Nanospeed 500
Model NS-500
Price history
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Nanospeed 500: the medium-flex export Nanospeed that Yonex redesigned twice
Three designs, one number
The Nanospeed 500 was a medium-flex, 3U Nanospeed made in Taiwan for markets outside Japan. Yonex’s international (export) site listed it from February 2008 to June 2011, longer than any other Taiwan-made Nanospeed of its time, and changed its specification twice: a “New Design” in March 2009 and another, in Blue, in April 2010. Along with the stiffer Nanospeed 800 it brought carbon nanotube into a list whose Japan-made models used fullerene.
Graphite and carbon nanotube
Yonex gives no launch date. The 500 first appears on its export Nanospeed list in late February 2008, with the 800 and the Japan-made 4500, in the update that dropped the 5000 and 7700. That listing gave a medium flex, a graphite frame, a carbon-nanotube shaft and 3U (85.0–89.9 g) with grips G3–G5, and named Nanoscience, Isometric, the built-in T-joint and the Delta Power Frame. It printed “Made in Japan” for the 500; every listing from May 2008 on says Made in Taiwan. The March 2009 design had graphite and carbon nanotube in frame and shaft, with Cup Stack Carbon Nanotube. The April 2010 design kept graphite and carbon nanotube in the frame, moved to high-modulus graphite and carbon nanotube in the shaft, and was listed with Isometric, the Delta Power Frame and the built-in T-joint.
No player on record
Yonex’s list pages and Yonex China’s page name no player for the Nanospeed 500, and no Yonex tournament report or staff page connecting a player to it is known. In 2010 Yonex introduced the Nanospeed range as its “most head-light series”, designed “for players with a naturally quick swing and a sharp attacking playing style”; it gave no balance for the 500 itself.
Designs and near-namesakes
Yonex named a color only for the last design, Blue, when its list began printing colors in April 2010, and its 2011 digital catalog lists the 500 in Silver/Red; it named none for the 2008 and 2009 designs, which are told apart on the list by their materials. The Nanospeed 4500, listed beside it from 2008, was also medium-flex with a graphite frame but Japan-made, with fullerene in a high-modulus graphite shaft. The Japan-made Nanospeed 5000 left the list as the 500 arrived, and the Armortec 500 belongs to another series; each has its own page.
The longest of the Taiwan Nanospeeds
The 500 was an export model: Yonex’s international site and Yonex China’s site listed it, and no Yonex Japan listing of it is known. It outlasted the 800, which the Nanospeed 850 replaced in 2010, and in its last year it shared the list with the Taiwan-made 850, 300, 200, 100, 80 and 100Jr. It was last listed in June 2011, just before Yonex replaced the list with a digital-catalog page. With no production end stated, 2011 is the last year it is documented on sale new. Shops labeled it by season, “09” or “2011”, which are not launch years. No verified sales are recorded yet.
Identity before authenticity
No counterfeit of the Nanospeed 500 is documented. The practical questions are which design a frame is, and whether it is the 500 at all rather than the 4500, 5000 or Armortec 500. Shop copy calls the 500 “medium stiff” and head-light; Yonex’s word is Medium, and it published no balance for the model.
A long-running export Nanospeed
The 500 spanned the Taiwan-made side of the Nanospeed range from February 2008 to mid-2011, through the arrival of the 300, 200 and 100 in 2009 and the 850, 80 and 100Jr in 2010. For a collector it records how Yonex built the export Nanospeeds: carbon nanotube where the Japan-made models used fullerene, three listed specifications under one name, and no player connection.
Yonex listed the Nanospeed 500 as Medium flex, 3U (85.0–89.9 g) with grips G3, G4 or G5, made in Taiwan (its first listing, in early 2008, printed Japan). The 2008 design has a graphite frame and a carbon-nanotube shaft; the 2009 “New Design” has graphite and carbon nanotube in both, with Cup Stack Carbon Nanotube; the 2010 design is Blue, with a high-modulus graphite and carbon-nanotube shaft. Yonex printed no balance or string-tension range. A Japan-made Medium frame numbered 4500 is the Nanospeed 4500; one numbered 5000 is the Nanospeed 5000; an AT500 marking is the Armortec 500.
Check the number and the series name first: 500, 4500 and 5000 are three Nanospeeds, and the Armortec 500 is another line. Only the 2010 design has a Yonex-named color, Blue, so other finishes need their materials or a Yonex source to place them. Check the head, the T-joint and the grommets for cracks and wear, as with any frame of this age. Yonex documents no player or edition of the 500.