Ozone R1 V2 vs V3 vs V4

[dave1986]

I'm looking at buying an 18m or 19m used Ozone R1 kite and as the title suggests I'm interested to know the differences between the latest 3 versions of the R1 kite (V2, V3, V4)

In particular I'm interested to know whether there is a difference in how easily the kites are to keep the bridles in tune, and which of them is best for non-competitive freeride/ freerace.

Or in other words which of these 3 versions is best for ease of maintenance and ease of freeride use? (assuming comparing kites with the same number of flying hours)

[mgs]

To get you started...
Ozone R1 V2

Ozone R1 V3

Ozone R1 V4

[dave1986]

To get you started...
Ozone R1 V2

Ozone R1 V3

Ozone R1 V4

Thanks. These videos are cool to watch, but they don't give much useful information about the real world practical differences. Does anyone have first hand experience comparing these kites like-for-like?

[Jibskibs]

Not speaking from experience but also have been trying to dig up the same info for the past year or so, in search of 15m or 18m to round out an otherwise diverse quiver. I’m searching used (keeping costs down, rare light conditions kite) probably like you, and a learned a couple things you’re going to hear from the experts eventually here:
- V2 and V3 were obviously great kites when they were latest version. Bridle is adjustable but more fragile than hyperlink/soul etc so some will need replacement depending on former use
- fabric improvements - newer kites will soak/hold less water
- I was about to jump for a V3 15m until a post and subsequently various accounts about a known leading edge collapse in some scenarios on the V3 that has been corrected/improved on the v3
- v4 requires concertina folding (but then I was told that previous versions benefit from this also) which to me I might struggle to do on my local beach because its not broad and occasionally littered with driftwood etc

Hope that helps start you off. I may wait for the used v4 market to ramp up. Staying tuned for the experts to correct me if I’m wrong (and contact me about selling a used V4 15m domestically in the US)

[derek440]

I have some v2 and v3 but after the whole inverting debacle I vowed to not buy any more ozone kites. I used my v2 and v3 R1's to learn foil racing but also learned on a pocket board with a 633 using these kites, got some crappy videos on my youtube but you can see me using a Moses 633 and R1V2 . For race kites they are easier than other race kites but race kites still come with some dramas. The v3 and v4 are more fragile than the v2 as they are lighter so they have less coating on the fabric and thinner battens etc. R1s and any race kite require maintenance and tuning and if you crash gybes you can expect repairs. Personally I'd by a kite that performs almost as well but without the hassles but that's another story. In terms of which version to get the V4 is clearly the best but very expensive. The v2 is a safer option second hand as there were problems with the v3 and unless its been really well looked after it could be a dud, but if you can find good V3's they are great, my wife got a few second hand that have been amazingly good, but she was lucky there are lots of bad V3's being dumped, be careful. In general be very wary of any canopy repairs, especially around the cell joins and leading edge and watch out for small repairs that could indicate inverting. A broken bridle line here and there isn't the end of the world but if the canopy has been loaded up hard enough to tear through force, be wary. When they invert it can be soft and almost no load and other times if they kites is really heavily loaded they can turn inside out and full load up inside out, sometimes with a nice big bang/pop. Also we had one at our racing club that tore totally in half on the start line of the first race the guy had used it in (used R1v3 with almost no prior damage). In our club someone also bought a quiver of second hand R1v3 and one of them was totally unflyable due to fabric being totally worn through and the other two were totally out of tune but he got them working with lots of adjustment.

Having said all of that the R1 is an amazingly good kite to fly, for the high performance they are pretty easy to fly and are a real pleasure to use when tuned well and flying nicely. Water starting can be a bit tricky when you first start as they turn/pivot so slowly but once riding there is so little drag and with a good foil they are superb. I had one ride of an R1 a few years ago and pretty much tube kites were dead to me from there on.

[derek440]

I forgot to mention my opinion is also that for your large foil kite I reckon even if you have race kites in yoru quiver don't go for a full race kite for your super light wind kite. Personally when its 5-8kn I don't want any stability hassles or water starting/restarting issues, I prefer to use a free-race style kite for my big bopper, its just way less hassle and swimming. That's another thing too, most big race kites have been swum more than most small race kites which washes off their fabric coating. R1v3 (and I guess v4) are only good for so many hours and so many swims until they are sub-optimal - this is when you see them for sale

[dave1986]

Thanks for the info Derek. I think I agree that a "freerace" kite is probably a better bet for me.... I dont mind taking taking small reduction in performance for an increase in convenience and stability.

[derek440]

No worries, I recently got a Flymaax Instinct HB 18m and its the best lightwind kite I have ever flown, performance of an R1 without race kite dramas. I also own a 19m Halo and it was also pretty good when new but doesn't have the same bottom end and is a bit flogged out (too many swims and too much abuse). The 19m Halo has about the same bottom end as a 15m Soul I reckon. Large Souls seem like they pull like a train, I don't like the feeling, the Chrono4 18m must be a sweet kite but $$. Hard to find a good second hand ultra-lightwind option, I can understand the second hand large race kite option appeal but I wouldn't go there (again!).

[MaximumAC]

I fly mostly Souls and Sonic 3's but wanted to chime in in agreement on the low wind/lower aspect thing. I have a 15m Pulsion UL which I think will still end up being more useful in ultra low wing than my Sonic Race 21m. The pulsing hangs in lower winds and generally gives me less anxiety. I'd rather have a slightly lesser performing kite in those winds than a 1.5 hour swim in.

[Schietwedder]

Currently designing such a freerace LW kite in 16.5m AR 6.5 for me @75Kgs. Thought maybe the design philosophy is similar-ish to what is looked for in this thread so maybe I can explain a bit my thoughts:

One of the central design parameters for me was not the highest AR I could think of but large center chord and a rather high arc shape. You generally have a problem with the critical Reynolds number at the low end meaning that the boundary layer on the kite can't take so much stress being laminar or at the transition point to turbulent, the kite will backstall very easy in sub 5-7 knots, you can't pull the bar so much you have to fly the kite actively.
You can increase the Re number by flying faster/fast accelerating kite which is limited in big kites, or increase the chord length.

I then went for slender but quite arc shape tips to have as "good" turning as you can get with such large wing.
That (less projected area) also brings some sort of drag penalty which would be not so great for a race kite but in my case where I just want to get going in really light and maybe gusty wind it brings the kite a bit from the edge of the WW to have a bit of a safety margin for front collapses.

Otherwise the construction is robust in the structure without much cutouts, but as light as it can be from a cell count and cloth (27g) perspective as the ratio of cell count/ AR is just on the edge where it still performs 90,% aerodynamically well but the weight is reduced considerably.

Long story short,there is quite a few kites with some sort of the philosophy as described above, AR of 5.8-6.5 with less cells (light) and maybe slightly less projected area but better turning which are maybe easier to access all the performance in light wind without swimming.

BR Niklas