Well I flew a 12m crossbow today in about 15-20knts at Leighton.
These are my impressions:
1. I noticed imediately that the bar pressure is really light. Basically you can't really feel the kite's position through the bar. It also felt very slow to respond.
2. Suspicion confirmed, the kite turns really slow.
3. With the kite sheeted out, the kite pretty much doesn't turn at all.
4. The kite's depower is nice. Makes it easy to manage gusts and speed.
5. The kite is really heavy on the arms. Basically you have to hold the weight or the back lines while you're going upwind or else it will depower. This also means its really damn hard to fly one-handed.
6. The power strap arrangement is ****e. They are really hard to pull, there seems to be tons of resistance in the system. Also, the stupid ball on the end of the depower line on really hard to grip. Also the only thing distinguishing the power and depower lines is the colour of the ball. They both dissapear into the system so its hard to know which is the right one to pull.
7. The kite goes upwind quite nicely, but not as well as a C kite, even when sheeted out.
8. It doesn't seem to like the light stuff. The slow turning means its really hard to arc up.
9. Crashed it. Its super easy to relaunch from the 'wingtip in the water' position. Never got it nose down so not sure how good it is at that. Its really well behaved, just siting there at the corner of the window.
10. Seems really unsuitable for unhooked riding. It has insane amounts of pull once you've popped, I pretty much got nailed on all the s-bends I tried. Even raileys were a struggle to land. Wasn't game to try a pass.
11. Once you've got nailed while unhooked, the kite won't fly to neutral. It just keeps pulling you downwind until you realise you have to just dump the bar, hook in and go from there.
12. The thing has no lift! My jumps were terrible on this thing. You can't feel it loading up before the jump so its really hard to time. Also if you sheet out in the jump it just stops pulling, so that pretty much rules out one-handed or no-handed moves. Perhaps it's just a matter of getting used to it, but it felt no good at all.
13. Lucky thirteen. I'm kiting along and BAM! The kite just flips inside out. From there it starts goin crazy. Flips back, loops, inverts, loops back. The bar with all its ancilliary **** got in a huge tangle after I let it go, and all the looping twisted the lines up to a point where the safety couldn't possibly work. I was running a suicide from the chicken loop, so a leash off the would have helped. Even still, with the kite hanging off the chicken loop (fully depowered and power strap right in) it had enough power to wrench me big time while it was inside out, and looping back the other way the right way round.

So there you go. Pretty unfavourable like i said. The kite has its good points, like the depower and easy relaunch, but apart from that, I didn't like it at all. It felt like i was going 3 years back in my kiting ability. I honestly can't see a niche where this kite could sit, there are so many other's that do the job way better. The icing on the cake was the invert. I don't care what you say, but any kite that can do that is flat out dangerous and shouldn't be on the market. Enough said.

sound like a kook after what ive seen that kite do in the hands of talent although it is an old mans kite imo.

could it be you were using a 45cm bar instead of the 50 to 55cm one -isn’t the 55cm the standard for that size xbow kite?... although I use a 45cm bar on a 12 meter sb and ride one handed a fair amount of times per session - scary jumps and go upwind no probs..do have to yank the crap out of the bar to get a decent turn speed. Anyhow pity you don’t like the kite. This old man love his cabrinha bows! If coming off c kites its general consensus that you have to relearn your timing somewhat for jumping and probably the other little tweaks to get the most out of it...

I just can't get over the new and old crossbow bar pressure, and they are reasonably slow at turning. I guess it's what your used to but my Ripper has hardly any bar pressure when turning and stuff and has a much smoother ride compared. It's not a bow thing, it's a crossbow thing. More specifically I think its a bar pulley thing.

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sound like a kook after what ive seen that kite do in the hands of talent although it is an old mans kite imo.

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He aint no kook squid lips.

Howley goes 100kmh+ down hills standing on a bit of wood with small wheels on it and no brakes. He has big balls.
This complete disregard for pain and living shows in his kiting style.

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Originally posted by poor relative

This complete disregard for pain and living shows in his kiting style.

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umm, i would cut you down on 2 points there but it would be unfair on luke if i did

Fair enough, but how are you meant to hold it there with one hand?

Buy a GK Sonic 2007 - no probs, magic

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