by far the best read on this forum in a long time.

thanks very much to bruno, bill and all the other designers out who are making our lives more exciting and pushing the envelope of kiting.

kt

Agreed. I have the utmost respect for the guys who have the creativity to come up with the designs.

I agree this is great being able to talk to the designers and here there points of view. on that note...

... is it posible to create a kite that handles(feel) like a c but perfomance(depower/power) capeablites of a flat?

I love the way my c kites fly but I wish I had a kite with more gust killing abilities. Personally I cant stand the feel /flight characteristic's of the bow/flat kites. I fine the c kites much more aggresive and powerful feeling that the kite wips around creating more power in the window and the bows just soften the feel of the power and kind of slide through the window not creating asmuch aparent wind.(does this make any sence?)

Smokey

PS I've flown the Xbow and Sblade in varius sizes and hated the feel, It felt so good to go back to any c kite after fliing them.

There are already a few C-shape kites with large depower. If you prefer, go for them, you 'll get more safety, it's good for the sport.

There are any kind of reactions about the bow kites. I believe that among those who flied them several times, there are a lot more people that like them than people that don't.

Generally more used you are to a kite, more difficult it is to adapt to a new one. For this reason the bow kites are loved by almost 100% of the beginners and intermediate riders but less by the hard core riders.

This is not really a question of performance. Go to the topic “Flat or C-type: which one generally gives easier kiteloops? » and you will see that there are many riders that think you can even get more power during a kite loop with a bow.

Bruno

I'm relatively new to the sport, but just looking at the kites from a asthetics and functional point of view, bows/SLE's look better and make more sense in my opinion. It'll be pretty awesome when one day we can have high pressure leading edge kites which have more of a look of a boomarang for light air sailing.

I've only used a 12 switchblade, but already I've been impressed by it's light wind ability compared to a 14 nitro and even working when out 19.5 contra was. When you think this is just the first generation, imagine what they will be like when they reach the level of refinement of the 06 Ravens, Vegas etc!

Scott

bruno, it's funny you mention flatter kites as being advantageous.

of all the 'bow' style kites i've seen bills rapture 2 is by far and away the flattest of the current designs.

re working around patents: as you've done the ground work for the 'bow' kite and patented the design it's obvious that the arguement you use is that it's the better design. and extending this theory, that other designers who do not want to use the patent will try to design around it, and you believe they are at a loss for not following the full design.

but the counter to that theory is that the the 'bow' may not be the best flat kite design layout, and designers choosing to plough their own furrow don't want to be limited by the parameters of the 'bow' patent and with more flexibility in their available choice, they actually stand a better chance of improving the basic design.


of course time will tell.

no doubt it's great progress, and has allowed riders to ride more safely in a wider rnage of conditions.

Thanks for posting on the forum Bruno.

Would love to hear your position about one of the most discussed flaw in bow design, I mean the "inverting profile isue".

Did you experience this issue during your development phase, or was it uncovered only recently because of the market exposure?
Solution in sight? etc....

Comments welcomed...

Phil
Have Fun & ride Safe
(Bow/SLE supporter, riding SwitchBlade and loving that. The way forward for sure...)

That's a very thoughtful post sq.

I think the consumer is best served when kite designers do NOT just all copy one design. If this is all a designer can do (copy the original design), then it seems that a reasonable (if not best) option for the consumer is to buy the cheapest kite of that design model.

On the other hand when different designs compete for the kite market, the consumer has more options to choose what he feels is the best design for him. Basicallly, competing designs will bring out best of breed in flat projected, SLE, bow kites. At the moment, each design seems to have its plusses and minuses and I'm glad I have a choice.

best thread since long time !

ok, I thought sq's post was completely misleading. But perhaps I'm missing something...

Doesn't a company purchase a license agreement so as to avoid a patent infringement lawsuit? How does licensing a design restrict the manufacturer?

It seems to me that Bruno simply wants the manufacturers to pay him for his R+D work (as well he should, he certainly earned it). If a company came to him and said "we want to purchase a license agreement from you, but we don't want to follow your design exactly", would Bruno refuse the agreement because they weren't "following the restrictions of the patent".

It seems sq is blowing smoke. Purchasing a license simply gives the designer more choices, not less. No?