Hey there good foilers, just picked up a Takuma RS wing, the guy had dropped it off the back of his scooter onto the hot exhaust pipe then dragged it down the road - he sold it to me cheap and I am in the long process of attempting a repair
the valve access is massive compared to my Starboard and SIC anyone have a hack or can give me a picture or link me to somewhere I can get the adapter for this as
1. I need to inflate several times to check the repair
2. I will need to inflate to use it at the beach if the repairs are good
anyways thanks in advance for any help, tips and guidance
I have the previous year's Takuma wing, the Wingride 3 and it uses a Liquid Force Max Flow system for the main valve, not sure if the RS uses it too. I wish these were the industry standard.
www.surfandkiteshop.co.uk/product/50-Liquid-Force-Max-Flow-Valve
I believe it is indeed a LF MaxFlow valve, believe they licensed it to Ensis and Takuma. A lot of pumps have it as one of the standard adapters. Suggest trying any shop that sells Ensis or Takuma wings
Thanks for the help, I made a ok for now adaptor from some pvc pipe (flared one end and sanded the other) and have tracked down the pump adaptor (see pic), however I don't get much of a reading on my pump pressure gauge, do others have this happen with the Max Flow valve.
Here are my initial thoughts on the wing construction
the valves are easy to take off - unscrew the ring remove the cap and push away the velcro. The valves are heavy and let lots of debris into the wing, not sure these are the best way to go
For me the wing Takuma RS 5.1 is a strange mixture, some parts are super light weight others really heavy
The leading edge and strut are really light (dacron ?) but there are no reinforcements on the wing at all! The trailing edge material is heavy as are the super heavy G10 battens and the handle fittings, the bolts alone are so heavy and are a weird over engineered design with a silly little fixing screw that needs to be fitted under the handle.
The front flag out handle is too big and too heavy as is the neoprene patch, 1/3 the size would have done the job. The materials look good and the stitching is straight and tight (I would love to spend a few hours watching those guys and girls making these things). The wing and strut tips are narrow and the bladder pockets are excellent.
Even if the carbon handles are cool and work well I think firm soft handles would have been better. These are just my thoughts on the overall construction and design. The wing feels big and beefy for a 5.1. For all it's positives I feel it would be a better wing if it was less fragile and lighter (the bladders feel really thin too, but maybe most of them are like this?). I've seen Dominic H's review and Hadou's as well. The wing is in surgery right now and won't look pretty but may be usable down the road - I look forward to actually flying it
Rather than waiting, as it is rainy and there is no wind I wanted to press on so I fabbed this up for the time being
Now that I can inflate the bladders I might as well show you what this was about. This is the wing that I picked up
So to finish off this little escapade (it's also related to the bladder pin hole repair) I patched up the bladders, one still has the smallest pin hole and I need to tackle that this week if poss, but I took it out and we winged, how many sessions It'll last I don't know but this wing feels super light and poised - had a good time using it while the wind was up, it's a real franken wing - but again I learn a bit more each time
@windbot I don't see what you like about these valves at all - the most horrible thing I have come across so far for me. The adapter is not that readily available worldwide (one place quoted me 33 dollars shipping!), sometimes after you've inflated the flap door doesn't close and you loose air, sand gets in easily, you can't get your fingers inside to pull debris out of your wing, the cap is hard to put on, they are heavy and you get NO reading on your hand pump - give me a Boston valve any day of the week
-anyhow got it up and running for now so it was a rather messy but fun repair in the end!
