Hey I posted most of this stuff in another thread, but it's a little off-topic there so I thought i'd cut and paste it here as a review.
I was pretty skeptical about the low-end claims made for the speed kites, but I'm happy to report it is true that the speed 13 has a low-end that is comparable to about a 18-20 meter lei.
I'm glad I choose the 13 instead of the 17, The 13 works well in light winds with a big fast board, yet the kite turns fast, quite a bit faster than the speed 17 from what I've been told. I haven't tried the speed 17 myself.
So far the only thing I don't like is the safety leash attachment: its just a plastic snap buckle. On all my other flysurfer kites these things eventually fail, usually when trying to land the kite alone and overpowered. Eventually I'll do what I've done with my other FS kites and replace the plastic with a good metal snap shakle.
Here's the cut and paste stuff I posted in another thread:
PostPosted Fri Aug 26, 2005 9:27 am
I had my new speed 13 out this week along side a slingshot fuel 19 and a machine 20.5.
Wind was marginal. The local noaa wind sensor is down so no accurate measurement. All 3 riders about the same weight (around 85kg). I cheated by adding a pair of 7 meter extensions to the speed 13's stock 20 meter lineset.
I don't know why the speed only comes with 20 meter lines. If it's much better with the 20m in good wind then that's fine, but for what it costs Flysurfer should include a set of extension lines for light wind.
I rode my 150x46 Anomaly twintip, fuel 19 guy had a slingshot LFB directional, 20.5 machine guy had a 2005 slingshot sx twintip, the 137 I think.
My buddy on the fuel 19 with the lfb was very closely matched to me. We both had just barely enough power to work our way upwind, not quite enough power to really do any jumps.
My friend on the 20.5 machine was working hard just to hold ground, but if he had been riding one of my 150x46 twintips, he would have had enough power to decent jumps and transitions. I know this because I lent him my board when I had to leave.
For sure the feel for flying bridled foils and lei is slightly different. Same basic techniques but slightly different feel - hard to nail down exactly. I find it annoying trying to switch between the two.
Posted Fri Aug 26, 2005 10:07 am
The speed 13 feels like it turns fast enough on the stock settings. I noticed the soft steering setting is noticably faster, but in light wind the kite seems to loose power in the turns when set for full soft steering. I've only had two sessions on it so far and other one was in some really gusty wind - I did get a few very nice jumps with good hangtime then though.
I do hope to be doing kiteloops with the speed 13 but I need to fly the kite in some decent conditions to really make an assessment. The 2004 fuel 19 I know is not very good for kiteloops - a little too slow and it sits a little too far back in the window, but I can just barely loop that kite.
Posted Tue Aug 30, 2005 7:37 am
The speed 13 does kiteloops no problem on the factory set steering speed adjustment, even when it's a little bit underpowered. I think it turns about as fast as my psycho2 10M, maybe even faster. For sure it feels faster then the 2004 slingshot fuel 19, at least on the stock 20m lineset.
Trent Hink