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GK Sonic

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mayhem
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Postby mayhem » Sat Sep 24, 2005 5:50 pm

Hello GK, I own a 2005 9m GK Curl and love it! I ride and can stay upwind in 14-26mph winds. I'm excited to try out the new Sonic. What size kite would be ideal for me? Will you be making a 9m Sonic? Can you use any bar and lines?

Thanks,

Mayhem

GK
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Postby GK » Sat Sep 24, 2005 7:09 pm

Mattdog,
Self launching is really easy, you can either fold the corner over, (its
skinny and kind of looks like the end of a bat's wing) or you can just sand
the tip flat like when you're pumping it up. The wing tip turns down do
much that it will dump the sand with no problems.
You could fly it on a regular bar with a lot of throw, but you might sacrifice
most of the safety features. The Sonic bar is so simple, you probably won't
want to fly it on anything else.

Mayhem,
I also fly the '05 9m curl, its my favorite wave riding kite. Its for
sale now if anyone wants it. The 11m Sonic easily covers the whole
windrange of the 9 curl and then some. There is an 8m going into
production which will probably handle more wind than you would ever
want to ride in. That will be available in November.

Take care,
GK

Pekka
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Postby Pekka » Sat Sep 24, 2005 8:36 pm

I was a little amazed that Sonic don't have good valves. You have to squeese them very hard to prevent air coming out, and that makes difficult to fill struts.

In winter time on the ice I think this will be almost impossible to do because frost will harden the plastic. Good valves are very cheap things but they make life easy. Has GK saved money in wrong place?!

Pekka

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kite_n_rnd
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Postby kite_n_rnd » Sat Sep 24, 2005 8:51 pm

Pekka wrote:I was a little amazed that Sonic don't have good valves. You have to squeese them very hard to prevent air coming out, and that makes difficult to fill struts.

In winter time on the ice I think this will be almost impossible to do because frost will harden the plastic. Good valves are very cheap things but they make life easy. Has GK saved money in wrong place?!

Pekka
Pekka,

I'm not trying to make excuses for GK or any other kite
that has hard to pinch valves. Here's a way you can
make pinching easier, on any kite (this info is from a
previous post on another thread):

Take a needle nose plier and attach it to your pump on a string.
Put some electrical tape over both of the noses of the plier
to keep them from scratching the valve. Then just use the pliers
instead of your fingers and you won't lose any air. (This should
work even in cold weather).

Mattdog
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Postby Mattdog » Sat Sep 24, 2005 8:58 pm

Did anyone post the price of the sonic and bar?

Does GR sell on-line ?

GK
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Postby GK » Sat Sep 24, 2005 9:44 pm

The valves are the highest quality available. They are a little stiff when they are new because they are urethane not vinyl, but after a few uses they soften up and they're easy to pinch.

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ed257
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Postby ed257 » Sun Sep 25, 2005 2:13 am

Does the Sonic have no stopper balls or flaps in any of the struts? If so that is a pain - especially in cold weather. It is also a pain to get the struts hard enough with no check valve ball or flap inside the inflation valves.

If the Sonic is not as flat as the Crossbow, that would imply that it's low end is not as good because it's projected area would be smaller.

GK says the Sonic 11 relplaces 9-14. Does that mean that the Sonic 14 replaces 12 - 17? If so, there is a lot of overlap between the 11 and 14 and those buying the Sonic 11 would be better off waiting for something like a Sonic 17 rather than buying the 14.

Ed

tomcook23
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Postby tomcook23 » Sun Sep 25, 2005 3:01 am

hi there
i have two ques
is the depower like the crossbow ie 1 inch= 2 inches on the kite
or like the nova 1=1
and bottom end in knots for the 11m
cheers
ps im going to aus in two weeks qld
will there be any sonic to demo in shop?
cheers
tom

alguaro
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Postby alguaro » Sun Sep 25, 2005 6:16 am

GK,

When are you going to announce the price for the Sonic 11M in the US? You've stirred a lot of interest in this kite and we all want to know how much it's going to cost? :D Thanks.

Pekka
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Postby Pekka » Sun Sep 25, 2005 7:58 am

ed257 wrote:Does the Sonic have no stopper balls or flaps in any of the struts? If so that is a pain - especially in cold weather. It is also a pain to get the struts hard enough with no check valve ball or flap inside the inflation valves.
Ed
Only the smallest struts have flaps, and others are without checks. I found them rather difficult to inflate, because I have stopper balls in my own kite. For me that is a long minus, because I hate pumping in cold weather in winter.

Pekka


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