windofchange

We offer two versions of our Revolutions, one complete package (which includes line) and one that is kite/sleeve only. I agree that a complete package should be....um...complete! The only Rev that we do not sell with lines is the B-series which is not available with lines. We make sure to list this for our customers and make multiple line options available right on the same page as the kite. I get irritated when I see someone trying to learn how to fly their brand new Rev and find that it has inferior line supplied with it. Most of the time the customer blames the kite, not the low quality line that was stuffed in so that particular shop could make a couple extra dollars profit. This is usually only done by online shops that offer the cheapest price around. Like most things you get what you pay for. Unfortunately this reflects back on the kite, not the junky lines. It's like blaming a race car for bad performance when it has wooden tires on it. On the bright side you can now shop around for the perfect lineset. I suggest 90# Spectra line. Check around and see what length others in your area are flying. If you want to fly with I-quad, the 120' lines is the ticket. Myself, I like 75' lines. Do not buy anything but pure 100% Spectra line. Nothing else compares in performance. Shanti and Laser Pro Gold are two of the top brands and what I would recommend. Hope this helps.

Give me a call, I can swap out your SLE leading edge for any frame you want. We have all in the rods in stock. We also have full stock on the B-series including the vented B.

I agree with Watty, I wouldn't recommend the Supersonic or the Shockwave. Not only are they FAST, I have found that the work best in the stronger winds. Flying a Sonic in sub-6mph winds would require some serious patience and a lot of running. To me that is not fun flying, I would rather pull out an SUL. If you can, try to fly one of the speed series first before purchasing. I don't want to discourage anyone from these kites but they do tend to sit with certain people a little better than others and it would be a lot of cash for something that may not fit with what you are looking for right now. Like Mr Denny said, when I got my first Sonic it was ready for the trader list after 20 minutes of fighting and a broken spar.....I am soooooo glad I didn't get rid of that kite, experience really helped me appreciate what fun that kite can be. Now for the stronger winds around 12 mph+, the Supersonic is an all out riot to fly! The Sonic and Shockwave have a permanent home in my kite bag and I am glad I have them. I don't really classify the Blast as part of the Speed Series although it is the closest in design to them. It is indeed much faster than the 1.5 but nowhere near as quick as the Sonic or Shockwave. As mentioned, the Blast will take a bit of getting use over the 1.5 and can be a little disappointing if you don't quite know how to over-correct it and man-handle it around in the air. Once you get familiar with it then it turns out to be a very fun and versatile kite to fly. It surely was named correctly!!! (way to go Joe) The Blast is a bit smaller than the 2-4 so the fun wind range I would say starts around 5-6mph. For the light winds you are talking about I would kinda move towards the Power Blast 2-4. This kite is larger in size than the Blast so it will go up in much lighter winds. It floats for what seems like forever and when the wind picks up, the kite has the ability drag you around quite a bit. I use the 2-4 for buggying in winds over 15mph and it rocks! In the sub 10mph winds this kite is wonderful to fly without too much power at all. A simple flick of the wrists and you can dump all the power completely out of the kite and it will float in the air. Wind range - I would say 2 to 12 mph is some serious fun flying, 12+ and the power starts to really kick in and the fun gets a full sized shot of adrenaline! You do have to man-handle the 2-4 around with much more authority than your use to with the 1.5, the flick of the wrist turns into a solid pop with a counter pop and the more aggressive you get with it the more it responds. Sorry to say but you'll eventually end up with all of them anyways so it really doesn't matter as much which one you buy right now. For what you are talking about in your post, the 2-4 would be my recommendation.

Ya know, the Silver Fox doesn't get near the respect that it deserves. This is one totally awesome kite that does it all for about half the price of kites that are comparable. Nice kite for sure....oh, and the video is awesome as is the pilot. Well done John.

Well, for Revolution I have been told that he made 12 of the original Nagal Rev's and made two additional Nagal Revs with two faces instead of one...so that would make 14. Then, the new masterpieces came out and there were 5 of the Samurai and 10 of the Mardi Gras Revs. So that would make 29 for Revolution. *****someone correct me if my info is wrong on the Rev's***** I realize that this is only a tiny drop in the barrel compared to the other kites he has built. I do know that if you are lucky enough to have one of his designs you have a beautiful work of art.

That's a beautiful Cody. The Crown is a piece of art as well. Very nicely done.

Penny, The Superblast (now called the Powerblast 2-4) comes with the 4 wrap (rev equipped) rods. The only way I know of to get a spar that has more than 4 wraps is to call Rev and have them custom made. I know it is a long wait time for heavy wrapped rods tho.

The tape works best and is easiest to do. Just cut two pieces of tape slightly larger than the hole. Round the corners to help the tape stick longer. Lay the sail down on a solid surface and match the two pieces together as close as possible. Be careful not to pull the sail to tight and cause wrinkles. Put one piece of tape on the front and then place the other on the back and your good to go.

I do the same John. I have always tied two overhand knots in my sleeving and have never had a slip, even with my large power kites. Just un-do the knots that are on the shorter line, slide the sleeving the equal amount that the lines are uneven and then retie the knots. Cut off the excess. To measure your lines exactly, stake one end of your lines down on the ground with a ground stake (screw driver, rebar, tent stake, etc...) and then pull the other end against the stake to find out what the difference in the lines are. Measure that distance and then slide your sleeving up the short line the same distance & re-tie. Re-adjusting your lines is pretty simple it just takes a little bit of time to get it done.

I fly a Benson Innerspace outdoors constantly in no-wind situations. Bout the shortest lines I care to fly on is about 45', I usually fly on (and prefer) 75' or longer. I don't care for the shorter lines, the kite snaps around much to fast and it is difficult to get the kite locked into its wind where the kite flies smooth and controllable. Kinda hard to say exactly what this is but when you "feel" it you will know what I am talking about. Longer lines allow the kite to lock into its own wind and lets you "fly" the kite more than just yank it around. With the Innerspace I can fly the kite in no wind with barely having to walk backwards at all - maybe one or two steps to get the kite to climb to zenith. Like John says, long firm sweeping strokes gets the kite up in the air easy. It is super easy to get your ground back with the glide on longer lines. I can usually make up tons more ground than I lose with the longer lines. Shorter lines seem to make it harder to make up ground. Up-n-overs are a little easier on shorter lines, especially if you really yank the kite around hard right before the apex. Pulling 360's are smooth and locked in solid on longer lines and you just have to walk slowly around in a smaller circle. On shorter lines I find I have to walk faster and the circle is much larger....almost running if the wind happens to pick up a mile/hour or so. I found that the Innerspace goes up when everything else wont, it has become my favorite indoor (although I primarily use it outdoors). It will go up even when my Vapor won't. The most important lesson I learned when I was learning to fly the Innerspace was to not let the lines go slack at all. Arm movements have to be short, very slow and smoooooooooth. If you pull to much to quickly then you dump all the wind (0 wind that is) out of the kite and you'll lose it. Keep both lines with "just the right amount" of tension on them when you fly and it will start to click. If one line goes slack you're pulling to hard and too much. When I first started I thought light wind flying was not for me. I am glad that I stuck with it because it has turned uncountable irritating days of not being able to fly into some of the best flying I have had. Hope this helps.

I seen the picture and it is a beautiful kite. I still cant make out if it is a full size Hawaiian or 3/4. Maybe I am missing something.

Hyper, Is that a standard TOTL Hawaiian or the 3/4 version? Any pics?

I will have to dig out my 7 stack of 3/4's and get some pics of it. I think John Chilese has a couple on his webshots album from the last time I had it out. Awesome kite, fun to fly....afterwards your arms start to look like Popeye's...but without the spinach.

You'll have no regrets with the E2, excellent kite and it should have come with the Freestyle Pilot DVD which is included with all of the E2's.

Yea the 8 stack pulls like a train. Really fun to fly and after adjusting the brake lines I got the pull to be much less but still have to have your feet well planted and ready to go on a ride when the wind picks up. I actually buggied with the stack once, was really fun. Here is a link to some wallpaper pics of my custom 8 stack along side of my Powerblast 4-8. Revolution 8 Stack Wallpapers It is easier to tune your stack if you can look at the side of the stack while flying. If you can get someone to fly the stack slowly towards and away from you you should be able to see the area that needs to be adjusted. Other times it is just trial and error. I use some small dowels of different sizes to tune the stack. Just larks head a dowel into the lower stack line and give it a try. If it improves make the difference in line length permanent. If not just pull the dowel out and try another size or in another area. Hope this helps.

I just got a call from one of my customers who said that he has a deal with his wife that works... His deal is that whatever he spends on a kite, his wife gets the same amount of money to spend on herself. Downside is that he has to save up double what the kite costs but at least he gets to buy a new kite now and then and his wife is actually eager for him to do so. He says his wife is probably the only one that looks for the more expensive kites for him to buy. LOL

I would highly recommend the Acrobatx. This kite won the 2006 kite of the year award at the KTAI 2006 and retail price is around $80.00. Made by Flying Wings. The construction and build quality is awesome and it will do nearly anything you can throw at it. Another choice would be the Silver Fox, also from Flying Wings. The Silver Fox might be slightly higher than the $120.00 you are posting but very nice kite as well. Other options (more intermediate than advanced but still great kites) Prism Quantum. Prism Hypnotist priced right at what you are looking for and comes with the Prism Freestyle Pilot DVD. Premier Nighthawk, excellent kite that tricks amazingly well. New Tech Techno is another nice kite that fits in your price range. Just a few suggestions, I am sure there are plenty others that I missed.

I set up stacks with all stack lines exactly equal in length and then I tune the stack from there. Usually I will start at the end kite and shorten the bottom stack lines about 1 inch (2.5cm) and that will usually help keep the chasing down to a minimum between the kites. If you get excessive chasing in the center of your stack, shorten the bottom lines between the kite that "chases" the most and the kite directly in front. Eventually you will get the stack to fly exactly equal with very minimal chasing. When stacking more than 3 rev's I have found that you need to add 2-3 inches of overall brake line to help with the control of the stack. Adding in a set of pigtails on the top and bottoms of your handles makes it very easy to adjust your brake line tension on the stack. Once you find the right setting mark it with a pen so you always know where to hook onto. Putting away the stack can be a pain. The easiest thing I have found is to try and keep all the kites together without unhooking the stack lines. Lay them all on top of each other with the stack lines in the center of the kites (as much as possible) and then carefully remove the verticals, stacking them on top of the top kite. Then carefully separate the leading edges and then fold the entire stack over on top of itself and roll it all up in one big rev. If you have more than 3 rev's, you may not be able to fold all the leading edges over. In that case I remove the leading edges completely from the sails and then fold the sails over, then lay all the rods (leading edges and verticals) on top of the stack and roll it all up. Re-assembly is just the opposite. Another hint....if you have different spars in each of your kites, spray paint the rods on one end with a different color to keep all your frames the same. My 8 stack of 1.5 SLE's has heavy frames (custom 6 wraps) in the front four kites, standard 4 wrap in the next 3 and UL in the last one. Different paint helps identify which frame goes in which kite very easily. Hope that helps.

Just make sure that your next few Rev's (and there will be a few more) are all the same color pattern.....helps hide them...."No honey...thats the same red/black one that I have always had....it only looks different cuz it is a little further/closer than your use to.......

The Silver Fox has a unique bead system that allows you to change the bridle from a 3 point to Turbo just by re-connecting the lines to the different colored beads. 3 point gives the kite good precision and snappy turns, Turbo sets the kite a lot looser for easier slack line tricks. Awesome kite. I love mine.

Revolution kites are pretty touchy to line measurements. If one line is off the kite will not fly the way it is designed. Most pre-made linesets are pre-stretched and measured to be within a couple centimeters. Problem is that one pre-made lineset will not be the exact same as another pre-made lineset and could vary by a foot or more depending on how the person making the set felt at the time. What I would suggest is to purchase a sleeving kit (or some sleeving material and a guitar "E" string/piano string) and re-sleeve the lines you have. The weight should be fine and dyneema lines are fairly good quality lines. Granted they are not as good as 100% spectra lines but they will work if you have nothing else around you. Just stake one end of your 4 lines to the ground and pull the other end taught. Place a mark across all four lines when taught and then slide your sleeving down to that mark. Fold the sleeving over and tie off. Cut off the excess and you now have a quad line set that is equal. ***oh yea..your sleeving has to be the same length for this method to work*** To use the piano wire/guitar string, just fold over the wire in the center to form a point then fish the point of the wire through your sleeving material. Once it pokes out the other end, thread your line through the point and pull about a foot or so extra to keep the line from sliding through. Pull the piano wire (and your new line) back through the sleeving. Slide your sleeving to the mark and tie off. As for what lineset to purchase, I would recommend either 90# to 150# in whatever length you feel comfortable with. A line in that weight range should be plenty strong for your 1.5 without any worry of breaking. I-quad and most other teams use 120 foot, I personally like either 75 foot or 100 foot when flying solo. The longer lines do give you a larger window to play in and also makes the kite a lot slower and graceful. Shorter lines pep the kite up a bit and can be fun. Its all personal preference really. Because you are in an area where linesets may be hard to come by, I would highly suggest purchasing a spool or bulk line and some sleeving material (or sleeving kits) and start making your own linesets from it. It would be cheaper in the long run for you and you will have the ability to make multiple lengths for your flying style. Now that you know how to sleeve them it is easy to build a lineset. Plus if you ever do happen to break a line you can simply replace it with a new one without the shipping or down time. We sell pre-made linesets in all weights plus we can build custom linesets in any lenght you need. We also have bulk line in stock as well as sleeving kits. Hope this helps.

Uh uh uh...Silver Fox...uh uh uh.

If the Hawaiian is still available, I will take it. Let me know.

Very interesting look. I noticed the double standoff's and the flat surface at the bottom. Sorta looks like the speed series rev's but more vertical with a much larger wing. I am also intrigued with the natural curved leading edge. Is this part of the sail design that causes the LE to be curved like that? Have you flown it yet and how does it handle? Love the bullet design and the color scheme. Very nice!

I have been playing around with a couple kites from HQ, others will have a lot more info on them I am sure. The Shadow is a very good tricker and pretty solid kite for a great price. I would call the kite an ultra light, it flies very well starting around 2-3 mph winds (1-2 for experienced pilots). I was really quite surprised at how nice the kite tricked in those winds. Very nice indeed. Another one that surprised me was the Tattoo Zero. I really connected with this kite right out of the bag. It flies very well in 0 to 6 mph winds and is capable of bout every trick I can throw at it (which isn't much but growing more every session). It axle's very nicely, 540's quick and flat, cascades and flic-flac's with very little effort. Very nice kite and I am happy I got it. On the other HQ kites, I have heard good things about the Obsession 2 but have not yet had a chance to pilot that one personally. The Tramontana has been hailed as an excellent kite and has just recently been replaced with the new Gallego. Haven't flown one of these either but have one of them coming my way to try out. Overall the build quality and materials look to be top notch thus far and HQ has been doing kites long enough to have worked out any problems and land a nice design that performs. So far their light wind stuff has really impressed me. I will let you know what I find out when I get the chance to fly the Gallego. Hope this helps.