Ashaway 500 International: Ashaway’s 500 International are listed as suitable for international tournament use, and listed as using first grade goose feathers and a natural cork base. I reviewed a speed 78 shuttle in the UK, late spring/early summer. Price paid: £14.49 per 1 Tube (12 shuttles) Country sourced: United Kingdom Source of purchase: http://www.directbadminton.co.uk/index.aspx (No pictures of new shuttles available) Flight Quality – 5/10: I can’t say I expected this shuttle’s flight to be worse than a shuttle lower down in the listings (the Ashaway 450 Black previously reviewed). The flight trajectory is straight and there’s no wobbling, but these shuttles are easily a grade slower than the listings. I ordered 78s, but these are not flying nearly close enough to the labelled speed. Control of the shuttle is generally unremarkable, and shows not particular shine at the net; if anything, being a slightly heavier shuttle, it inhibits the player’s ability to put spin on the shuttle as the shuttle rights itself quickly. That said these shuttles don’t play particularly well at the back of the court either – because they’re so slow smashes were slow and as mentioned above, returns to the net were a little unpredictable due to the flight pattern. Clears were often short by not only myself, but by several other players. Durability – 7/10: The standard brittle feather issue can come into play with these shuttles, but what’s more destructive for these shuttles is that the slowdown seriously depreciates their playability. An already slow shuttle decreasing in speed makes these nigh unplayable for long periods of time, and can provoke injury. Cork Quality – 2/10: I ended up giving away half a tube of shuttles. The speed is so wrong it wasn’t actually worth playing on for me, so I didn’t have any to dissect. If I can retrieve one of these I’ll open it up and check the cork. Edit: So I retrieved one of the shuttles. I'm not sure I have any words to describe the cork. It is, as previously pointed out in the Ashaway 450 thread, a composite cork. It's around 60/40 filler/cork, and the cork is this awful, disgusting compressed cork like you'd expect on a cheap wine bottle cork. I'm giving this a 2/10 because it's pretty awful, but I'm sure someone somewhere could scientifically engineer a worse cork. Overall Shuttle Quality – 3/10: Durability is about the only thing these shuttles have going – maybe they’d be good for smashing practise? Slow down makes them unsuitable for long games, being slow from the outset makes them problematic right from the start, and they aren’t particularly amazing for net shots. They’re far from the worst shuttle – they don’t fall apart and they don’t have a wobbly flight path, but I can’t say I’m overly impressed. Overall Shuttle Value – 4/10: The Ashaway 450 Blacks are a cheaper, and in my opinion, better shuttle than these. The durability of these shuttles exceeds the 450 Blacks, but what does that matter when the 500s are too slow from the outset. You will likely be disappointed if you buy these shuttles, seek an alternative. Edit: After seeing the cork, stick to 450s or buy a different shuttle.
Yeah but it's not really worth it for an entire batch. The 450 Blacks are a better buy in my opinion.
