I wanted to kill three birds with one stone, first to add a new kite to the bag, second what does a cheap kite from China actually looks and feels like and third, there’s nothing wrong about buying my self a present for Christmas, is it? 😉
Today was unboxing-day and here’s what I found when I opened the cardboard box.
Carefully wrapped in bubble plastic a bright orange bag with something inside it. A simple instruction sheet, a pair of quad handles, a quad line set, an extra spar and a bright yellow kite. Interesting!
The handles looks decent plus. Actually quite a step or two up compared to those included with my original REV 1.5 EXP. The foam grip is just right according to my likings. Soft, but not too soft, hard, but not too hard. They even come with leaders on both upper and lower ends. Good!
There was a line set included too. It looks decent, but you’ll never know until you’ve length aligned and flown them. More on the lines later.
There was even an extra spar included, a Lanyork ST201 (whatever that is). It looks like these spars are used both for the LE and the vertical spars and the extra sure come in handy should you happen to break anything! 👍
Ok, so far actually pretty good! How about the kite then?
I took a closer look at all the details and I’m pleased with what I found. All seams are good and do their job nicely. A mix between three steps zigzag and straight ones at the appropriate places.
Reinforcement at the usual places, on the LE at the vertical spar attachment points, at the wing tips an at the corners at the trailing edge. All seemingly black dacron.
I’m not sure what fabric is being used for the sail. It’s a kind of ripstop and it seems somehow lighter and stiffer than icarex. So I suspect it’s something else. However it seems sturdy enough.
One thing though. The “squares” in the fabric (ripstop) is not angeled perpendicular to the trailing edge, making the sail more prone to stretching. I believe this is to minimize scrap fabric. …and only time will tell if this really will have an impact on the sail long term.
But there’s more on the plus side. The connectors looks neat and solid and looks clean and not (too) prone to snag anything. The bungee looks to hold up for some beating as well.
One really nice thing is the covered bungy at the wingtips!
I think this will prevent quite a bit of wear on the bungee and it really is a nice touch.
Come to think of it… A couple of the stopping knots one the bungee was a tad on the loose side. One came off while assembling, but thankfully this is easy to fix. Just make sure to look over all the knots and tighten them before assembly and you should be fine.
The bridle seems in order too. No specifications are given but I would assume it’s a brided variant with a breakage point of 100kg … give or take.
I’m a bit sceptical to the mesh. It seems a little soft and … hmmmm… fragile? It might not be true, but somehow the gut feeling was a bit off. I hope I’m wrong, and I guess I’ll find out over time.
The kite comes with a sheet with printed instructions and precautions. The instructions are very basic and unfortunately not good enough for a complete beginner. Plenty of room for improvement!
But anyhow, my conclusion after the inspection is that I’m quite pleasantly surprised about this kite. It’s good looking, it seems like the manufacturer has paid attention to the details and the sewing, it comes Ready to Fly with lines and handles, heck, even an extra spar is added.
The quality of the materials looks decent too, but I have to fly this thingy over a period of time to really conclude about the quality of the materials used.
But so far this kite looks like a bargain which I really am looking forward to fly!
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> One thing though. The “squares” in the fabric (ripstop) is not angeled perpendicular to the trailing edge, making the sail more prone to stretching.
I thought that the maximum stretch occurred along the downspars. And therefore having the main grain/warp directions parallel/perpendicular to the downspar was the preferred way (not that I ever have made any QLKs though)? To address the TE stretch, would adding (sewing) a thin strip of ripstop with the main grain parallel to the TE be something (you see, others problems are always easier to solve)?
Since I still haven’t resumed my own kite sewing, I still don’t have any QLKs stationed at work (if you hear me Santa, there is room for more kites/kite gear here as well). Is the inner diameter of the supplied Lanyork tube “Skyshark-like” i.e. 6.2mm, where the 6.1mm Skyshark connector* or Avia Micro Carbon (Solid) .240″ – 6.1mm pultruded carbon would be ideal inner ferrules? Is the frame Rev. 1.5-like with 78.5cm (79cm?) spar length (here thinking about compatibility with existing spars)?
I have never needed to replace a bungee on my 1.5 B-series, while I had a worn bridle leg where it goes around the nock. Looking carefully at the nock in your image here, there seen to be a ridge going around the nock to keep it more protected I assume (haven’t seen that before). I piece of advice, if you consider to add heat shrink tubing around the bridle line to add wear extra resistance, bear in mind that the melting point of spectra/dyneema is awfully close to the temperature where the most common heat shrinking tubing shrinks. But the core fibre of the bridle line could be something else than spectra and then it would be easier to add heat shrink tubing.
*I have earlier had difficulties in finding the 6.1mm inner ferrules. But now have two sources:
https://www.depaddestoel.nl/Skyshark-Koolstof-Binnenbusje
https://www.kiteworld.co.uk/acatalog/Skyshark-Joiner-KSK00002.html#SID=302