Flysurfer Speed 5

[Hardwater Kiter]

Nice little vid.

https://vimeo.com/152537650

[Regis-de-giens]

9m and 12m are officially released :

http://www.flysurfer.com/en/produkte/kites/speed5/

Rigid foils on the leading edge, higher Aspect Ratio, beautiful colors, and ... Lotus cloth is replaced by "DLX+" with +20 % on kite weight (unfortunately).

[foilholio]

what is up in lotus town?

No mini cell ribs

[plummet]

Speed 4 didn't last long did it? compared to speed 3!..

I think FS are scrambling to keep up with the speed of other players in the market.

But yes. It looks good. Higher aspect looks good. It probably competes directly with Chrono V2 now.

Its exciting times to be a foil flyer. So much development is being pumped into them at the moment.

[Hardwater Kiter]

Amen Plummet.

[Blackrat]

hopefully a whole bunch of speed 4's on the second hand now cmon guys upgrade

[Regis-de-giens]

I have a s4 lotus 10m that I like, and due to the huge increase of weight, i do not plan to swap to s5... chrono v1 was much lighter , so i bet chrono v2 keeps this significant advantages for hydrofoilers.

Now to keep objective on S5 " novelties" :
- rigid foils
- thinner bridles
- seems more arched (lower projected area) , however performance seems improved which put it closer to the sonic segment.

Indeed foil developement is exciting nowadays.

[joriws]

Speed 4 didn't last long did it? compared to speed 3!..

Speed3 about 4 years 2009-2013 (Speed4 std/dlx did not end the S3-era)
Speed4 (Lotus) 2 years 2013-2015..

Or does my memory serve me well?

[kitexpert]

Well, I don't know if foils are developing so much, if pure race kites are not included. And their "development" comes from simple fact: they have bigger AR and higher cell count than kites used to have.

Speed3 was already very good kite 6 years ago and since then FS is mainly tweaked details. One earlier invention and Flysurfer specialty, jet flaps, is ditched even though it has sound aerodynamical basis. I'm afraid there is cost factor there. And same thoughts for rigid foil LE's, they were tested for Speed4, but found out not beneficial enough then - now they are used, even with higher number of ribs. There is no aerodynamical reason why rigid foils are needed for Speed5 but were not for Speed4.

So, no new technology but picking up good combination of available options, both for performance and costs. Perhaps Speed6 will have miniribs? They were tested for Speed4, but not used then and not used now. Heavyer fabric for Speed5 is not going forward either, but better cell billow control is - if it isn't just hype for new kite. No doubt about it, Speed5 looks very clean wing .

Cell count (41 vs 39) is a bit higher like AR (6.1 vs 5.8 ), again small changes. Cell width/height is very close the same than earlier models.

Bridles and speedsystem have not changed essentially, what I could see from the video. Current 1:2:4 mixer was first used in P3, ten years ago. Bit early to comment more, FS hasn't published lineplan for Speed5 yet.

I'm not saying that Speed5 is not better kite than Speed4 and Speed4 is not better than Speed3. No, I'm sure newer models are better than old, but development is not radical. Speed series kites have been good for a long time. Good times for second hand Speed buyers , even better if FS didn't have it's known problems with bridles .

[sparkin_larkin]

As far as exciting times for foils? Yes! But it took the blazing speed of the race kite to draw the ignorant propagandized masses kicking and screaming to the humble but efficient and often ridiculed "foil". Need I say more?