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Gust Tolerant Kite

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Bigdog
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Re: Gust Tolerant Kite

Postby Bigdog » Wed Oct 12, 2016 1:51 am

I think the new short bridled and 6 pulley LE kites rock the gusts like the prodigy and xr4 to name a few. The fixed bridle kites can have good depower but jerk the shit out of you once they hit the unhappy place. The pullies smooth it out and you never notice the gust as much. I would have said a few years ago kites were as good as they could get but I was wrong. Lots of great improvements lately....good relaunch and performance in one kite...big change.

L0KI
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Re: Gust Tolerant Kite

Postby L0KI » Wed Oct 12, 2016 4:36 am

edt wrote:The way those high aspect kites work is they gain all of their performance from apparent wind. So you start off slow then build up speed and then after you have a bit of speed the kite turns on. For gusty conditions the wind turns on like a light switch you want to start making upwind progression immediately. By the time the high aspect kite is up to speed the gust has passed and now you are struggling. Just my experience. High aspect kites are amazing in very steady wind especially low wind conditions. But in gusty conditions I haven't had much luck with them.
I agree.
I like the feel of lower/mid aspect kites in gusty lake conditions.
The bridles on my Wainman Rabbits are tiny with one pulley per side, and the leading edge is fat and stiff, the kite changes AOA a lot with a relatively short bar throw.
There is none of that violent jerk forward/fall back/jerk forward that tears up your back in heavier winds.
The Epic Renegade 7M is also good and stable in crappy gusty lake wind, ...three struts, mid aspect.
I had a Rebel 8M that was very good and had a pretty short throw to sheet out. It had that higher aspect "efficient" shape that goes upwind and jumps great but was not as smooth overall in bad winds, it did have good low end for it's size and it sure did boost!
I felt like the Rebel was much more responsive than the Edge kite, I thought the Edge turned kind of slow.


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