windofchange

I would replace it, not worth doing extra damage to your kite. We have bridles in stock and they are super simple to replace. Only takes about 3-5 minutes to change out the whole bridle. Cost for the bridles are usually under 15.00. The 1.5 SLE and the B-Series uses the same bridles, colors may change from time to time depending on what happens to be available at the time of production. Revolution Replacement Bridles HERE Hope this helps.

I hope it helps you out. To get it to work and get the feel, first try the fade launch but instead of trying to do the trick full on, try your "baby steps" and see just how light of a hand you can get the trick to work. Start out with so little hand movement that there is no way the kite will flip, then try a little more, then a little more until you figure out the absolute least amount of pull (coaxing - line sweeping) needed for the kite to flip off the ground and into the fade. I think when you find this "LEAST" amount setting, the fade launch will be done and you will have a perfect fade launch. This is best done in the lightest of winds and in the center of the window. If done in strong winds then you take the chance of getting the kite into a half fade and driving it nose first into the ground. It isn't 'that' bad because the kite will be going so slow and be so close to the ground (and your movement will be so soft) that the kite should have minimal speed and not do any damage at all....but still, best to practice this in lighter winds until you get it figured out. Let us all know how it goes for you. Best of luck.

Baloo - LOL - it is a trip when you see it in the air. Really though, it is a fun kite and very cool to watch. We have had engineers study the kite and we've even pulled it down so they could look at it and they still say it shouldn't be able to fly like that.....but it does and quite well too! Mallard - The only other rotating kites I have seen is the rotating box style kites, these kites have a center rod that you attach to and the kite spins around that center attachment point. I also own one of the Premier Counter Rotating Box kites. - picture below. This kite - the center spins in one direction while the outside spins in the other. The counter rotating box kites were a bit more stable than the single rotating box's as the single rotating ones would rotate in one direction enough that they would "walk" across the ski and eventually fall when they hit the edge of the window.

LOL - love the wax-on...wax-off!!! One of the biggest hurdles for me when learning the fade was how I was putting the kite into the fade. Fade launch was the most difficult for me as the kite would rotate into the fade and I could never hold it. I would pop it up and have to do a half rotate and flip it into flight because if I tried to hold it in the fade for any length of time the kite would either be too deep in the fade and see-saw back and nose plant or be sideways and well...walk of shame. To get a rising fade was impossible and I realized that it was computer generated and nothing more than trickery...ok....that was before I had the beacon of light go off one day. How I learned to do the fade launch is that I was "Popping" the kite off the ground and into the fade. Real easy right...set the kite up belly down, nose away, tight lines and give both hands a good firm pop, throw tons of slack and let it rotate....NOPE. The issue was in my POP! I discovered it isn't really a violent pop at all but more like a smooth - almost slow - stroke. I needed to slowly and gracefully "Coax" the kite off the ground into the fade instead of "popping" it off the ground. The movement is more like a smooth sweeping stroke and as soon as the kite backs up off the ground, give slack and then CATCH! The fade launch is very smooth and fluid, no sharp pop like pulls at all. A smooth stroke will bring the kite up very controlled and allow you to catch the kite with the lines instead of violently snapping the kite off the ground and - GIVING THE KITE SO MUCH SPEED IN THE ROTATION THAT IT FLIPS INTO A VERY DEEP FADE - when you try to "catch" the kite while it does this, it just yanks the kite back into a flic-flac and you have no control. My hand movements is like this: Hands slightly in front of my sides, lines tight, kite set up on the ground for the fade launch. Smoothly sweep my hands back so that the kite coaxes easily off the ground Once the kite starts to lift, sweep my hands back out in front of me and lean forward, hands stretched out in front pretty far As the kite starts to flip into the fade, hands come together about an inch apart from each other and come straight back to my chest to catch the kite in the fade I move my body (usually backwards) to keep the kite in the fade or make it rise. **the whole procedure is almost like making two sweeping circles with your hands, one circle down to your sides, the other circle out in front and ending up at your chest** For a backspin, take the lower wing and give a firm "Lawnmower" type stroke while throwing slack at the other line. The same goes for the Axle to Fade, it isn't really a sharp snapping pop but more of a coax into the fade position. Once you can "catch" the kite in the fade and have it controlled, just "lawnmower tug" the low wing and you have a backspin. The secret is catching the kite in the fade... Short lawnmower tug and the kite goes into a half rotation and starts the Jacobs Ladder. Just pop the kite back over and then another short lawnmower tug and you have the full Jacobs. Hope this helps you out and that I described it in a way that makes sense.

Prism has just recently released the "Flip" kite. This is a rotor kite that is a total blast to fly. We have them in stock and just got them listed up on our website. Price is around $26.00 and comes with fly line. I think this is exactly what you are describing in your post. Purchase The Prism Flip Kite HERE

Generally the larger kites will pull smoother tricks - but - the pilot is what makes the kite, the kite doesn't make the pilot. I would look for something in the 7.5 to 8'+ wing span. Larger kites usually are easier to fly and have a better disposition when putting them through their paces. The smaller kites will snap and dart around much faster which works awesome for some pilots who tend to be more of a "Yank-&-Spank" type of flyers but generally require a little more skill to really keep the kite under control. This is a general rule and can vary a ton depending on the exact model of kite and of course, the pilot. I had the opportunity of watching Tim Benson put the Deep Space (slightly smaller kite) through its paces and that kite can be as graceful as a princess one second and then as violent as ever the next depending on how he wanted to fly it....it was very impressive......and very humbling. Still think the Premier Widow is just what you are looking for. In the hands of the right pilot, the Widow can trick as good as the best of them. It would probably be quite some time before you could outgrow it, I know that the Widow can do more tricks than I am capable of throwing at it. Hope this helps.

Yea, straight super glue can bond instantly, we find the gel glue does delay some and allows you to position the parts in place easier. You still gotta be pretty quick with it though or it may get ya. Zap-a-gap can be found pretty easily in nearly every kite shop and almost ever hobby/RC shop as well. As a last effort, you can sometimes find gel super glue at home depot or other home furnishing stores. I have used some from Locktite that worked very well. The cost was pretty offensive at the mega-mart stores but it served for the pinch we were in at the time. Hope this helps.

One of the advantages on the Hypnotist is that it comes with the Freestyle Pilot DVD. Great tutorial DVD. Another option may be the new Prism E3, also comes with the DVD and the Graphite design we have hanging up in our storefront gets tons of compliments. It is a very sexy looking kite (and it has green in it too) LOL All of these kites are excellent and will do what you are looking for. As for learning on the Power Kites and then moving to the stunt kites, they are basically the same as far as the wind window and controls but the stunt kites are going to fly much faster and be much more responsive in flight over your power kite. Also, the stunt kites will not have near the power/pull as your power kites will. If you ever make it down to Vegas, stop by our store or come out for our Friday Night fun fly's and we have tons of Demo's that you can fly before you buy. We can also give you tips and hints to help you with your progress. Hope that helps.

I love the Widow, IMO, best tricking kite under $200.00. You'll get about a thousand different replies to this one simple question though. Today with the advancement in material and computer design, there are so many kites that perform excellently under $200 that back years ago would be $600+ kites. All three you have listed are awesome kites and only differ in the personality of the style in which they are flown.

The lines supplied with the Mighty Bug are a Dyneema line which is very strong and has a natural slickness to them. They are designed to be twisted around each other and still slide freely. You can spin the kite around while it is in the air and the lines will twist and that is perfectly fine - actually designed to do it. As said above, if you get a couple spins in the kite in one direction, pull the opposite line and it will un-spin in the other direction. As for holding the kite down, get yourself a plastic ziplock style bag (or two). Fill them with sand or rocks and when you open up the kite out of the bag, lay the ziplock bags onto the trailing edge of the kite (rear or bottom of the kite) on the inside so they hold the kite down for you while you walk back to your handles. Once you get to your handles, pick them up and slowly pull backwards so the ziplock bags "roll" off the bottom of the kite and your kite will launch. This also helps keep your kite from getting dirty or damaged from larger rocks as you can use fine gravel in your ziplock to hold your kite down. When your done, empty the bags out back where you got the debris (rocks, sand, gravel, dirt) and stuff the empty bag in your kite bag with your kite so you can use them again next time. Some people have used weights or pieces of chain or water bottles etc... to hold down their kites, I have found the ziplock bags to work best as they fit easily inside your original kite bag, they are simple to fill up and people won't walk off with a bag of rocks like they will do with jogging weights or other things. And...if they do walk off with your bag of rocks, your really didn't lose anything of value. lol Hope that helps.

Just get yourself a Ziploc bag and stuff it in your Snapshot bag when you go out. Before you set your kite up, fill the bag with some dirt or sand or rocks....etc. Lay the bag on the belly of the snapshot close to the trailing edge of the kite (bottom on the inside as you look at the kite). Walk back to your lines and then pull the handles and the bag should roll off the kite and it will launch. After your done flying, empty the bag and stuff it in with your kite. Hope this helps.

We got em in stock!

The biggest difference is that a high end kite is "designed" to do certain things from the designer. A low end stunt kite is only made to fly back and forth and do only the very basic of tricks if you work it. Perfect example was about two years ago at Kite Party, Jon T. had a prototype Widow Maker (the name wasn't even finalized at that time). I flew the proto and thought it was awesome. Jon was still not happy with it and wanted to make some more modifications so that the kite was perfect. The kite actually went through a year and a half of R&D (and who knows how many versions ended up in the trash before that) before he was happy enough with the kite to put in on the shelf for customers to buy. That takes a certain amount of pride and dedication to produce a top quality high end kite. Very different from a couple marketing people looking at a color pattern on a computer screen and then saying 'Yea, that looks good we can sell a ton of those, send it to the factory to produce". High end kites usually mean hand sewn one at a time, using the highest quality materials (PC31 Icarex instead of ripstop nylon), high strength UV resistant Poly thread instead of cheaper cotton or nylon, special attention to the entire sail to reduce "line-snag" points including wrapping the leading edge, folding over the material inside to make it easier and smoother for the frame to be inserted, extra attention to the nose area (folding and layering the nose and adding extra material to cover any potential snag or wear areas), extra reinforcement areas and wear patches where needed, covered stand off pockets, center leach lines, smooth end nock's and caps to reduce drag and prevent line snags, tapered wrapped carbon rods that flex at exactly the right areas, hand tied bridles, etc...etc... This kind of stuff just doesn't even get thought about on a large production inexpensive model. Other than the obvious difference in quality of materials and detail on workmanship, the high end kite just plain out-perform the others in "trick-ability". My Widow Maker actually makes me look like a much better pilot than I actually am because of its amazing ability to help me do the tricks I am putting it into. Not only that but it also seems to be able to recover much easier and stay flying when I totally flub-up a trick. And as mentioned, it just flies so much smoother and easier that you feel better while it is in the air. I have had people who were struggling to do a trick - have a go on the Widow Maker and do the same trick consecutively with ease. Maybe it is a mind game thing....but, I think it is because the kite has been specifically designed to perform and be controlled in those (abnormal) flying positions. In the end, the high end kites will always outperform the inexpensive models in almost every way. As said, it would be like comparing a Ferrari to a sub compact Hyundai (ok, changed from a Ford cuz I do like that new Shelby - lol) If you get the chance to try out a high dollar boutique style kite like the Widow Maker or the Benson Deep Space or Lams Sea Devils, you will very quickly see (and feel) the difference. Hopefully the above will help explain a little more as to why these type of kites cost so much more than the cookie-cutter mass produced ones. After flying so many different kites, I can appreciate the higher dollar kites and think that even $400.00 is almost not enough compared to the amount of R&D and work and time that is put into these beauties. Hope that helps.

One of the things that is most often overlooked is bridle settings. If you are going to be flying in light winds then you WILL need to adjust your bridle and set the kite up to do so. Changing your bridle is simply adjusting your kites angle of attack or in more simple terms, bringing the nose of the kite forward or backwards for the current wind conditions. If you set the nose of the kite backwards (away from the pilots position) then you set the kite up "heavy" (simple term that describes how the kite is flying in the current winds) Heavy setting means that you can launch the kite up and then it stalls out and falls back down to the ground like it has a brick tied to the tail. No matter how many times you pull, the kite launches up and then stalls or falls back to the earth. If you set the nose of the kite forward (towards the pilot) then the kite is set up "Light" meaning that the kite will have fast forward drive and be difficult to stall out. Both of these settings are changing the angle of attack of the kite. For lighter winds you will "usually" need to move the nose of the kite forward into the light setting. This will give the kite much more forward speed and keep the kite flying in lighter wind by dumping most of the wind out of the bottom of the sail. Weight of the kite also plays a big factor for light wind. The heavier the kite AND the smaller the sail area, the more wind it will take to keep the kite in the air. A lot of people will remove the upper spreader of the kite for the lightest of winds just so they can take off a couple grams of weight. Sometimes that will help but only do this in the lightest of light wind conditions. I believe the Quantum comes with tabs on the bridle that read "light wind" and "Strong wind" with knots to adjust between. Don't be afraid to move past the factory knots a little to see if that will help you in your light wind flying. The setting on the bridle is just a factory "Average" setting and the bridle is designed to be adjusted by the pilot for the different wind conditions. Usually you will only need to adjust about a inch max either up or down on the bridle. Small adjustments will make a big difference on the flying. Try different settings to see if it gets better or worse, if worse, go the other way. Don't worry about messing up the bridle by changing the adjustment point, there is a mark on the bridle so you can always put it back to the factory setting. With proper bridle adjustments and good technique, 4-5 mph winds are very attainable with the Quantum. As a dear flying friend of mine says.... Heavy wind flying builds muscle, Light wind flying builds skill. Flying in light wind is an art and skill that needs to be learned. It can be very technical and delicate but once you get the "feel" of light wind flying, you skills will improve immensely and flying in heavier winds will be a breeze. (pun intended) Hope this helps.

You should be fine Upnet, as long as it was put back in the right spot. Bridles can be sensitive but usually designed to be adjusted for different wind conditions. Check your measurements with the ones posted above, if they are the same then you should be good to go.

Thank you for the order, your kite is on its way and you should be up in the air within minutes....ok, maybe shipping will take a little longer than you are use to doing things. LOL Actually the kite will be there as fast as UPS can get it to you. As for help, this forum is an awesome place to go when you need info. There are tons of pilots here that are just waiting to help you out. It does take time to learn so be patient and most of all, have fun. Once you get the basics down don't forget to breeze by Randy G's sportkite blog. Welcome to the world of kite flying and I hope you find it as enjoying as all of us do.

Just let me know and we'll get it on its way to ya. And congrats and best of wishes for you and yours!

$189.00 plus shipping.

The Shadow has been discontinued which is why it is hard to find anymore. We have two left in stock and both are in the Purple color. You might want to contact your local shop to see if they have one or two sitting around that haven't been listed online. You may even get lucky enough to locate one in the multi-color pattern.

I agree with the Zephyr, very nice kite that performs great and the case & accessories it comes with is awesome. The reason I didn't recommend it is because it is (IMO) a "light" standard kite. Doesn't really classify as a UL or SUL but it is lighter than a normal standard kite is. The bottom end of the Zephyr to actually trick with is around 3-4 mph for me. In 4-6 mph winds it is a dream to fly but below that it starts to get to much work (for me anyways). For SUL and the lightest winds my pick is still the Shadow, unless it is totally dead then I fly my Innerspace. The Innerspace flies awesome in zero winds up to about 5mph but it is quite limited on its tricks (for me anyways).

Hate to contradict but the Shadow from HQ is an awesome SUL kite. It will fly in winds starting around 1-2 mph and tricks very well in 2-5, top end is somewhere around 8mph. The Shadow has been discontinued because of the multi-colored material used in the center is no longer available. HQ did come out with a limited run of solid colored sails but those to have now been discontinued. We have two left in stock and you may be able to find one or two from other shops around. The Shadow sells for under $200.00 new. Lines are not included. The Shadow can do most slack line tricks very easily and sweet but is a little difficult to Yo-Yo without some tail weight. Sail is 4mm pultruded carbon with wrapped tapered carbon spreaders. Sail material is PC31 Icarex. Wing span appx. 7+ ft.

If you have some larger dacron line you can pull out the center or maybe even get lucky and it will be hollow core. That would work great. For shoelaces, I think it would be way to big and end up bunching up causing problems. If this is a light wind set, you may not need any sleeving at all. We sell a sleeving kit from Shanti called a "Spleever" This kit comes with a sleeving tool and extra sleeving material. As you like to fab your own stuff, the easiest way to make a sleeving tool is to find someone who plays guitar, get the High "E" string from them when it breaks, fold it in half and it works awesome. Just slide the folded end through the sleeving material until it pokes out the other end. Thread your spectra through the folded end (like a sewing needle) and then pull the wire back out of the sleeving, pulling the spectra with it. Make sure to feed a long enough piece of spectra through the folded end so it doesn't pull out as you pull it back through the sleeving. Hope this helps.

Yup, I recommend the Shadow as well. Great UL kite that tricks very well. Unfortunately HQ has discontinued this kite because of the difficulty in getting the colored material used in the sail. It is one of the best UL kites I have flown. We do have a couple left in stock if you are interested, give us a call.

I am glad that you are having such an awesome time with the Widow. It is truly an awesome kite and probably one of the best tricking kites for the money. Just wait till you get the chance to fly the original Widow Maker, it is everything that the Widow is and more!!! This kite has replaced nearly all of my high end sport kites in my bag. I now own three, two custom standards and one custom UL.

Here's one of the best places on the web to learn tricks. Randy G's Sportkite blog Do a little searching around and you'll find a world of information.