Blade 17M kite demo

[MK]

Going to give Ramsey a try agian with SE in the forecast for Saturday. Look me up to from 11am to 6pm ish to give it a try.
http://www.lakawa.com/lakes/wtbear.html

[MK]

Riding!

[JRN]

WONDER IF BLADE has a pic of that bar on their site. Howzabouta Pic, MK? Not of you, of the bar. O K, you & the bar. Wanna see this strange configuration you guys keep mentioning. My early Epic bar had a weird set-up. I think the designer watched alot of Inspector Gadget in the formative years. Concept: McGuyVer Kustom Kitebars. Send money. Get in on the ground floor before the IPO.

[Tim Dunklee]

On Saturday I finally got a chance to try the Fat Lady. I woke up hoping for wind and was disappointed to find not much happening during the late morning and early afternoon. I sent Mike a message with a glimmer of hope, but I was surprised to see him respond with, "We are out riding with the Blade right now." I rushed to Ramsey and found there to be no white caps on the water which is never a great sign. Hoping for the best I took off with the Fat Lady and a Slingshot Glide to see if I could stay upwind. To my surprise, staying upwind was no problem even though there wasn't a white cap in sight. I was impressed that the kite turned very quickly for a 17m. Doing some down loops to keep the power in a transition wasn't a problem at all. There wasn't great wind at the time for jumping but I gave it a try a few tries. The timing of the jump was a little tricky with the long lines, but you could feel the kite has a nice smooth pull and a parachute-like let down. I never had a chance to test the kite's relaunch because it stayed in the air so well... The only thing I didn't really like about the kite was the bar setup. It kind of just a personal preference but I prefer my depower below the bar because it is easier for me to reach and creates less clutter. Beyond personal preference though, the bar just seems kind of cheap compared to the quality of a Slingshot or Liquid Force bar. The adjustable bar throw is an interested concept, but I didn't play with it too much as it already seemed to be about right for me. Anyway, overall I thought the kite was very impressive for the conditions I was in. I'm not sure exactly what the wind speed was, but from a quick look of the graphs it seems it was blowing 8-14mph. I'm hoping to get a day on the kite when the wind is a little stronger so I can see how it would handle some Minnesota random gusts... Thanks Mike for getting this kite in our hands!

[Diego]

I had the chance to briefly try the Fat Lady/Litewave Wing combo on Saturday. I went out before Tim D. and I think the wind was even lighter, my guess 8-12 mph. I was impressed by the speed and smooth power delivery of the Fat Lady. Couple of times I though it was gonna drop out of the sky but it never did. I'd like to check out the upper range of that kite some time. I prefer the under the bar depower as well, but the bar in general was just fine and didn't need any tuning. Personally I prefer a directional board on that kind of wind, but the Litewave board is a nice light wind board and I think the conditions and the kite combo were right for it. Thank you Mike for being out there with all the toys!

[Kevinousdigian]

Mike
Thanks so much for getting the new equipment and letting us ride it. I got my turn on the fat lady last Tuesday.
I'm 185 lbs and ride 8 and 10m Rallys, 13m Octane, and 17 Zephyr. I also have my TD3 11m which is still one of the kites with the most range (13-40 mph).

I rode the fat lady in the stronger upper teens to low 20s. I also rode my 17m Z Sat while others rode the FL. My impressions are similar to others:
1) Speed: FL feels lighter on land and in air and thus a little faster. Both kites are easy to loop.
2) Range: Both kites have enough range on the very low end and high end. Splitting hairs to say one is better or worse in low wind. I'm confident the FL can take you down to your 11-12m kite but my sense is the Z is even more stable in high winds.
3) Relaunch: I know the Z is hard to relaunch in <10 mph wind. I don't know how the FL does. Would be a huge bonus if she gets up easier!
4) Upwind: I think the Z is a little better at going upwind but again it may be splitting hairs.
5) Jumping: I think both kites pull you up, float you, and offer a parachute like feel to land you softly unlike any other kite.

I continue to think that if your starting from scratch I'd build a 4 kite quiver with a 17, 12-13, 10, 7-8. I know the 17 offers more light wind ability than any 14 I've ridden so if you want to get out on a nice 7-13 mph day like Sat then get a 17m and skip the 14. There are so many days around here that are up n down - 8-12 and then come up to 15-20+ and then go back down 20 minutes later. You'll be really happy on either kite and not rerigging, planing through lulls, getting upwind away from the beach to where there is more wind.

Thanks again for the rides Mike!

[MK]

Giving Bellaire a try today from ~11am-2pm for the 8-10mph forecast. Also a fair amount of comments in Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lakawamn/posts ... ed_comment

612-296-3201

[MK]

Wonderful day yesterday at Ramsey. I scored 26 minutes or so of riding! A few more tried out the Blade. I was busy so eager to hear their feedback.

I just rode this saturday morning about 1.5 hrs:) what a treat, didn't expect their to be enough wind. The 17M kite and 153cm board made it possible.

[MK]

"we have put 2012 blade triggers through a lot more misery in the last 18months than probably any of you can dish out in 5 seasons. they are in fact holding up unbelievably well. even ragged and tattered 9m's with well over 500 hrs of lesson time are not only still in tact, but are still holding their shape under high load flying situations. (heavy riders, high winds, etc) no deformation. an extremely stable design. double reinforced LE is the best in the business, many brands use it, many do not."

- Brett Newcomb http://prokitesouthpadre.com

[MK]

Jim Hoben asked I post the wind Saturday June 8th:

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[BladeKitesUSA]

Thanks Mike for sharing the Fat Lady with your local crew. It has been great reading about the feedback on the kite and bar, and wanted to hop in and answer any questions that anyone might have.

For those of you that weren't able to make it to the beach to see the Fat Lady, I filmed this clip last month in San Diego [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbsisPH708g[/youtube]


An additional short video clip here is available that details how you can adjust the "throw" of the bar, and bring the depower trim strap closer to the rider. This can of course be reversed to extend the "throw" of the bar for those who like a longer throw.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6mkEelUu9M[/youtube]

I get asked all the time what makes the Fat Lady special. The answer is that it's what the Fat Lady doesn't have that makes it special. By using a reduced diameter leading edge (made to be pumped up to 10psi), three super skinny struts, and by limiting the use of dacron to critical areas, the kite has been made lighter than any other 17m out there. As Mike alluded, the Fat Lady takes significantly less pumps to get it fully inflated than most 12-13m kites on the market. This translates into less volume, which translates into less drag.

By having only 3 struts, more of the kite's wingtips can become involved in turning, which gives the kite a nice responsive feel. The struts also help on the upper end of the wind spectrum, and allow this kite to maintain its shape in stronger winds, until your 11 or 12m kite becomes more appropriate. The jumps at the upper wind range of the kite are impressive, as the deep airfoil of the articulated struts helps create the low end power and lift at lighter wind speeds.

The construction of Blade Kites are unique in the industry as well. In order to create a kite that is made to withstand 10psi as its normal operating pressure, the leading edge has been built as strong as possible. Through evaluating leading edge failures over the years, the Blade design team realized that most of the problems originated from either bridle attachment points or along the leading edge seam. To address this, the leading edge seam is internally reinforced with 2 strips of marks cloth. Industry standard has been to use a single strip in the main arc of the kite, but Blade uses two overlapping strips that go wingtip to wingtip. For each bridle attachment point, there are four layers of internal reinforcements, while most brands use two, and three at the most. Combine that with the new Dacron HPE 160 (160 gsm) cloth (the same material Cabrinha is using this year), and you get a lighter, stronger leading edge that has been built to take abuse. I think some of you are familiar with Brett Newcomb who has been using these kites in his schools the past two seasons nearly every day without any leading edge problems, and thats with students crashing the kites over and over again, nearly every day.

That's pretty much the tech talk on the Fat Lady, and I am happy to answer any other questions that might come up. I have been working in the industry for the past 10 years, from instructor to shop manager, to shop owner, and have personally not found a kite that I prefer to fly more than the Blade Fat Lady / Trigger combo. My all time favorite kite is the Trigger 10m, which is fast and lively like its big sister, but perfectly at home when its blowing 30mph and where huge floaty airs are second nature.

Here's a clip from a Spring Hatteras trip showing the 7m and 10m Trigger in action
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zael2ZnxF-s[/youtube]

and a fun run down "the ditch" on the 12m Trigger

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81ufY-c_pVY[/youtube]


Thanks

Andy

[MK]

Lots of fun yesterday for both personal ridinga and students on 17M Fat Lady and 153cm Lightwave Wing:

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[MK]

At Waconia today.

[Jason_L]

I had a chance to demo the 17M Fat Lady on Waconia today. Wind was up and down all day from around 10mph on up to 20 mph. I was able to ride upwind easily with the kite and it had a very light feel in the air. Jumping was great and was able to get some good height on the first couple when the wind was up.

The thing that was different about this kite is it did not generate more power when turning or looping the kite, it was more of a pivot turn. I also tried signing the kite up and down when on a reach to generate more speed, but that did not have much effect, it just liked to lock in place and build up straight line speed.

The bar was nice and clean with the above bar cleat but there is no stopper ball on the chicken loop. It did feel like a much smaller kite than a 17M the way it flew and responded. All in all a very fun lightwind kite. Thanks for letting me demo the kite, Mike.

[MK]

Thank you Blade! And for your feedback. I took a few photos from one of the demo days https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set ... 936&type=3 Did you notice anything about Diego?

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