The Fuel seems to be the standard by which all other C kites are judged, year in and year out.
Then why are so few designed around the Fuel four line standard?
So many are 5 line now.
Then the question of bridles for the remainder.
It looks like there are some really good C kite choices if you will fly a 5 line kite or if you will fly bridled.
Of the kites listed below, I see the Fuel as a stand alone..
...and the Epic Judge as the closest thing to a four line C kite.
How come everything else is different?

Airush Razor= 5 line
Best GP= 5 line
Blade Prime= bridled
Cabrinha Chaos= bridled
Core GTS= bridled
Epic Judge= 4 line (barely bridled)
Flexifoil Hadlow= 4/5/6 line (bridled?)
Liquid Force Nirvana= 5 line
Mutiny P= 5 line
Naish Torch= 5 line
Nobile 50/50= bridled
North Vegas= 5 line
Ocean Rodeo Cypher= bridled
Ozone C4= bridled
RRD Obsession Pro= 5 line
Slingshot Fuel= 4 line
Slingshot RPM= bridled
Switch Combat= 5 line

Obsession pro is 5 lined and has a very tiny bridle with a pulley.

Can you set hadlow pro in a way you have 6 line set up with that tiny bridle



ok, just teasing

A rpm is not a c shaped kite, In fact it has one of the most open shapes around.

I expect that some off the kites have the 5th for ease off relauching.

Eks:
Fuel some year back before they started to make a hot lauchable Fuel and at this point SS go ridd off the 5th.
Best GP from the looks off is it does not need the 5th line and it is hot lauchable.... so why the 5th line?

but the Torch and the hadlow really need the 5th or bridals to fly good as the LE is so thin.

Kite makers dont sell a ton of C kites, so the kite designers are really making the kites for the PKRA, and kiters like Kevin Langeree or Andy Yates want the 5th line. Yates for instance rides his slingshot Fuel with the 5th line. Reubin with slingshot uses 4 lines. I think Hadlow runs the hadlow flexifoil pro c kite with 4 lines tho you can use a 5th line. I don't pretend to understand why some (most?) pros want 5 lines on their C kites, because I have seen Langeree lose a heat from a 5th line tangle before, but it must be important to them.

Well maybe it's not the case that the fuel is the standard by which all other C kites are judged
That might very well be rumor.
And how do you know that other C-kites are not designed around the fuel... in spite of the 5th line?

I bet most 9 to 5'ers running a c-kite are using a 5th line on it... whether it's designed for one or not.

I think more often than not, they are. So it must be a very popular rumor.
Magazine reviews of C kites make comparisons to the Fuel.
Forum discussions about C kites, bring up the Fuel as the kite that provides powerful loops, proper slack, and as an example of a kite that stays where you put it while tricking. And that it relaunches.
All the other kites except one on this list (Judge), have used a fifth line for stability of the center of the canopy (essentially a bridle) or have SLE ladder bridled them, so they can make a thinner leading edge to make the kite turn quickly and for better sheeting range and of course for relaunch purposes.
The Epic Judge has a two foot dyneema loop and two front attachment points about a foot apart for relaunch and has no fifth or bridle for support.
It also has the option to skip that front line feature and go single point, so it seems to have landed in a spot pretty close to a Fuel, from a design standpoint.
My question is, ...why has every other company come to a different conclusion in their design and prototyping process?
When I started kiting and all inflatable kites were C kites, they had four lines.
The fifth line (sheetable) was a feature that appeared later, on my Slingshot Machine and Octane C kites and it helped with upwind and top end range.
Now the wider wingtip (and some things beyond me) changed the whole C kite game, but simple four line non bridled seems to still be hard to accomplish.
I wondered if anybody who had more knowledge on the subject than me, could shed some light.
Thanks for your input edt and KE

A few magazine reviews and popular rumor doesn't make it so. But it is a darn good kite though.
I've got an 07 and it's so warn I can fold it into a match box almost. Still pumps up hard as rock and stays that way (almost).

But I see where you're coming from... that is... why don't we have more choices than just the fuel when it comes to pure 4 line c-kite.

I would take a guess and say the market isn't there for one pure 4 line c-kite because most consumers would not ride it that way ... they would put a 5th line on it for safety since it doesn't have massive depower... and if they believe that then why go to the trouble of designing and building all the support into the LE of a kite in order for it to fly well on 4 lines... probably cheaper and easier to put a mandatory 5th line. Total guess of course.

Also there is very little market for c-kites anyway so why would any kite manufacturer go ahead and design /build a pure 4 line c-kite to service a very small market and then turn around and go head to head with the fuel?

Be economical suicide wouldn't it?

Haha... more questions than answers....

My 2cents.

I'm not suggesting the Fuel is the best C kite for everyone, or even for most.
On the contrary, it seems that many who try the Ozone C4 like it a lot, for reasons that are easy to see.
It is bridled, underpowered and very forgiving, but has some of that C kite feel that people seem to respond to.
The RPM is very popular, it is bridled all to hell, is an "open C" shape, is not very grunty on the bottom end either and is more forgiving than a Fuel, but feels very different from a standard delta or bow.
I do see more kiters (old and young) and magazine reviewers (Kiteworld Mag) responding positively to what is offered as a "C kite" now.
Many of your typical freeride kite models have gotten more C shaped, the F-One Bandit, Epic Screamer Ltd, Ocean Rodeo Razor and Airush Varial X, being a few examples.
I tested an Epic Judge 8M C kite recently and the contrast was clear to the Ozone C4.
The Judge was more direct, very powerful, very exciting and closer in feel to C kites of old, with the advantage of good sheeting range and great relaunch.
This is why I ask about modern C kite design......what aspects of the Judge design made it feel so right?
The direct connections and lack of bridling seems to be a big factor, the medium/lower aspect and lack of flatness seems to be a factor, big wingtips too maybe?
I've talked to a few kiters who fly the Airush Razor and North Vegas, and their comments are that you cannot get a true C kite feel with a bridle. They said a fifth line no problem, but add a bridle and no bueno.
Not sure if bridled C kite flyers agree or disagree (or care).
I'm guessing more LEI kites (freeride, freestyle, and wave) are going to get more C shaped in the next few model years.
Obviously, the lines between kite types continue to blur.

I've been riding the Vegas for about 3 years now. It was my second kite after learning on a Rebel.

I recently flew the Judge, I've got to be honest I came off the water thinking "why would anyone want to fly a kite like that?", the other guy who tried it said exactly the same thing and he'd just come in off some old 4 line Naish C kite. I thought it had very little in the way of finesse, it just pulled, like a tank! Each time it caught a gust it just pulled some more, uncomfortably so. I'm not saying it's a bad kite, I'm sure it's not but why make life hard for yourself? I know that some of the top guys in the world are going to get a lot out of that kind of kite but for 99.9% of the kiters they are not, it will in all likelihood hold them back.

A bridled "C" kite (if you can call it that) is going to offer the rider a much greater chance of actually progressing at a reasonable, and safe rate and that's why they are more common than the Fuel or Judge. My Vegas provides plenty of options when it comes to setting depower/turning speed/slack line yet I'm happy to lend it to someone who's just starting to jump. Where we are it's rare to see anyone flying a Fuel who can use even 10% of the kites potential, in fact the majority of them spend their time trying to relaunch it, whilst I'm practicing my handle passes (with not much luck).

The C kite is still relevant to a handful of people but to the vast majority who buy them it's a macho "I'm flying a C kite" thing they've bought into through videos and magazines. Truth be known, they'd be much better off on a Vegas.