andylc wrote: ↑Sat May 12, 2018 7:48 am
Although....having flown Speed and Soul I can’t imagine anyone choosing the former after they fly the Soul.
This is a very interesting point. Let me say first of all that I'm really looking forward to test the Soul but for the moment it didn't happen. In these cases, the brain (and the monkey) gives birth to the most unlikely and imaginative thoughts. About FS, I think that the "final plan" will lead to a 3 kites line:
1)The "easy" Soul for freeriders/foil newcomers
2)The intemediate fusion between the current Speed and Sonic, more performance oriented than the Speed but less racey than the Sonic
3)The no compromise Sonic FR
At the moment, we have a new (and I think better) Soul and two "old" products waiting to be replaced. So it's absolutely true that buying a Speed now it's incautious if you don't really like that specific model. Same for the Sonic, it's probably going to be replaced next year.
All that said, speaking about the current situation, it's quite clear that the Speed has only a marginal performance advantage over the Soul, an advantage that the standard customer of the Soul or Speed will rarely regret since also the Speed it's not the choice in the FS line when the kiter is looking for absolute performance. So, and Andylc points out, the Soul is likely going to replace the Speed.
The real comparison is probably between the Soul and the Sonic. It's clear that the the Sonic is more difficult to handle, more difficult to relaunch, etc. It's also clear that the Sonic seems far more performing than the Soul. Where is the division line between the two? How much more performances are required to choose the Sonic? Is the Sonic only for really advanced people or it still has a sense also for a "common" freerider looking for an high performance kite?