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Gong kites reviews and tests

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flying doctor
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Re: Gong kites reviews and tests

Postby flying doctor » Sat Aug 17, 2019 10:30 pm

One of my buddies just happened to have bought a 6.8 Unik (the sizing is absolutely unique)..

Had it out for about 20 min. on my SB today in winds varying from 18 to 23 knots, quite a lot of current and chop and the accidental clean wave. I weigh 78kg.

Boy I liked it a lot! Really light, very responsive, quick looping. I could throw it around like no tomorrow and be confident that it would drift with me.

It generates a lot of power if you move it. If you sheet in the bar it's hard to tell whether you're oversheeting, that may be the only downside I came across.

Felt a little underpowered at times but wind was shifting a lot, other riders had the same with similar sized kites.

From the feel I'd say this would be an excellent foil kite, hope I can find out soon some day if I get my hands on it again. Build seems solid, good idea to lose the pulleys but then again: if they work why bother.

Really contemplating on getting a 10.2!
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Erik de Berik (Sun Sep 08, 2019 11:30 am)
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Re: Gong kites reviews and tests

Postby wallydog » Tue Aug 20, 2019 2:20 pm

Had my first chance to play with my 4.4 Gong Unik. Took it out on the grass to test it in light winds. I also had to shorten the outside lines considerably to get it to fly nicely. I would estimate 4 inches of outside line shortened to get the kite to turn well and pass the slight back stall test flying at the top of the window and pull the bar all the way in. Then it was a very nice little kite. Fun to fly around and look forward to a water test but need a bunch of wind to fly this little sucker. Anyone else having to adjust the bridles?
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Erik de Berik (Sun Sep 08, 2019 10:45 am)
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Re: Gong kites reviews and tests

Postby juandesooka » Wed Aug 21, 2019 12:31 am

Thanks for the detailed review. I am intrigued by the 1 strut kites. I got a Gong wing, happy with the build quality. And I like the company's style too. Funny to see the colour scheme in the videos....white canopy with light green leading edge ... looks familiar. ;-)

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Erik de Berik
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Re: Gong kites reviews and tests

Postby Erik de Berik » Mon Aug 26, 2019 9:58 am

juandesooka wrote:
Wed Aug 21, 2019 12:31 am
Thanks for the detailed review. I am intrigued by the 1 strut kites. I got a Gong wing, happy with the build quality. And I like the company's style too. Funny to see the colour scheme in the videos....white canopy with light green leading edge ... looks familiar. ;-)
😉

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Erik de Berik
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Re: Gong kites reviews and tests

Postby Erik de Berik » Mon Aug 26, 2019 10:47 am

I just received my new Unik 6.8, Gong bar, Alu 5.9 board and Lethal 5.4 board.
The Freewave 9 is on her way.

After my very positive experience with the Unik 10.2 I decided to go all the way with these French guys :-)

Unfortunately there is no wind at all these coming days here in The Netherlands, looks promising at the end of the week!

The boards came really well packed within 5 working days, FCS2 fins included (Oh boys and girls.... I love these FCS connections, these should be the standard, no screws necessairy anymore) Click on, Click off !! Also some screws and plates for footstraps mountings. (Footstraps not included)
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The bar at first sight looks very clean and simple, tough dynema (from the Dutch of course ;-) ) but a little bit stiff
Bar reminds me of going back in time, clean and sufficiant,but....not complete to meet the expetations from nowdays.
I usually go out with the Click bar from Duotone so this bar is a few steps back, but who cares, as long as it works fine and safe!
The red release works really great, so simple it can be to reset the loop again, comes close to Ozone’s release system, I think that’s the most efficient system out there at the moment, so ...thumbs up for this one.
The downside: 2 things, what makes this bar not complete and I hope to see this in 2020, a stopper ball to use on the fly and a bungee cord with velcro, or even better super-magnets, at the depowerstrap in order to prevent the tangling around issue when fully depowered, could be very annoying when powering quickly and miss your best wave or move because your depowerstrap is tangled around your powerlines.
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The Unik 6.8 looks the same (of course) as the 10.2.
Again I changed the Ronstan Pulley’s for Ronstan sliding Pulley’s, again, the rolling pulley’s works fine but personally I like the sliding ones, very clean and no moving parts.
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Detailled Updates and reviews will follow soon!
So far, only some pics.
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Last edited by Erik de Berik on Mon Aug 26, 2019 1:45 pm, edited 7 times in total.

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Re: Gong kites reviews and tests

Postby a99 » Mon Aug 26, 2019 11:47 am

photos and packing looks really nice. Still weight if we speaking for foiling kite as for 10 meter kits is a lot, it weights 2.9 KG, comparing with Ozone Alpha 10m 2.2KG. But of course price is more than double less. In foiling everything is about kite weight and possibility to stay in light winds and i can't understand why seriuos brands cannot still produce very light foiling kites. All hopes on Ocean Rodeo Allula 10m kite, but of course price will be huge.
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Erik de Berik (Mon Aug 26, 2019 2:11 pm)
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Re: Gong kites reviews and tests

Postby wallydog » Wed Sep 04, 2019 12:09 am

Erik have you had a chance to use the Unik kites some more to add anything to your review?
Thank you

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Re: Gong kites reviews and tests

Postby omg » Wed Sep 04, 2019 7:29 am

Erik, great info and nice that you pointed out the shortcomings as well. One question, where did you buy the pulleys you changed to the kite, please? And what are they called? Thanks!

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Re: Gong kites reviews and tests

Postby richy-c » Wed Sep 04, 2019 3:03 pm

Erik de Berik wrote:
Sat Aug 17, 2019 9:59 pm
Small update:
I changed the 2 rolling Ronstan pulley’s for 2 Ronstan shock blocks, only 2 grams each!
Works like a charm.
10 min work.
Do you suffer any bridal wear with these as i had to go back to pulleys because they were chewing through my ropes?

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Re: Gong kites reviews and tests

Postby lightwind » Wed Sep 04, 2019 5:39 pm

Yes, bar is not the best. Safety line protection started to break down after 2 months of use and the black rubber above the chicken loop also. Lines seams to be good quality and you can connect it to any kite since endings are with loop and knot on top. I’m thinking about buying 6.8 unique, will be happy to hear more impressions about the kite.


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