Gumdrops1600949551

This is just a preliminary review; once I've used it for a while I will report further. Ok, for a long time now I've been promising myself that I'd get into buggying but have put it off for all sorts of reasons. No excuses now, I've just taken delivery of my first, the Rockville Classic from Schmidt Buggysport in Germany. Who, what, never heard of it? That was my reaction when I was first told that they were worth checking out but had a look at the website (http://www.teekay-kites.com/shop/) and checked out the product. This company also market them on E-bay and delivered in this country work out at a reasonable £171. https://www.extremekites.org/uploads/rk/reviews/rockville01.jpg Ordered mine, delivered within days and on opening the box was greeted by some nicely engineered metalwork chrome finished, not sure about the quality of the chrome finish at that price point but it certainly looks ok. Assembly was a piece of cake; completed very quickly single handed. I managed to find the right chassis length fairly quickly and once everything was bolted tight the frame was rock solid. The rear axle is fitted by way of two substantial bolts running through the rear face of the axle directly into the ends of the side tubes. The real fun started when I tried to fit the padding (provided) to the side rails. Tight is not the word, I played about for hours pulling and stretching, and eventually got it fitted after much cursing, you have been warned, make sure that no children are in listening distance when you do this job. Now for the seat which is, I am reliably informed, a standard Cameleon seat and very comfortable too, very supportive for your back. The only issue here is the fitting of the long rear strap which starts from the right hand side. The photos on the Schmidt website don't really help, neither do the instructions provided which are in German and eventually I did mine through trial and error and a bit of advice from a thread on the Flexifoil forum (sorry Racekites) under the title 'Pogona seat' together with a bit of help from Jon at Kitebuggyman (thanks Jon). After you work out how to fit the seat you can fit the basic but useful splashguard that comes provided as standard. So what's it like? Well, as I've already said, the seat is really comfortable and supportive, particularly if, like me you like sitting fairly upright. The front fork pivots freely and the wheels provided seem to be of a good quality moving very freely on their bearings with a feather light touch. The foot rests come covered in a 'grippy' material that won't let your foot slide. The side plates on the foot rests are rather large and would certainly stop your feet slipping off, not sure yet whether they could pose any problems, more at a later date. The rear axle width with the wheels fitted is, I believe, slightly wider than usual; from the mid point of one wheel to the other is 125cms. So how about transporting it? I really didn't want to mount it on a cycle rack on the rear of my car. I have a Peugeot 307 with a rear hatch which has an opening of approx 115 cms. I removed the rear wheels and the buggy slid in perfectly with the rear seats down, piece of cake. Popping the wheels back on at the other end of the journey will take a minute. I don't know how much it weighs but had no problem lifting it in and out of the car by myself. So is it good value for money? Time will tell on that one but my initial reactions are positive. As I said this is just a first view of my new buggy, how well it will stand up to use we will have to wait and see and I will report back at a later date and let you know. By : Gumdrops

This is my second Fusion kite, my first being the 4.9 model which has already been reviewed by Binliner on this site. I have been looking for a low wind kite for a while and have been impressed by the rock steady handling of my 4.9, so when I saw the 7.5 at a seriously good price the decision was made. The kite was duly collected from my friendly kite shop, Up4Kiting of sunny Southend on Sea and comes complete with the superb Kinell rucksack which is beautifully designed and just looks so cool. I chose the red kite with yellow chevrons which comes neatly packaged in the multicoloured stuff sack also provided. I know that kite colour is not the most important consideration but, what the heck; it doesn't do any harm if it looks cool, does it! The whole package fits in the rucksack with room to spare. Flying lines are 25 metre pre stretched Dyneema rated at 450 lb; the brake lines being rated at 200lb. So to the first flight. With the help of my mate Dolph we took the new toy to our usual flying spot to set up. Upon unfolding the kite I now understand how Han Solo felt when he first saw the Death Star, this kite is BIG. Lines checked for equal length, connected to kite, then handles connected up, kite killers in place and ready to go. With regard to the handles I have to say that I like the feel and balance of them, they are solidly engineered and, personally, I find them comfortable to use. First launch was a bit sluggish so the kite was brought down and lines adjusted. Second launch in relatively low but steady wind conditions and WOW, what a difference. Once the outer cells are inflated the kite forms a "wall" quite quickly and becomes rock steady. This is one design feature that gives Fusions stability, the outer cells are 'closed' at the leading edge and inflate laterally from the open cells. This results in a very stable structure throughout the wind window. I agree with Binliner's view that the Fusion 4.9 seems to fly best with the brakes just tight enough to form, as he puts it, a small crease on the trailing edge. The same applies to the 7.5 or at least that's the way I've set it up and it seems to work well. So how does it handle? Power delivery is smooth and deliberate. It is obvious that there is a mass of power in this kite but I did not feel at any time that it would bite me without warning. That is not to say that I am not respectful of the potential of this kite, it will be interesting to see what it delivers in slightly higher wind conditions. Taken up to the zenith this kite pulls upwards somewhat but I'm not sure that it is really a "lifty" kite. However, bring it down the wind window and there is traction by the lorry load. I hope to start buggying shortly and this is, I suspect, going to prove a very useful engine for that purpose. Hopefully I can do a supplement to this review at a later date when I've done some buggying unless, of course, there are any readers out there who already use this kite for that purpose and would like to comment!. Overall I love this kite, it looks good, handles well with very steady and solid flying characteristics and is, I suspect, not likely to turn on me without good warning. The Fusion can be picked up at the moment for a good price if you hunt around and you won't be disappointed if you invest in one, but that's only my opinion and as you've guessed I'm pretty biased towards Kinell kites. By : Gumdrops

As a relative newbie to the hobby I had yet to experience the full 'joys' of winter flying. However one thing I have realised is that if I didn't want long enforced periods staring out of the window and sulking because I couldn't fly I needed to get something that (i) would not tear my arms off in gale force winds (ii) was affordable and fun. The last requirement was essential, after all, winter is pretty depressing to start with so it needs to be something that would encourage me to leave that comfy armchair in front of that roaring log fire on a cold blustery grey miserable day. There are several small (1.5 or thereabouts) reasonably priced kites and in the end I narrowed my choice down to the Bullet 1.5 or the Little Devil Stunt 1.5. Much as I love my Bullet 2.5 I was tempted by the review on the Ozone website plus numerous favourable reviews of the Little Devil range on this site. So of I went to my friendly kite shop (the ever-helpful Up 4 Kiting in Southend), handed over my pile of hard-earned pennies and waited expectantly. Sure enough a neat drawstring bag arrived in due course which I opened to find a beautiful red and white work of art. The quality of Ozone products does not need repeating here, the name is synonymous with the best in kiting and this was confirmed by my examination of my new plaything. The lines are colour coded and numbered to ensure that connecting up is idiot proof. Ozone suggest that this kite will be 'ready to fly' in minutes and they are right. Ozone also give the option of flying this particular model in two or four-line configuration, I chose four. I really wanted to get this beautiful little kite up and running but was there any wind? Absolutely typical, b****r all in the way of wind for the first day or so. Eventually over to my local country park on a moderately breezy day, peg down the handles through the ground loops provided, then feed the lines out (I always parapack and have found no problems packing using this method with the L.D). Kite popped out of the bag and clearly raring to go. Lift off is clean and easy, moderate winds so no great pulling power but Oh Boy! is this little beauty manoeuvrable! The tiniest twitch on the handles and she knows it. Just 'tickle' the brakes and she turns on a five-penny piece. She flies well to the edge of the window and is totally forgiving. On more than one occasion, when the wind died completely, I find a tangled jumble falling out of the sky only to see it recover effortlessly. If I didn't know better I would say that this little kite was having as much fun as I was but, Hey, that's just plain crazy, isn't it? As mentioned earlier I had no problems flying this kite in moderate winds with no evidence of serious pulling power. So two days ago I'm down at the same country park with a seriously stiff breeze blowing. She lifts off as usual and then shows me what she is capable of. No pulling power, who am I kidding! She pulls solidly and cleanly and lets me know it. I realise that I have made the perfect choice for winter recreational flying. This is, without a doubt, a pure joy to fly. Ozone are fully justified in adding the name tag 'Stunt' to this model and I expect to spend many a happy hour in the company of this fabulous little kite which was born to fly. By : Gumdrops

As a relative newbie to the hobby I had yet to experience the full 'joys' of winter flying. However one thing I have realised is that if I didn't want long enforced periods staring out of the window and sulking because I couldn't fly I needed to get something that (i) would not tear my arms off in gale force winds (ii) was affordable and fun. The last requirement was essential, after all, winter is pretty depressing to start with so it needs to be something that would encourage me to leave that comfy armchair in front of that roaring log fire on a cold blustery grey miserable day. There are several small (1.5 or thereabouts) reasonably priced kites and in the end I narrowed my choice down to the Bullet 1.5 or the Little Devil Stunt 1.5. Much as I love my Bullet 2.5 I was tempted by the review on the Ozone website plus numerous favourable reviews of the Little Devil range on this site. So of I went to my friendly kite shop (the ever-helpful Up 4 Kiting in Southend), handed over my pile of hard-earned pennies and waited expectantly. Sure enough a neat drawstring bag arrived in due course which I opened to find a beautiful red and white work of art. The quality of Ozone products does not need repeating here, the name is synonymous with the best in kiting and this was confirmed by my examination of my new plaything. The lines are colour coded and numbered to ensure that connecting up is idiot proof. Ozone suggest that this kite will be 'ready to fly' in minutes and they are right. Ozone also give the option of flying this particular model in two or four-line configuration, I chose four. I really wanted to get this beautiful little kite up and running but was there any wind? Absolutely typical, b****r all in the way of wind for the first day or so. Eventually over to my local country park on a moderately breezy day, peg down the handles through the ground loops provided, then feed the lines out (I always parapack and have found no problems packing using this method with the L.D). Kite popped out of the bag and clearly raring to go. Lift off is clean and easy, moderate winds so no great pulling power but Oh Boy! is this little beauty manoeuvrable! The tiniest twitch on the handles and she knows it. Just 'tickle' the brakes and she turns on a five-penny piece. She flies well to the edge of the window and is totally forgiving. On more than one occasion, when the wind died completely, I find a tangled jumble falling out of the sky only to see it recover effortlessly. If I didn't know better I would say that this little kite was having as much fun as I was but, Hey, that's just plain crazy, isn't it? As mentioned earlier I had no problems flying this kite in moderate winds with no evidence of serious pulling power. So two days ago I'm down at the same country park with a seriously stiff breeze blowing. She lifts off as usual and then shows me what she is capable of. No pulling power, who am I kidding! She pulls solidly and cleanly and lets me know it. I realise that I have made the perfect choice for winter recreational flying. This is, without a doubt, a pure joy to fly. Ozone are fully justified in adding the name tag 'Stunt' to this model and I expect to spend many a happy hour in the company of this fabulous little kite which was born to fly. By : Gumdrops