windstruck

Joel - great thanks for your leadership on this important issue. As an American I've always greatly enjoyed getting to know so many of you from around and under the world and of course sharing and learning so much. A rag tag outfit of misfits (just the way we like 'em) keeps Power Kite Forum alive as well. Hold the flag high!

That of course makes good sense. However, from the video it appears that the TRAILING edge is in front and he is holding the bar the other way on the way down than the way up. One the way up it appears that he has the red side of the bar to the left but not on the way down when the red side is now to the right. Also, the big decal on the kite is reversed.

That was a good notation! Any comments on why the aerodynamics of the kite would be better for gliding down with the trailing edge acting as the leading edge? I've got zero flight experience other than one huge accidental flight that almost killed me so I won't be trying this, but I sure am curious.

Sean, memory serves that you are quite skillful on your board while shortlining a 6m Peak. I was very fond of your video with the beautiful classical music from about five years ago...

3-D buggying at its finest!

I too have a kite for 25-stupid! Love that wind range.

@plummet

I had a first gen 4.0m StreetStar a couple of years ago. I didn't find that it provided very much actual traction, and far less than a comparable 4.0m NasaStar of any generation. From what I am able to gather from watching StreetStar videos is that it may be well suited for low friction riding such as pavement. I've yet to see a video of it pulling a person through thick grass for example on a landboard or some sort of skates. The videos I've watched (mostly of Steffen Born himself) has it appear that these are low traction kites since his landboard speed seems very slow to me based on my impression of wind speed from surrounding bushes, trees, etc. This is not a rub on the StreetStar, just an observation. I have personally had mixed success using NasaStars on very short or no lines, but that could just be me. The thing is, the pull per square meter just seems to be much higher with the NasaStars compared to the StreetStars. Steffen has come out with a second gen StreetStar: http://www.born-kite.de/?cat=c22_Street-Star2-Streetkites.html This second gen kite has a deeper nose profile and much superior BODAPAR lines in the bridling. If you go this direction I'd pull the trigger on the second gen. All but one of my Born-Kites are now sufficiently new that they have the BODAPAR lines and I really like them better than the older models with whatever bridle line material he used to use. IMHO, the bridling was the weak link of the pre-BODAPAR Born-Kites. I don't do this sort of riding, but if I did I'd be looking at NS4s on short lines with z-bridles to work from handles. That has become my personal preferred way to fly NasaStars. So much more control than bar flying, which even with three lines, essentially fly like two-liners with a safety line that is rarely, if ever, used. You mentioned wanting versatility into the buggy, so I think you have your answer... Good luck!

Re-read this review this morning and continue to agree with Tony's and (indirectly) Plummet's comments. I've recently had a week of buggying on the hard inland Ivanpah playa near Las Vegas, NV, USA at IBX 2019. Had the opportunity to log many, many miles on an array of RaceStars and the new 3.0m RaceStar+, all set up with their own Born-Kite Universal control bars that are adjustable in terms of width between the brake lines, going from 45cm - 60cm by 5cm increments. I like to use the most narrow 45mm setting for the 3.0m RS+ and 5.0m RS, 55cm for the 7.0m RS, and the widest 60cm for the 9.0 and 11.0m RSs. If I could have an even more narrow setting for the 3.0m RS+ (maybe 40 or even 35cm) that would calm it down a bit. Tony described the 5.0m RS as being a little "twitchy". It's a calm grampa in a recliner compared to the 3.0m in high winds. Once you learn to seriously calm down your movements when flying the 3.0m RS+ it is a veritable blast. Likewise, if there could be a wider bar for the 11.0m it would turn more quickly in the ultra-low winds when it is suitable on a low friction surface like a playa. Such a wide bar would be impractical for use in a buggy so I at times reached up and manually pulled on a brake line to bring the kite around more quickly. I do want to point out that the 11.0m RS turns MUCH faster and plenty fast enough in almost all settings, especially when compared to the 12.5m LongStar-2 (which incidentally was not offered in the LS3 line just coming online). A note about RaceStar vs RaceStar+ kites. The "+" are some flexible stiffeners introduced vertically along the lower half of the kite. This adds a fair amount of cost, some weight penalty, and I suppose some size penalty when rolled up and put away. Note that these kites are still vastly lighter and smaller packed than comparable meter sized double skinned kites that they could reasonably compared to (Chronos, etc.). The thing is, the RS+ rocks! If I had it to do over again I'd get all RS+ kites, versus only a single 3.0m RS+ and the rest RSs. In air behavior is improved, and flapping is almost eliminated, and the kite will keep its shape even when barely powered up. I don't want to say that these are weaknesses for the RS line, but things just get A LOT better with the RS+ at the price of costing a fair amount more.

Thanks! There is an immense playa in central Oregon called Lake Alvord that especially hardy adventurers camp out at and ride forever. It is said to make Ivanpah seem like a postage stamp. The nearest services are miles away and approach to this playa is a long ways on crude dirt roads. You need to pack in everything, water and all. The surface of Alvord is described in exactly the same way so they must be quite similar. Folks that have ridden it say you can slide your turns and scrub speed like you can on a beach. You can do this on Ivanpah but bring some extra tires.

Taking a look at that video and your clay pan looks very much like our Ivanpah playa where we hold IBX each year just outside of Las Vegas at the NV/CA state line. Is this surface really abrasive? Ivanpah could be likened to flat, rock hard, endlessly cracked 40# sandpaper. Plays hell on your kites if you drag them at high speeds under line tension. There's nothing like the swell feeling of riding at 40-50 mph, loose focus and dip your wingtip down until it touches. Like dropping your kite on a belt sander. I swear I saw a poof of red dust when I touched down a 4.0m Peak2 one year. Now it's a 3.9m.

This is interesting. I look forward to learning your impressions once you have some time with a full line set coated this way. Is there a bad odor? Does the stuff come off on your hands or stain some material the lineset comes in contact with, line snappage, etc. This could be a great discovery.

So that is a cool setup! With a big kite out at the end of those 40m lines how much pull is needed on the handles to turn the barge? I see that the static load is taken up by your seat harness.

You are correct. A few years ago I had what I refer to as my "freak gasoline fight accident" (Zoolander) while riding on a grass field with wheels of doom and a 9m Ozone Frenzy. A dirt devil snuck up on me and I am said to have been 30-40 feet in the air. I have no memory of the flight or subsequent crash but I do have a broken helmet and a recovered subdural hematoma to show for it so I guess it happened. To stay married to a woman I love I agreed to stop kite skating and snow kiting and stick to buggy riding with an AQR. Easy decision. I'm a proficient ice skater and skier so I picked up kite skating easily having already been buggying for a while. I owned both wheels of doom and 3-under off-road skate setups. IMO, pluses and minuses for both. Wheels of doom are great for tracking long powerful tac lines but a little more clumsy in the turn as you need to step turn. I had some nice aluminum frames out of Germany with pneumatic knobby 150x50mm tires that were sweet, sweet, sweet. Even worked in plush grass and worked really well on hard lakebed surfaces (and I'd think hard beach sand but not tested by me). I would be spooked to do a lot of (purposeful) jumping and landing under kite power with wheels of doom setups because of the risk of wrenching your knees if you don't land in good alignment. Clearly people do this but I'd be cautious to start on wheels of doom without first going 3-under for the knee wrench reason alone. My other off-road skate frames were by Powerslide and had three 125x25 mm pneumatic tires that had a tread pattern similar to a road bike. These skated like big clunky hockey skates and with a little effort could be made to do anything you can do on ice skates. By that I mean skate up to speed, turn by carving, skate backwards, etc. I never did try to "hockey stop" but I've seen it done on video. For kite skating these sorts of skates don't offer quite the ability to tac against the force of the kite because you are poised above the skate wheels and not down between them, but it is certainly possible to work them this way and of course many people do. For jumping I'd certainly think these are a better option at first since you could land any which way and probably skate it out, something that might not work out so well with wheels of doom. Downside was these smaller narrower wheels had more resistance in plush grass and I suspect would dig into beach sand more if it wasn't really hard. My two cents. Both are great setups with different feels, different benefits and different shortcomings. Good luck!

Yummy yummy in my tummy!