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Review by haggisv:
Although it does not bother me in the least if
other people use boosters, I don't use any booster/tuner for
competition, nor do I encourage it's use, but I do love to experiment
with them ... I always have.
I love the idea of being able to revive on old and
useless rubber, or a rubber that's dropped in performance, back into
something that can be used again for some time. Similar it's great to be
able to turn a $10 rubber into a monster with performance like a $50+
rubber! Other boosters could only offer the effect for days or weeks,
but this one is unique offering effect for many months! I dug up a
new sheet of 007 (Japanese sponge 40-43deg) to test the booster. Since I
used the same rubber in my review of the regular
Falco
Tempo Booster, I thought it would make a useful comparision.
Here is the sheet and the booster:
As you can see, the sheet has no dome at all to start with.
I removed the plastic protection sheet from the topsheet (so that the
whole sheet can stretch) and started to apply the booster.
The liquid is slightly yellow in colour, and is of a thick oily texture:
I applied quite a thick layer to the whole sponge surface as shown
below.
After about an hour or so, the booster started to be absorbed by the
sponge. In hindsight a thinner layer would probably have been better, as
this tends to soak in more evenly, and more layers can be added if
required.
Unlike the regular Falco Booster, the dome took a very long time to
appear, as even after about 2 hours there was only slight signs of a
dome, and the liquid was only starting to soak in.
Here it is after 12h:
As you can see, there are still a few wet spots where it has not soaked
in completely.
After 24h, there was no sign of
wetness any more, and the dome had grown even further:
Although the dome was already quite big, I was determined to try
multiple layer as suggested by the instructions, so I added another
layer, this time thinner.
The dome continued to build, here it is after to
48hours.
I will continue to monitor the rubber, but will not add any further
layers, in the fear that the dome will be too huge to glue on, even
after it started to settle.
After 5 days, the dome is
finally starting to come down a little, although it's got quite a
way to go yet
What I forgot to mention in my initial review is the sponge hardness
that I measured with my Shore C durometer. Here are the numbers:
Hardness:
Initial: 48deg
1 day: 45deg
2 days: 44
5 days: 42
I was very surprised that after 5 days, it still continued to get
significantly softer. This might also partially explain the
reduction in the dome.
Day 7, dome continues to drop:
Finally, after 2 weeks of the
initial boost, I got around to trying this boosted rubber.
The hardness reading has not changed in the last few days, but dropped
quite a bit from the initial state, as posted earlier. The sheet was
stretched from 168x168mm to 172x172mm, which is quite a bit for a
Chinese rubber, as Chinese usually have a thicker and tougher topsheet,
so they don't stretch as much.
When I glued it on, there was still a significant dome on the rubber.
This is not unusual for Chinese rubbers, as the topsheet tends to be
tougher, making it harder to stretch with the sponge. Still it glued on
fine with Donic Vario, which is certainly not the strongest glue on the
market, so it's not too bad.
Once I glued it on, the rubber really felt
much softer (compared to
unboosted), which is consistent with my readings. The topsheet looked
fine, and it was still as tacky as before (as expected), so there was no
negative effect on the topsheet.
I hit some balls against the ball machine... the ball came off much
faster and when hit harder, it had the familiar loud popping/cracking
sound of a speed glued rubber. I did not feel there was any loss of
spin, and my loops had good arcs. I would have to try the boosting on a
non-tacky rubber to see how much increase there is in spin, as tacky
rubber get most of their spin from the topsheet, which has not changed
much apart from some extra tension.
So the booster certainly works very well... I would estimate an increase
in speed of at least 30% perhaps more. Softening of the sponge is real
nice, as this tend to add to control, and add to spin particularly for
non-tacky rubber. On soft contact the tacky on the rubber still offered
very good control, but as soon as it was hit a little harder the lively
sponge kicked in.
I could still do slow spinny loops by brushing the ball lightly, but
dig the ball in only slighty and you get a lot of extra power.
I will now test it once a week to see when the effect drops off and
how long it seems to last...
I've just tested the boosted rubber again, it still plays exactly the
same after about 5 weeks. It's
certainly starting to live up to it's reputation!
To be continued. |
