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Hi All,

My Flysurfer bar I used for Sonic FR is on the way out. Having used this older model flysurfer bar for 3 years, I can not say I am a big fan of it.
Now I need to replace it. I see that Flysurfer upgraded the bar since 3 years ago, but I really want to explore my options before committing to another flysurfer bar. (INFINITY 3.0 AIRSTYLE CC BAR)

So my question is : Is there any reason, I would not be able to fly my Sonic FR effectively with say Ozone ( FOIL CONTACT WATER V4 ) bar?
I think at the end, it will come down to a price. If both bars can steer the kite and there are no issues with front/back line length or depower throw length on these bars, I would chose a cheaper one..

Are there other alternatives? I know people make their own carbon bars, but I am not there yet for this level of effort.

Thank you all for advice.

Regards,
-D.

You can use almost any bar with any kite. There is a some specific things with foils that make a bar better. The larger foils need much more trim range than any tube kite and the rear line leaders need to be quite thick like the doubled line on flysurfer with some balls. You can use a strap instead of easy to grab rear leaders, but straps I find are crap and will get you into trouble trying to relaunch and doing more advanced stuff.

In short yes you can use an Ozone bar or any bar. You can just swap your Flysurfer rear leaders onto the new bar and modify throw and trim if not enough.

Im using my used Sonic 2 with my Ozone water foil bar. works fine.

@TomW thank you for your post.

update: I bought an Ozone 2017 bar and tested for two sessions. it works perfectly. I like the bar much better than Flysurfer thus far . especially the chicken loop part.

I use Ozone foil bars with my kites (Elf/Flysurfer/Cabrinha). I like they way they feel the most and the geometry is set up really well to ride hydrofoils.

Bars, are really simple things. Simply amazing though how different brands f.uck them up in one way or another. They have all seeming had a go at it. Adding one cheesy bit of shit here or there. or just fucking the entire thing. like a birth gone wrong.

Glad it worked out fun2kite.
I've been using my homemade bar with my Hyperlink for 4 sessions now. It doesn't have depower clamcleat or swivel. It has a homemade cl release that is really short, I'm using Dakine board shorts harness with rope slider so spreader bar low too. This gives me extra 10cm depower stroke. I rig back lines according to wind and it works great.
If I loop kite, I loop it back to untwist. Forces me to learn loops in both directions.
So even really simple bars work well.

I like Flysurfer's new CC bar but there's still things that need improving(floaters got damaged after first session, bungee lines still don't work) . I hear there's a new bar coming from them but most likely won't be till the new year. Ozone has a really nice bar but I don't like their new colors. I might try to make a franken bar and see how it goes.

The only issue with Flysurfer vs Ozone is line length - standard Ozone foil bars are 25m lines whereas Flysurfer standard line length is 21m, also Flysurfer use thinner lines, same strength as the Ozone race lines. I use a foil contact race bar with my FS Soul - the only downside is it uses a pulley system for depower so there is more spare dangly stuff when depowered. When riding this has very little affect as I rarely ride with any significant depower on the centre lines. Overall I much prefer the Ozone system, although I gather FS have a new bar / lines in development.

You can buy any of the newer Ozone bars with line lengths of 15m, 20m, 23m, 25m or 27m lines attached. The new click release is apparently the best chicken loop out there. release, then simply push it back together. No pulling on elasticated plastic release tops which take two hands and can't be done when powered up In strong winds whilst fighting to hold your safe line so the kite doesn't re-launch with one of the needed hands.