Benefits and drawbacks with these two kites? Anone who have tried them both who can give me an honest comparison of these two models? I´m thinking of things such as steering, hang time, kiteloop performance, water relaunch, etc...

Smooth winds the fuel rocks, otherwise the RPM is the go, have a mixed quiver mainly RPM's but always have a 9 fuel in my quiver, sweetest kite ever, but will punish you in the gusts.
The RPM is a Fuel with manners but the excitometer is turned down a little.
The relaunch on the rpm is great, the fuel is ok - if you have used c kites before you will be impressed by the fuel.
The Fuel is the best flying kite I have tried and others always leave me wanting, once you are in sync with it there are no performance deficiencies.
luv
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Here's a recent thread on the same topic...
http://www.kiteforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2375529&p=746992&hilit=fuel+rpm#p746992

Here's one on the RPM alone...
http://www.kiteforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2374652&p=740045&hilit=fuel+rpm#p740045

Hope they help you out.

On a side note ... any one explain the front line settings on the fuel (surf, freeride, wave) and how they affect the kite's power, turning and wind range? Tried to find a manual but no luck

they have same open canopy shape.

rpm = fuel + bridles

Two settings on Fuel called wake and freestyle.

Wake setting means more grunt, more low-end power, slower turning, less depower, more pull during turns, more bar pressure.

Freestyle setting means the opposite

It is the same on every kite though. The closer you attach the front lines to the wing, tip the deeper the the kite sits in the wind window (wake setting) with all the consequences of it.

Both are excellent SS products.

Many things to consider when selecting one or another.

Size:
If you look for a light wind kite between both get the 14m RPM. The 13m Fuel is what you would ride if you were 220lbs when everyone else is on 12/11m.

If you want a high wind kite then it all comes to your ability to handle the gusts. If the wind you have is gusty I would go with the RPM.

Riding Style:
If you want to perform unhooked tricks then the fuel is a no brainer. The RPM is nice too by with the Fuel you don't have to trim at all which is a convenience.

Loops: I found both somewhat similar with the fuel getting deeper into the power zone.

Speed: Both Kites are relatively slow when into wakestyle setting. I didn't like the RPM into freestyle setting (not a lot of low end power).

Quiver: If you plan to have just 2 kites I would go with the RPM since it has more range (8M and 14m)

I personally have a quiver of Fuels and sometimes use a 12m and 6m RPM. I love my fuels and they are my first choice.

I've tested Fuel 2011 7m² and RPM 2012 9m².

Fuel has incredible slack after you get in the air — really nice for handlepasses. Relaunch is quite difficult comparing to RPM.

Fuels are one of the fastest relaunching C kites. Enough to challenge any "bow" kite

Can't understand, why people always compare Fuel to other C-kites when talking about relaunch.

Question is "Fuel vs RPM", and answer is "relaunch on Fuel sucks". Maybe its better than some other C-kites, but who cares?

All I know is that if you do not have Fuel, you will not be making any RPMs....