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kitekarl
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Post by kitekarl » Mon Jun 26, 2006 5:45 pm

elli wrote:Karl make sure the mod is done. I was trying to figure out if mine was done by a serial number, and couldn't. I am not sure about over 10K serial rule, the best guys never said it loud and clear. Mine is fairly recent, and I had to do it. Kite is much nicer after the mod. A shop I talked to said they even do it a few CM further.
Yeah, Gumball said that the mods were done on all the kites over 9700. I always rigged on the 3rd knot and kept the sheeting strap around full power. The shape of the kite is so flat that it's fun to fly but seems really prone to back drafting. Time will tell and hopefully nobody has any life threatening experiences from it.

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Post by elli » Mon Jun 26, 2006 7:12 pm

My Waroo serial is post 10K and I had to do it, so did other people in the best forum for post 10K kites. SQ said check your kite regardless of serial. Gumball said... a lot of things :)

Speaking of flatness, the bridle mod makes the kite slightly less flat, it pulls the last bridle connection before the pulley a few CM down.

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kitekarl
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Post by kitekarl » Mon Jun 26, 2006 10:10 pm

elli wrote:My Waroo serial is post 10K and I had to do it, so did other people in the best forum for post 10K kites. SQ said check your kite regardless of serial. Gumball said... a lot of things :)

Speaking of flatness, the bridle mod makes the kite slightly less flat, it pulls the last bridle connection before the pulley a few CM down.
Well that's good to know now that it's on its way back to Florida. Like I said in another post, Best is kind of disorganized. This testing their products on the general public is getting old.

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Post by berrisbob » Mon Jun 26, 2006 10:14 pm

Karl, I recently purchased a 9m Waroo, and have ridden it twice. First time was at Sherman in steady low 20's wind, and it performed beautifully. It was stable, predictable, turned great, showed great range, etc, - exactly as advertised.

Second session was at Waddell in upper 20's wind. Gabe, who outweighs me by at least 50 lbs just came in and said he was very powered on his 9m Waroo, so I rigged mine on the fully depowered setting. With this setting, the back lines were very slack, and it didn't turn very well, even when fully sheeted in. It also seemed 'punchy', and jittery, and was bouncing around a lot. But it didn't seem to do what you describe in your original post.

I came in after a bit and changed knot settings to power it up a bit. With this setting, it flew much better. It steered better, and wasn't jittery and didn't bounce around as much (but still a little bit). It also was obvious at this point that it was too much kite for the conditions. I mean, it was working ok for me, but I would have been better off with a 7m. Anyway, again with the new power setting, and being overpowered, it never exhibited the behavior you mentioned.

So I haven't experienced what you encountered. Try it again and see if you get the same thing.

One thing I will say about the Waroo (and this probably appies to most if not all flat kites), it can be depowered a lot, but it doesn't, and probably shouldn't be expected to, fly particularly well that way.

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Post by OliverG » Mon Jun 26, 2006 10:24 pm

In general, I would say that many kites, bow or C do have the capability to be depowered quite a bit and in turn, theoretically can provide huge range, but I have found all kites I have experience with to have a direct correlation between depower and performance. All kites have a sweet spot and some just have a bigger sweet spot, but depowering the heck out of a kite will generally result in decreased performance and increased instability.

My opinion - no such thing as a quiver consisting of one or two kites. If you want to advance, ride many different spots and conditions and are a serious kiteboarder, a three (or even four) kite quiver is required. Your riding and skills will be at their maximum if you are dialed in and riding the right size kite for the conditions at hand.

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Post by Bulldog » Tue Jun 27, 2006 7:03 am

Ollie,
Have you flown the Vegas yet? There doesn't seem to be a sweet spot on those things; that is, it's sweet from one end of the range to the other.

Well, that's when you have it set on full power, which means you lose the 100% depower. I've never tried mine on the "bow" kite type setting.
Paul
aka Pablito
It says 10M, but it's really a 9.

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OliverG
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Post by OliverG » Tue Jun 27, 2006 8:08 am

I actually flew one briefly on the beach yesterday in light winds, so couldn't do much, but it seems to be a nice kite.

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Post by Greg » Tue Jun 27, 2006 9:14 am

testing out anything on the general public is extremely stupid!...
cost cutting is and always will be a double-edge sword...
price wars force comprimize...
best wishes,
greg

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Post by dewey » Tue Jun 27, 2006 10:05 am

L.M.G. wrote:testing out anything on the general public is extremely stupid!...
cost cutting is and always will be a double-edge sword...
price wars force comprimize...
best wishes,
greg
From what I have seen all company's are doing this. There always seem to be mid season fixes for problems, or mods to improve performance. One thing Best has that other inexpensive kite companys don't have is hard cores test riders. All the big brands have multiple test riders that push the kites limits and expose flaws. Smaller companys have a handfull of riders that test the kites. I think that one of windwing's biggest problems last year was the lack of real kiter response during the R&D stage (looked good on paper). How many riders tested the kites before production? Some company release there kites for a final beta testing, others wait a bit longer, but not too many kites are built the exact same way from first batch to last batch. Little tweaks are always happening.
Dewey

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Post by OliverG » Tue Jun 27, 2006 10:31 am

I agree. For example, the Windwing SAFE bridle system looked great on paper and in theory, but didn't work perfectly at all. The North Vegas kites are awesome, but almost no one says, "Killer bars!". RRD sheeting lines wear out quick. Shockwave has too much bar pressure. All kite companies and products have issues at some point. Best is no different, they're just an easier target.

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