Hi
50cm bar should be just fine on the V16. I to have a 60cm bar on my V19, but the V16 turns faster and a 50cm bar should be just fine.
Regarding the safety release I would recommend shortening the metal pin for the release on the chicken loop. I shortened mine by 1cm (just under 1/1 an inch). It's important for this pin to come out quick when you need it. I have never had the short pin come out by accident.
With the longer pin you may have trouble pulling it out if you are being dragged and the chicken loop is under you.
One other important thing is if your bar has a D-shaped loop on the power adjusting strap don't run the leash through it.
From the photo it looks like your leash is going through there.
The leash can get stuck in this loop and the safety will not work.
One last thing. Put a stopper ball on the leash line (not the leash it's self).
This stopper ball must be placed just over 1 kite lenght from the bar end of the leash line. This will stop your bar from running to far up your lines when you activate the safety release. This is important if you need to use the release in the water and then want to retreive the bar to relaunch. It also makes it easier to pack up if you need to use the safety release to self land the kite.
for loads of info on Venoms from a bunch of Arcoholics you shpould join the arcusers group. It's at Yahoo groups. Great group.. realy helpfull users there. The Arcusers group is also mirrored at foilzone.com
You'll be able to see old posts there too.
Enjoy your Venoms, stay safe and use a helmet always
Cheers
Fred
Oh yea one more thing. Set the internal adjustment strap to i inch from "More Depower". This will keep the kite nice and fast. The kite will also fly furthur forward in the wind window making it easier to launch and go upwind. "More Depower" does not mean that you will have less power.
The strap setting is more about where the kite sits in the wind window. Setting the kite to less depower makes the kite sit furthur back in the wind window and more stiffness to the kite with better snap turning. Good for waves and more float time.