scales.
I double and triple checked and I've just weighed it again before starting this thread.

At the club I used the same digital scales to weigh the setups of two clubmates. This confirmed mine was the heaviest by far as the other two were 163 and the other in the 180 range where you'd expect those to be. (the 163 had sriver fx on both sides).


Edited by roenie - 06/26/2013 at 2:56pm

roenie wrote: The only blade I've played with in recent years is the Donic Burn Off- all wood at 92g which combined with two Andro Hexer 2.1mm rubbers ends up weighing in at 200 grams total. Is ~200 grams the new normal for an OFF playstyle, or is this easily fixed without losing speed, spin, and feel? What's the best way to shed some 15-20 grams of weight? The only problem with my current setup is the weight, I like everything else! Hexer is great in the short game (for this, i think it helps that it is medium+, not soft). Perhaps I should use softer rubber on the backhand because it's lighter. Softer rubber I fear may either hurt the short game (bouncy), or lack speed, making my backhand attacks slower than my forehand attacks. Does it have to be a choice between the two? A lighter backhand rubber alone won't save enough weight, so I guess I need a lighter blade too. As long as it does not reduce topspin potential and as long as it's not slower or faster, because I've got just the right amount of speed as it is. I don't know much at all about blades because up to this point I deliberately decided to keep using the same blade to make it easy to EJ with and compare different rubbers until I found rubbers I liked. Thanks... Current blade specs: Elasticity: nearly stiff 5-ply 1+5ply: Mahagony 2+4ply: Awan Centre ply: Kiri Weight: 92g

if your scale is indeed 10% off
now knowing your bat is now 180 grams. will you be happy with the weight in your hand?
as maybe the only thing bothering you is what the scale telling you, or maybe you still feel it is too heavy?

roenie wrote: It feels too heavy to me but I am not a good judge because I was using very soft, light weight rubbers before. Of course it's going to feel heavy to me... so possibly I just need to get used to it. Just gotta check the weight with different scales and make sure.... will report back with the results.

You guys are too limp wristed. Here's my man-blade. It's a Joola Extreme from the late seventies with 729 faster and Mark V.

HAHA

In South Africa, so many people want under 85 grams blades
90 grams to them is too heavy......

Tinykin wrote: Joola Extreme from the late seventies with 729 faster and Mark V.

Cool. That handle looks like it accounts for about half that weight!

The Observer wrote: My blade is 100g and I use Tenergy on both sides, the whole thing weighs 190g. You got the numbers wrong

I thought you might be right, so thinking perhaps my scales were bad,
I went and bought new digital scales today.
More expensive, <1g accuracy according to the manual.
It weighs my setup at 193 grams. (instead of 200 like the other, lower quality scales said)
It says my other Donic Burn Off- blade is 86g.
That makes the one I have the rubbers attached to 87g, because it's 1g heavier (measured both before).
That makes the Hexer 2.1mm rubbers ~51g each.

87 (blade) + 51 + 51 = 189
+ ~4 (grip and edge tape) = 193.

@The Observer: which version of Tenergy and thickness are you using?


Edited by roenie - 06/27/2013 at 9:27am

I do not have dodgy scales. The ones I bought yesterday (and returned today) were off by 7 grams.
The ones I bought today are perfect.
The hexer rubbers are actually that heavy. 51g each.

silva7 wrote: T05 cut generally weighs around 46-47g for me and Hexer cannot be heavier than T05. can you weigh the blade again to confirm???  your hexer weighs 50+ when cut?? that is a really heavy Hexer you are using.

Yup!


Edited by roenie - 06/27/2013 at 9:40am

It was ~3.63% off. I suspected 10% but no... it's still a heavy setup at 193 (190 without grip tape).

Edited by roenie - 06/27/2013 at 9:34am