Carbonex 8
Model CAB-8
Price history
Chart: monthly median of verified pre-owned sales · USD · methodology
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Carbonex 8: the 1978 Yonex billed as the first racquet under 100 grams
Under 100 grams in 1978
Yonex’s corporate history gives the Carbonex 8 a single line, and it is a claim of a world first: in 1978 Yonex put on sale the B-8500 Carbonex 8, which it calls the first badminton racquet to weigh under 100 grams. B-8500 is the item code and Carbonex 8 the name of the same racquet. Yonex’s period ads listed two weights, U (95–99 g) and 2U (90–94 g), and one boasted that it “weighs an air-light 95 grams.” Another claimed that tests showed it could deliver smashes of up to 310 km/h in a power player’s hands. A Japanese collector who weighed his own racquets shows the size of the drop: his B-8500 weighs 98 g strung, against 126.3 g for Yonex’s earlier wood-framed Carbonex 3 and 112.8 g for its all-stainless New Prince, both strung.
An aluminum frame on a carbon shaft
The Carbonex 8 was a two-material racquet. Yonex’s ads describe a “special aluminum alloy frame” on an all-carbon shaft and call it a “full carbon shaft racket.” A Yonex racquet-history display at the 2008 Thomas and Uber Cups in Jakarta, transcribed by a BadmintonCentral member, said the same: aluminum alloy frame, full carbon long shaft. The layout went back a decade. In 1968 Yonex developed what it calls the world’s first T-joint and used it in the B-7000 Aluminaace, Japan’s first metal badminton racquet. Carbon was not new to Yonex either. Yonex’s history first uses the Carbonex name for a 1975 soft-tennis racquet and the 1977 Carbonex 7 and 8 tennis racquets, and a collector’s catalog lists two earlier Yonex badminton models with carbon in the shaft: the wood-framed Carbonex 3 and the Carbonex 7, whose steel shaft was wrapped in carbon. The 8’s step was a shaft made entirely of carbon, which, the same collector notes, a magnet will not stick to.
Champions in the ads
No Yonex source documents a top player winning a title with the Carbonex 8. Yonex did put champions beside it in print. One ad shows Indonesia’s Liem Swie King, captioned with his 1978 and 1979 All England singles titles, under the line “Yonex. The King’s Road Express,” and ends with “a word of advice from Liem Swie King: Carbonex 8 by Yonex.” The 310 km/h ad features England’s Ray Stevens. Yonex’s 2008 history display paired the racquet with Denmark’s Flemming Delfs, the 1977 world champion, whose title came a year before the racquet went on sale. These are marketing links, not match records. The racquet that the same display ties to Liem’s jumping smash is the all-carbon Carbonex 15 of 1982; it has its own page.
One name, several racquets
The Carbonex 8 changed under the same name. The first ads offer orange, green and yellow frames. A later ad from Yonex’s Singapore distributor, which the collector who posted it files under 1985, announced an “exclusive new” B-8500 with an “aerodynamic shaft” in red or blue: “the same total weight as the former Yonex CAB-8,” the same balance point, but a lighter shaft. A Yonex Asian catalog that its hobbyist host dates to 1996 still lists a Carbonex 8 with an aluminum frame, graphite shaft and conventional T-joint, for intermediate players. Yonex’s Badminton Catalog 2000 then shows a new Carbonex-8 with a box-section aluminum frame in red/black or yellow/black, rated Medium Stiff, 2U only. The last Yonex listing found is its export list of 2008 to March 2010: aluminum frame, graphite shaft, Medium flex, 2U, made in Taiwan. Beyond the 1980s ad, Yonex never says how these versions relate to the original.
Popular, and mostly played
Yonex’s Singapore distributor called the Carbonex 8 “the world’s most popular badminton racket,” and a BadmintonCentral moderator wrote in 2021 that it was probably the most popular model ever. Neither gives a sales figure, and Yonex has published none. The name stayed in Yonex material from 1978 to 2010, sold across Southeast Asia through that distributor, which listed offices in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Hong Kong, and later on Yonex’s export list. Yonex Japan’s record of production ends from 2005 to 2013 contains no Carbonex 8. Verified sales so far are pre-owned examples from Asia resale, and the price panel above lists them; none is a new, unused racquet. Sellers rarely say which version a frame is, so read the colors and markings before comparing one sale with another.
Carbonex 8, 8 DX, 8000 or 8600?
No counterfeit Carbonex 8 has been reported; the difficulty is telling it from its namesakes. The Carbonex 8000 is a separate line with graphite frames: the mid-1990s catalog already shows a new Carbonex 8000, 8200 and 8300 for beginners (each has its own page), and by 2020 the name sat on the Carbonex 8000 N, whose shaft adds carbon nanotube. The 8000 Plus that many listings mention is not the B-8500 either. The Carbonex-8600 of Yonex’s 2000 catalog and the later Carbonex 8600 Ti (which has its own page) are graphite racquets too, each with its own page, as is the Carbonex 8 Tour, which the 1996 catalog lists beside the aluminum-framed 8 with a built-in T-joint; it has its own page. The Carbonex 8 DX is closer kin: an aluminum-framed racquet printed “Carbonex 8DX Full Carbon Shaft,” with B-8600 on the cone plate, which a collector lists under one item code with a Carbonex 6. A forum member recalls its shaft as thinner than the 8’s. No Yonex document for it has been found. “SP” on a frame is Yonex’s Singapore distribution code, not a model name.
From the 8 to the N series
Yonex’s 2008 history display set the Carbonex 8 at the start of a sequence: the all-carbon Carbonex 15 in 1982, then the Carbonex 20 in 1984 with a built-in T-joint. The aluminum-and-carbon formula lived on beside them; the mid-1990s catalog lists more than a dozen Carbonex models, from the aluminum-framed 8 and 9 to high-modulus graphite frames such as the 15 and, for professional players, the 21 and 25. The name passed to the Carbonex 21, to the Carbonex 35 of 2009 and the Carbonex 50 of 2012, and by 2020 to the 6000 N, 7000 N and 8000 N. All of them trace the name to the 1978 racquet that Yonex still lists among its company milestones.
Read the printed name and the cone: the original is the B-8500 Carbonex 8, which Yonex’s ads call a “full carbon shaft racket.” The versions of the 1970s to 1990s join an aluminum-alloy frame to the shaft with a conventional, separate T-joint. A frame printed 8DX, B-8600 or 8 Tour, or carrying an 8000-series or 8600 name, is a different racquet. Yonex’s ads list the B-8500 in U (95–99 g) and 2U (90–94 g); its 2000 and 2008–10 Carbonex 8s were 2U only. Match the finish to the version: orange, green or yellow in the first ads, red or blue for the aerodynamic-shaft B-8500, red/black or yellow/black in 2000. Yonex states a country of manufacture only for the 2008–10 version (Taiwan). SP or JP codes mark the market, not the model. On a frame this old, check the aluminum head for bends and the joint for cracks.
The Carbonex 8 is a history piece: the racquet Yonex names as its 1978 milestone, and the start of a name it used for three decades. Decide which version you want and confirm it from the colors, the printed name and the B-8500 code, since listings rarely say. Expect a played frame. If you string one, the only Yonex tension found for any Carbonex 8 is the 2000 catalog’s 16–18 lb for the mains and 18–20 lb for the crosses.
Verified prices last updated Sep 2026. All data based on tracked secondary market transactions.