20M SS Machine - Independent Review 1st session
Posted: Fri May 27, 2005 5:46 am
I bought the SS Machine with my own money, so I am going to give you my honest opinion. I weigh 180 LBS and I have been kiting on water and snow for 5 years. I am not affiliated with any kite companies. I have experience with a lot of light wind kites as the wind where I live is usually light, especially on the snow.
The kite appears to be well built, it has thin, flexible battens placed strategically all over the kite. This necessitates a long, thin bag, this is not a problem for me as I drive a truck, but it may not fit in the trunk of a smaller car. The kite only has 3 inflatable spars with the one pump feature, it was a snap to inflate. The one line bar appeared to be complicated, but it was actually fairly simple to figure out.
The session today was light. I actually pumped up my Naish 30M V4 and I was ready to go when my friend showed up with the Machine. We had a fixed wind meter sitting on the beach. The wind was between 6 - 13 mph with an average of 10 mph. I was riding on a Jimmy Lewis 135 custom board. I was able to stay even to the shore with plenty of jumps in the gusts. I was surprised because in wind that light I always end up going downwind on other 20 meter kites (Gaastra Stealth, Naish Torch, Naish X2). I only came off a plane a couple times, which is really amazing consdiering how light the wind was today. Usually in conditions that light I would never bother using a 20M because I would be riding only 50% of the time. Today, I rode 995 of the time. The water was glassy with small ripples when gusts came through. The machine sits a little further back in the window when you have it sheeted in allowing more low-end grunt.
Bar pressure was lighter than the aforementioned kites. I found it similar to a Wingwing Rapture 18 or a FlySurfer PsychoII 21M.
The kite turns well and like most 20M kites I always knew exactly where it was in the air. The kite jumps much like my Gaastra Stealth, nice pop with good glide.
I dropped the kite to test the relaunchability. It was super easy, just pull in the 5th line and the kite flips onto its back.
I took the V4 30M out as a comparison. The V4 does offer more low end grunt, but it did not have much of an advantage over the 20M Machine. Makes me think that I could retire my 30M for a 25M machine.
Unfortunately, the wind stayed light, so I can't speak about the upper range yet, nor the functionability of the one line bar.
I will report back after a higher wind session.
Kenny
The kite appears to be well built, it has thin, flexible battens placed strategically all over the kite. This necessitates a long, thin bag, this is not a problem for me as I drive a truck, but it may not fit in the trunk of a smaller car. The kite only has 3 inflatable spars with the one pump feature, it was a snap to inflate. The one line bar appeared to be complicated, but it was actually fairly simple to figure out.
The session today was light. I actually pumped up my Naish 30M V4 and I was ready to go when my friend showed up with the Machine. We had a fixed wind meter sitting on the beach. The wind was between 6 - 13 mph with an average of 10 mph. I was riding on a Jimmy Lewis 135 custom board. I was able to stay even to the shore with plenty of jumps in the gusts. I was surprised because in wind that light I always end up going downwind on other 20 meter kites (Gaastra Stealth, Naish Torch, Naish X2). I only came off a plane a couple times, which is really amazing consdiering how light the wind was today. Usually in conditions that light I would never bother using a 20M because I would be riding only 50% of the time. Today, I rode 995 of the time. The water was glassy with small ripples when gusts came through. The machine sits a little further back in the window when you have it sheeted in allowing more low-end grunt.
Bar pressure was lighter than the aforementioned kites. I found it similar to a Wingwing Rapture 18 or a FlySurfer PsychoII 21M.
The kite turns well and like most 20M kites I always knew exactly where it was in the air. The kite jumps much like my Gaastra Stealth, nice pop with good glide.
I dropped the kite to test the relaunchability. It was super easy, just pull in the 5th line and the kite flips onto its back.
I took the V4 30M out as a comparison. The V4 does offer more low end grunt, but it did not have much of an advantage over the 20M Machine. Makes me think that I could retire my 30M for a 25M machine.
Unfortunately, the wind stayed light, so I can't speak about the upper range yet, nor the functionability of the one line bar.
I will report back after a higher wind session.
Kenny