They took turns riding Harry's Nimbus Two Thousand, which was easily the best broom; Ron's old Shooting Star was often outstripped by passing butterflies.
-- Quidditch practice in a small paddock near the Burrow (CS4)
The Shooting Star is a racing broom manufactured by Universal Brooms Ltd. They were a very popular broom when introduced in 1955, as they were then the most inexpensive racing broom on the market. However, as the broom got older, it had a unfortunate tendency to lose height and speed, and the company went out of business in 1978 (QA9).
Ron Weasley has an extremely slow Shooting Star broom to use at The Burrow (CS4). He replaces it with a new Cleansweep 11 when his parents offer to buy him a present for being made a prefect (OP9).
Harry Potter rode a Shooting Star while deciding which broomstick to buy after his Nimbus 2000 was destroyed (PA10). It was necessary for Harry to continue using one of the school’s slow Shooting Star brooms while Professor McGonagall tested the Firebolt that had been sent anonymously to Harry for Christmas (PA12).
A Shooting Star with “one careful owner” is advertised for sale in the Daily Prophet’s classified section (DP2).
Splinter and Kreek’s sells secondhand Shooting Star broomsticks (DP4).
Commentary
Notes
A discussion of Ron and his Shooting Star: Quote
Lexicon list of Broom Manufacturers
Although the dates printed on the Daily Prophet Newsletters are:
the timeframe for these events is 1992-1993.
Pensieve (Comments)
Tags: cheap frustration old popular racing brooms secondhand slow