2013 Bandit B6 (by F-One)

Posted by Eppo in "The 4 kite review" thread... thanks for kicking off some 2014 season review discussion.

My school maths teacher couldn't spell or use punctuation (as Eppo can), but he was a sticker for order (I became an accountant). Hence why this post has been split into its 4 component parts:

"Just an awesome winter day, starting at 13 to 15 steadily increasing to 17 to 19 and at times a little above. Not a huge swell but enough to see what drift capabilities are there. Rode a total of 5 kites today, but 4 of them were newies. Only be brief as none of them are my focus this year, but it may serve to give a little info to those who are. I will do it in order of riding them. All of them were on my cruiser Pro.

Bandit B6 (2013)

Plenty been said on this kite it is a popular one. Got some more C power than the others above. Man this kite has some real spunk hey. Fast enough, with some bang on grunt, but smooth delivery. Really cranks you around on the loops etc. develops more apparent wind than the others above and you can feel the 6 gen of work in this kite. Still I didn't notice anything crazily different to the B5, just more spunk and crank. Bloody good jumper, pull the bar in and it does this weird predator mouth type open and eat me thing but it works. I did have it fully powered though as I do. Yeh in the right hands this kite will take you big.

Drift...nah I'm not convinced this kite actually drifts aka a wave kite. But the feedback is so good, keep it moving and its a bucket of fun in the waves. For powered riding this kite would be really fun. Early days but comments from some other riders (one of them very experienced) confirmed this with me. But sht you can't have everything! Bloody nice wind. It still flutters on the loops even though the hype said it didn't or it was reduced. Also doesn't like to be depowered, loses its stability in the air, one thing I'm never a fan off. But this on/off also gives it such versatility.

Bar, well I have said it before, its the mother of all cluster Farqs of all stupid, arrogant, head you ass farqs..quick realise Farqin ancient and stupid and that damn old ass swivel, didn't work before, didn't work this time either. Anyhow enough of that, you know how I feel. I just feel such a good wing deserves a state of the art bar system that's all.

Any spelling errors I just can't be bothered fixing..."

Thank farqin christ. Not sure about the 'best' though that depends on the individuals preferance, but it is a damn nice kite that was seriously let down by the bar. Awesome.

Here is a link to the new 2014 gear with the new bar.
http://www.spotspy.net/images/news/201309/fone-2014.pdf
I hope that link works for you, but it takes a while to download because it has their entire range of boards and kites and its in english.
I have to say I like both bar systems ,never had any problems with it and ridden Bandits from the beginning,
I guess F one had a lot of criticism of the
velcro system and decided to go with the popular vote!