I hadn't seen this mag since I bought it back in '03 and was amazed to see this kite, I though the crossbow (and that other one, was it GK?) were the first of the pulley kites. This was marketed in 2004 two years earlier.
Did anyone ride one of these kites, or can anyone remember other "breakthrough in kite designs" that actually carried through?
Hi Sandman,
The Globerider KPO system did work although they never used pulleys, they used a stainless ring which did the same job.
It did kinda work but was obviously not super successful as it was dropped a year later if memory serves me correctly.
The Kite was the "Lift". It had heavy bar pressure and only slightly more depower than the other kites of the day.
Cheers,
KH
I agree. I think the idea of putting bridles on a C kite was still frowned upon at that stage. Cabrinha and Takoon (both released at the same time) were the first of the to use the bow concept which popularised the bridle on kites and made the acceptance possible.
Takoon seemed to get the idea right (1:1) but their implementation of the concept was flawed and the kites turned slower than the Cabrinha which is probably the main reason the Cabrinha's were so much more successful. GK followed with the Sonic straight after which was probably the first really successful implementation of 1:1 and had they not had the construction issues that they had, they probably would have got a much bigger market than they did.
2004 - North introduced the 5th element (5th line), that's a breakthrough that carried through and got adopted by other brands.
f-one also introduced the 5th line the same year north did - and I believe ( could be wrong ) that in both cases the actual 5th line system was marketed after the initial batch of 04 kites and then adopted later.... Im sure someone else must have tried it a few years earlier though
Looks like it would of been very twitchy. - A High Aspect Kite with pulleys. - Scary thought.
