Ozone Method

[Oooo]

you also need to know if its a demo or you just brought it a bit more reviwer back ground like kites already owened why you are doing the review or the like i think BUT WE ALL KNOW I"M A PIMP!!!!!!! AND LOVING IT !!

13 feb 2011 !!!!!!

[nigel]

Apparent lack of power is again speculation on the what, the fact that people overtook John H

edit: Yes, Nigel's 5.6m Twister pulled away from me and when I flew it for a very short time, it did feel more powerful. Wouldn't say I got 'smoked' though - the Vapor did that....

[andy666]

well it's nice to see that things are settling down a bit.

Reading through some of the posts i missed over the weekend I was glad that I wasn't a newby who had just discovered EK and, god forbid, might want some friendly advice about a kite

Entertaining though for the rest of us. 'till next time

[Jimmy22]

came 2nd in a local race with my 5m 2 vapors in the race and a yak gt ... one of the vapors died after a crash but i actually held ground on the other. not exactly the big leagues but i was happy 1 hour race made a big difference

[jhn.holgate]

What size vapors and yak ? What wind speed ?

[Jimmy22]

good question. i know the yak gt was a 4.5 it was first , i believe the vapors were roughly a 4m and 4. something m based on the relative sizes of the kites. the vapor i passed (twice) was roughly th same size as my 5m but the bloke had a lighter buggy and every time a gust came along i stayed tracking and he scrubbed allowing me to catch a little thanks to the methods gust munching ability. i was basically perfectly powered thanks to having a full set of methods to select from ( NB : i have never had a full set of kites before and if you have a full set of what ever kite you prefer its a major advantage when racing) the other vapor was running well and was the size down from the other one but the pilot was probably 20kg heavier. on about lap 15 one vapor was still ahead of me and tried to cross over my path to gain some hard sand , unfortunately we were then on a collision course so both of us turned down wind at the same time, seeing we were going to hit again we both turned back and then it was just slide and clunk ! i kept my kite up and the vapor either broke a line then and there or it was not much later. i was catching a little and i really wanted to pass in a clean way but it wasnt to be. behind was another method 5m and a blurr 5m with a manta 8m a yak 3.4m in roughly that order. not world champs but def fun for me . i chose the method a size up from the yak i could have used to stay reliable due to a 1 hour race, i kept clean apart from one regrettable clunk and did pretty well. in NZ we only have handfuls of buggy pilots so we make the most of what we do have. we now have 7 method 5m kites so we can run a one kite class which will be cool .

[jhn.holgate]

Sounds like a lot of fun Plan on getting the 5m before the start of the next season - there's a bit much of a gap between my 6.5m and 4m. I think the 5m would be the most useful size here. Although I've got a lot of km's on the 6.5m over the last few trips - love it.

[Jimmy22]

i think i might have posted earlier that the 3m and 5m are probably the first ones id go for in that order

[jhn.holgate]

Yes, and I think you'd be right. I specifically went with the 6.5m as a light wind kite. And with 30m lines it does a pretty fair job in that regard. Last time at Sandy Point I was most of the way down to Waratah Bay behind Cris Italy, saw Cris turn around and thought, yeah, it's getting a bit light, I'd better turn around too. I got too slow in the turn and everything just stopped. Got out of the buggy and could barely feel a puff of wind against my face..WTF?? Where'd the wind go? Nuthin. Had to wait for the next puff of wind and with lots of big figure 8's and loops eventually got enough speed to get some apparent wind back into the kite, after that it was ok. Wouldn't mind an 8m Method

[Jimmy22]

i told them not to make an 8m as i think the race kites do a better job of light wind traction

[jhn.holgate]

What? So it's YOUR FAULT there isn't an 8m??

[buggy boy]

I love my 3m Method and have just ordered a 5m which should arrive this week.( there are some good deals going)

I have mostly been looking for more wind with the 3m so hopefully the 5m should remedy that!

[Jimmy22]

possibly John but some times we dissagree . I think every kite design has a sweet spot e.g. if you make a super stable kite the big models are a bit rubbish and if you make high aspect screamers the small sizes are insane ! i just think the Ozone Race kites 6m and up are fairly ok for intermediates and they have more torque for light airs 3-5 knots where you really need it. I must admit i wonder how the 8m Method would have gone in the sand dunes.

[jhn.holgate]

After having given the 4m Method a good run at Sandy Point, I thought I'd share....

Just had the Method up for six days of kiting at Sandy Point ranging from 12 to 20+ knots and about 200km of buggying. It is a very, very well behaved kite. Never bow-tied on me. Sits on the ground with little fuss. I don't think this kite is any harder to fly than the Flow - perhaps add a touch of brake as it nears the edge of the window to stop it overflying. Points upwind really well - coming back in a 45 degree onshore wind was no problem.

Downwind I needed to work the kite quite a bit to get the apparent wind I needed in the kite to get it to park 'n ride - and this kite needs a good amount of wind - more than you may think. ie: I spent a lot of time alongside Mick who was flying a 2.8m Century. Under 14 knots, the Century would pull away from me both upwind and down wind and was quite solid running downwind too. However, as the wind got to 15-16 knots, we were pretty evenly matched. Coming out from behind the dunes the wind was up around the 17-18 knot mark with higher gusts and the Method was still sitting well forward and pulling hard with little sideways pull while the 2.8m Century was making a bit too much power resulting in lots of sideways stuff and I was able to pull away both upwind and downwind.

Comparing the 4m Method to Reactors, Century's, Cors, Blades etc in a similar size would leave the method looking quite underpowered. It simply needs a bit more wind...

And it's quite controllable and non scary when it does start getting up to 20 knots and above..

Running downwind in 18 knots or so I was hitting the 67 kph mark on a couple of occasions and 71 kph with the 5m method in the same wind so while they may not be up to Yak and Vapor speeds, they're not slow either.

Very easy to fly with a big, forgiving top end. For the 4m you need 14 to 20 knots. The 5m was certainly good at 12 knots and was a lot of fun when the wind picked up to 18-22 knots - but I wouldn't deliberately put it up in those wind speeds - I went for a run up the beach with Mick who was on a 5m Libre Bora. In 12 knots the Bora obviously had more grunt and could pull away with ease. About 3km up the beach the wind started to die off so I signaled that I was turning back - a few minutes later the wind picked up to 18-22 and cross onshore at about 45 degrees - the 5m Method chugged pretty steadily back up the beach with no dramas. The Bora was becoming a bit of a handful so Mick changed to a smaller kite while I still felt confident with the 5m method to go for another run - an absolute blast downwind at 71kph and not scary at all. 25 kph all the way back ! but it had no problem pulling me back upwind. It was getting a bit gusty with a bit of rain coming in and as I was well over powered I thought I"d better not push my luck for another run.

It's a great kite - I'd like a tad more ooomph in the bottom end, but not at the expense of the upper wind range.

It's not so forgiving if you accidentally downloop it through the powerzone while sitting stationary in the buggy fiddling around with your lap belt. Guaranteed NOT to end well!

Some footage of the 4m in the Speed Week 2011 video....

[BGKD]

Great review, what you describe is what we expected from a stable mid aspect kite aimed at the intermediate market which is what most of us would have expected it to be.... not the all conquering high end speedster that the idiots in this thread were describing and the price bracket that it was occupying.

There are very few bad kites about today, but a hell of a lot of wrong kites, what I mean is you can have the wrong kite for the pilots experience, the wrong kite for the wind, the wrong kite for the money, the wrong kite for local environment, there are lots or reasons a kite can be just plain wrong.

And this is where my problem is.... If it was sold as a low cost low to intermediate kite and was priced so, then fine, it could well be the right kite for someone progressing to higher end kites .... however, its not, its priced well above this, so I guess it becomes a quality intermediate kite, the kind that you would want to keep for a long period of time..... except its manufactured on the cheap, so its not a keeper either.

however... in fairness to Ozone, when you look at this kite, its not the Ozone pricing that's the problem, its the Australian retailer who has put a stupid markup on this and other Ozone products, it was interesting to see that at the time this thread was at its hottest the shop in question responded by slashing the prices on this kite, however, now the heat has died off the prices are back up to their stupidly high levels.... i guess as long as there are enough fools out there who are that easily parted from their money then Australia will continue to pay premium prices.

[jhn.holgate]

except its manufactured on the cheap, so its not a keeper either.

Well, I guess that remains to be be seen. It seems good quality to me - but I can't tell you what the stitching and construction details are. Personally, I would like to see more bridles on it. We'll see how it holds up to a couple of thousand km's - I'll let you know!

[Jimmy22]

i dont know who has angered who here but the nz cost is here... http://www.kitezone.co.nz , http://windwarriorkitesports.com/ozoneflow.aspx compare them ..

if you are interested:

i once more made the top three and beat both vapor and reactor last month in our local hard sand races on the 5m Method, only issue was down wind where the vapor made up a lot of ground, however it was ground i had gained in the first place Winning kite was a Yakuzza 5.0 2008 and 2nd 4.5m GT 2011 , not bad for a non race kite in our little sand pit.

I now have a top speed of just over 80 kmph with the 2.3m method on sand.

None of that is BS its a fact and i felt for quite some time i was unable to let people know this stuff because of the abusive way this thread has panned out , anyhow i figured it wasnt worth it to sit in a bubble and you cant let the bully(s) win....

So seemingly if the main issue is one of price and the distributor then let the kite have some more credit.

Value for money argument is another matter so i Respect what you are saying about bang for buck , but i sence all this is more about people than the actual Method ? Peter Lynn recently got direct supply to Aus instead of bouncing through various lands which has helped their pricing no end , hats off to them for that. I dont know what the story is for Ozone , but i do know the Method is a good kite and will find some people that like it for what it is. The obvious bad blood around the brand for some is a whole different can of worms.

[Chaos]

Some of the posts on this thread were lost during the server crash about a year ago (ish).

First of all, yes these kites 'may' have been over sold by a poster that claimed they were as fast as a race kite, which in my experience they aren't, yes in the right conditions you may beat a race kite flying Methods, but the winds must be challenging so the race kites couldn't handle or turn in the gusty conditions.

I really do not want to start another heated debate about their flying characteristics and speed, my view is they definitely are not a fast kite compared to the competition, but they are a stable and a progressive kite, I use them on a land board and in my buggy. They are stable and a progressive kite and handle inland gusty conditions very well, and are quite fast when you fly and work them them close to their limits.

Most importantly to me is they always put a big smile on my face when ever I fly them, which in my view is the most important thing.

Which unfortunately brings me to the reason for the post, Ozone have stopped producing the vast majority of their FB range which includes all kites including race kites and all FB accessories, except for the Ignition trainer kite as the below announcement:

http://www.flyozone.com/landkites/en/news/headlines/23771

Here is a video of me getting dialled into spilling power on my 5 m in a buggy from about a year ago, many thanks to Andrew AutoBuddy Jones for the video taken from his kite bike.

I do not wish to start any heated debates, but if you have Methods and enjoy flying them, then take care of your kites.

All credit to Greg a flying buddy of mine passing on this news.

Mike

[Jimmy22]

Too late... lol. It's cool Joel just called bs when I said it was only a few kph slower than my race kites. No bad blood in this discussion. Mine are still mint and will be for sale after you can't buy them any longer.

[Tiger37]

Thanks for sharing you vimeo buggy video clip. Lovely location by the looks of it. Next you'll be telling us that Wales can play rugby! Good luck in November!