ofted42

Dropped to 230 shipped, that's as low as I can go. Would like this gone within the week, have some things to pay off. Thanks

Just like the title says, I'm looking to sell my blue/black Skyburner Widowmaker. Kite has been flown maybe 5 times and is in pristine condition. Will include a set of 100' Laser Pro 90# line with wrist straps. Asking $250 shipped. PM me if interested. Thanks, Kris

Hello all, First, thanks to all who gave me advice on my last thread here as to where to go from my Prism Quantum. I started flying kites beginning of last summer and used the Quantum for a few months but felt like I could be doing more with something a bit more responsive. After all the advice I bit the bullet and ordered a Skyburner Widowmaker. Which brings us to the point. Keep in mind that I'm new to a high end two line kite, and I wasn't doing anything fancy with the Quantum. Mostly snap stalls, once in a while I'd get part of a side slide, and maybe an axel here or there. I was able to get out quite a few times with the widowmaker, and while I immediately noticed a difference in control and precision, I appear to be stumped. I've been trying to get some snap stalls with limited success and my side slides really suck. Besides those, whenever I try an axel or any other type of simpler trick like fades, the kite just seems to lose all lift and fall randomly toward the ground like a leaf. Lines go slack and down she goes. I've tried in high winds, lower winds, all sorts of conditions. This is at the beach as well, so the wind is very consistent off the lake. I've studied videos and watched the hand movements carefully, but no matter how closely I try to duplicate them it just seems to fall out of the sky in a tangled mess. This is somewhat frustrating, and while I of course don't expect to be making the thing dance without lots of practice, it seems like a kite that can flip all over in light winds and stay up shouldn't be challenged by my simple tricks I'm attempting. Obviously I'm doing something fundamentally wrong, but darned if I can figure it out. Any pointers would be appreciated. Thanks Kris

Well, I talked to Jon today and he was really helpful. He sent a diagram over for the bridle lengths and I measured them when I got home. Looks like the outside ones might be long by around 3/4", not a lot but we'll see if he thinks that's enough to throw things off. If so he's already offered to either have it sent back on their dime and rebridle it or send me a completely new one to put on. I can see why Skyburner has been in business this long. Whatever I decide to get eventually for an ultralight kite, you can be it'll be from them.

I should probably clarify, my comments before weren't a knock against Skyburner in any way, I'm thrilled with their service so far. Once I get this thing set up I'm sure it'll be great, and I've already been telling people about Skyburner and their service. The waiting for a month remark wasn't a dig either, rather wait for something that's a quality product than some junk off the shelf. Definitely made the right choice.

Yeah, I reset the bridle back to the way it was. My Quantum and Jazz both came with misadjusted bridles too, I had to reset them once I understood what was going on. I e-mailed Jon and got a response already, he wants me to send it back for analysis. I'm going to give him a call, maybe we can figure it out without having to lose it for another week or two, already took almost a month to get it in the first place.

I checked your post at the "other place", thanks for the suggestion I e-mailed Jon and asked for some advice, it did seem odd to me that it seemed to fly worse than my Quantum. maybe I'll take a trip to the beach tonight and see how it goes with more consistent wind. The bridle is definitely different than what I've seen up to now with the double adjustable knots and such. Looks like you can adjust this thing every which way but loose, and probably screw it up royally in the process!

Well, finally got to take it out yesterday. Wind was probably around 4-6 mph, which is light, but I've seen widowmakers fly fairly well light winds. I noticed a few things once I got it airborne. when the wind would lighten up then catch the kite again, it would do a sort of "bounce" or "pulse" on the lines, like it was catching and losing the wind. Kind of a light jerky pull over and over. Never had my quantum do that, so I figured it might be adjusted for heavier winds After moving the nose toward me by moving the bridle knot up about 1/2" it helped, but still seemed very passive and bouncy I'd heard so much about the responsiveness of the widowmaker I was surprised when all I could get were very slow lazy turns no matter how aggressive I tried to make them. My Quantum will turn on a dime. I seem to have a big problem with oversteer. I thought maybe it was the quantum, but the widowmaker was doing it too. I'll try and do a snap stall and it just keeps rotating. Worse when I try and do a turn at the edge of the window for a side slide, it overrotates and ends up going back the way it originally was. Seems to do it no matter how much I snap the opposite direction. That one's on me, but I figured the widowmaker would at least help Since the wind was low I'll wait and see, but it didn't feel much different than my Quantum so far. In fact, dare I say it, I like how my Quantum feels better out of the two right now. The point of all this is, any pointers on bridle adjustment, etc. would be much appreciated. The bouncing, jerking motion was very odd, almost like it was unstable in the air. I'm sure this'll be a great kite once I get used to it, but so far I'm somewhat stumped. Thanks

Finally found a place that had a speedbag in stock. I agree with you cajun, if they had to charge a bit more it'd be nice to have a good bag. Maybe they figure at this level people are going to have their own bags to put them in and they figure it's a waste to make a nice one for it. Better hold off on the kite stuff now, if my wife knew what I spent on the kite and bag I think she'd stick the kite somewhere very uncomfortable.

True, that's why I mentioned that it was a small nitpick. I was thinking the same thing about what percentage of the price goes into the bag vs the kite. I'm sure the kite will be fantastic once I get to try it. Speaking of bags, I really like the look of the Prism Speedbag to start storing my kites, but can't find one in stock anywhere. Were they discontinued? Anyone know where a person can pick one up?

Well, got the widowmaker on Saturday and put it together. What a difference from the Quantum I've been using! Even when something is expensive, I've been used to having to tweak some things, maybe fix some small things. Not with this kite! The knots for tensioning the tips were in the perfect place, the stitching looks immaculate, and the spars and rods in the sail fit together so smoothly it's almost unbelievable. Nice to see a place that really takes pride in what they do and takes care of the little details. Now if I can just get some time when it's not rainy, still, or there aren't kids needing to be carted around, I can actually try it. The one thing I was a bit disappointed in was the bag that it came in. Spending this much on a kite, I would expect something a bit nicer than a rough nylon tube with some velcro crudely stitched on the end. I really like the way prism and flying wings do theirs. Still, small nitpick, and the bag doesn't affect how the kite flies anyway.

Well, took the plunge yesterday and ordered a widowmaker and 75' lineset for it. Now I'll be checking the front door every day until it gets here. Might still have to pick up that zephyr though... Thanks everyone for all the input, it really helped! I'll report back once I get her and see how she goes.

Man, just when I'd convinced myself to spring for a widowmaker. Have to admit, those are good prices for a Zephyr. Sent you a PM, and thanks!

Yeah, there are some pretty ones. Probably dumb, but the ones I'm looking at seriously aren't great looking to me, which is holding me back. Should care more about how it flies. So after all this feedback I'm thinking: Skyburner Ocius Skyburner Widowmaker (pricey) Kymera Sturdy Impulse (pricey) Premier Widow Prism Zephyr Flying Wings Soul So now I have a harder decision to make. I'm really tempted by the widowmaker, but that's a good chunk of change. Thanks for the help everyone, I have some thinking to do.

Man, all this info has made this harder, not easier. So many good choices out there. The more I look into Skyburner, the more I like their kites, but the Solus is just too rich for my blood. I'm actually seriously thinking about the freestylist at this point, seems like a really good kite for the money. the widowmaker looks great too, but again the price is pretty high. Maybe I'll draw one out of a hat and go with that, seems like it's hard to go wrong with any of them. Thanks again for the input everyone.