Flexifoil Blade IV 6.5M

Heres my review of Flexies blade IV 6.5m, any comments welcome.
I brought this kite to start me off in the world of jumping and buggy freestyle, I have been playing around with straping my bullet 4.5m to the buggy and blitzin' up and down the coast ( something i dont recomend to beginers ! )
This was great but seeing people jumping and spinning with such ease just made green with envy, so after a chat with you people hear and the fella in the shop i decided on the blade.

At the moment I've stuck it on normal 200kg/100kg lines with standard handles and kite killers just to fly it static and have some fun with before upgradeing lines and handles when i decide to try out freestyle buggying.

I shall start at the top, the bag, a very strong and user friendly rucksack, the main compartment is of ample size and makes parapacking the kite easy, on the sides are 2 flaps each of which have 2 straps again ideal for the handles if you parapack and a zip up pocket that isnt really that usefull except for keys ect, Down the front is a seiries of diffrent size loops which although may be for show are great for hanging gloves on or wedging a groung steak through. All in all a very strong and robuse bag with many more features than my bullet bag.

I will skip over the lines and handles as they dont come with the kite but will say all the lines are the same lenth coloured coded havn't stretched and the handles are comfy and again colour coded for ease of use.

Now to the bad boy itself, I get it in midnight 1 because my wife has a petrol rage and 2 I have never seen a midnight flying in my local area and hey its nice to be diffrent. The moment I first pulled it out of the bag and layed it out my first impression was wow my second was ohh bridals they look a bit complex lets pray they aren't tangeled. I needent have worried in the center of the kite are 2 velcro croc clips which keep all the business end of the lines handy. so after atatching lines to the handles it was a simple case of red to red and blue to blue.

I gave a little tug on the handles just to inflate it and with a race kite review in mind went to inspect my latest toy. First of all the quality of the stitching is great not one uneven line and all the ends finished really well, each cell is great and linked by a a seiries of holes between them to fully inflate and maintain canopy presure all look perfect and solid, The bridals are linked to the kite by a seires of loops and i did spend a bit of time to check these for equal distance, strenth and finish again all of which are really good. None of the bridals where tangled or twisted and sat there perfectly ready for inspection, I had all ready read up on the bridal ang wing adjustments which I will explain in a bit. The bridals again are good with the o-rings and adjusters of a really good quality so there is very little friction when the kite is in flight. The only down side and it is a petty one is over the knots and joints of the bridals they have put a yellow/brown glue over them i asume to stop fraying, but when your 20 meters away hanging on for dear life will you be thinking err that glue looks a bit odd............... I doubt it.

Anyway enough of looking I grabed the handles put on the kite killers and pulled on the lines. Now to say there wasn't much wind was a bit of a understatement and wasn't holding out much hope of it inflating yet alown flying... But OMG with a couple of shakes on the lines and working it back and forth through the window it didnt just inflate but had me scudding and doing little hops OH HAPPY DAYS after about 10 mins i decided to land the kite and see what the diffrent settings give you. Basicly you can adjust the angle at which the kite sits. basicly on the max setting the kite is angled upwards creating a really punchy fun kite and on the lower setting it flatens the angle of attack which I would imagin will be handy when its blowing hard. the other adjustment is only found on the 6.5 and 8.5 to my understanding and this changes the turning rate again such a handy add on when like me i will be flying it solo and on a buggy and board. After a few more scuds and jumps i decided to pack up and wait for wind.

I have had the kite for one week now and still no real wind although tuesday night wasn't bad had some real good hang time, and scuds out of the thing and in my opinion it is a wonderfuly predictable and forgiving kite without being tame. I would 10000% recomend this kite its super smooth and although not the cheapest on the market today it is great. I was nervouse of it at first now i JUST WANT MORE AND MORE WIND .Hmmmmmmmmmmm maybe a 8.5 next shhh dont tell the wife

By : sassy666