North Kites confusion! On purpose???

[Billy B.]

Thanks for the links. Good info.

I am a North athlete and the snowkite team manager, and have never seen or heard this info. Good to know.

Billy

[Dan-at-Duotone]

Whoa. A few things.

First, Babel, attacking Ken Winner's work ethic is just plain ridiculous. Ken is probably the hardest working person in this entire industry. I have literally had the head designer for another brand complain to me that Ken works too hard and that he simply can't compete with that kind of work ethic. As to the specific complaint about that little patch... I have not heard a single dealer or customer complain about the lack of the patch, and I have not seen any signs of wear on anyone's kites (or my own completely thrashed demo quiver). I rarely do this for fear that I'll awaken some sleeping viper den, but here it goes... If anyone has any type of premature wear on your canopy due to chafe against the new inflate valve on the 2014 Rebel, please let me know. We've sold tens of thousands of Rebels and I have not seen a single complaint so far.
For the record, Ken was given the option to have the patch added to the kites and he chose not to for weight saving purposes as he did not think it was necessary. He may have chosen to add it to the 2015, but there's every chance that this decision was based not on improving the kite, but simply because there is a perception that it is needed. In fact, Babel, he may have made that decision because of the posts you've put up here about it. If that is the case, congratulations, you've made the 2015 Rebel a few grams heavier because of your inanities.

And just as another thought, every time I get a new bike (I have a lot of bikes) I go over the whole thing and cover any potential wear/chafe spots with clear helicopter tape. I wouldn't blame anyone for doing the same thing to their kite with patches of sail-repair tape, though again, in case I haven't stressed this enough, I don't think it's necessary in this particular spot.

Tony-
The only information I have so far on the new Neo is that it will have a little more top end, but we were pretty happy with the 2014 and feedback has been extremely positive so I don't think it will get a huge rework for 2015. As far as flying it on 4 vs 5 lines, I haven't had any feedback on that. Even the Dice, which is the first kite I've heard actually flies differently on our 4 vs 5 line bar, the difference isn't huge and I've actually had a really good rider tell me he prefers the kite on 5-lines. Do us all a favor and get (or just demo) the kite KO and fly it with your 5-line bar. If it flies well then save yourself the cost of the bar and fly it like that. If you think you lose some performance then you'll have to decide if it's worth the cost to pick up a bar as well. Either way, let us know what you find.

As Billy said, other kites like past Evos and Dynos and Fuses have had no noticeable difference between linesets as far as I could tell from feedback at demos and from dealers/customers.

If anyone has any questions on any of this stuff (or if you want to tell me I'm wrong on the whole canopy-wear-patch thing) feel free to drop me a PM.

-Dan

[Tony]

Dan,
Thanks for the response. Makes sense to give it a try first.
Tony

[Miltsface]

I think there would have been a little less confusion if the Evo name had been dropped and the "new Evo" had been branded under the Fuse name. This seems to make more sense to me in terms of style of use. The Dice essentially filled the niche for the style of riding the "old Evo" was used for, and the "new Evo" seems to be much closer to the Fuse than the "old Evo". I assume the kite name likely has to do with who the design team was, but I think it would have been clearer to go with the Fuse name.

That said, with a little bit of reading and/or demoing, its easy enough to understand what the kite does, so I don't really care what it says on the wingtip.

[Babel]

I have not heard a single dealer or customer complain about the lack of the patch.

He may have chosen to add it to the 2015, but there's every chance that this decision was based not on improving the kite, but simply because there is a perception that it is needed.

Really? Why did they start giving out patches to Rebel buyers in Europe if there was not one complaint. Interesting theory.
BTW: Wasent referring to the time anyone spends in the office but to what you tell customers and how you act. Office: Reducing the cam battens on the 2014 for the new 2015 must take a lot of time...

Well, how cool is that! 2016 you can take the patch away and claim its for weight reduction!


@ Billy: Righto!

[NorCalNomad]

Babel you kinda sound now like you just want something to complain about.

[14ToeSide]

Must not be any wind where he is!!

[Westozzy]

So what ya riding now babel or have you already said this?

[edt]

thanks for all the comments dan at north.

I agree with the original poster I was so confused with all the north changes from 2012-2013-2014 though I guess the lineup has settled down a bit?

I think we are used to North keeping their kites the same for a half decade so while we expect a bunch of confusion in the lineup from Naish or Cabrinha kite at North it was a bit shocking.

So I guess the Evo is not at all like the old Evo, but it kept the same name.

Now I heard from a local kiter who is a north rider that the new vegas is not like the old vegas and he thought that was because of Aaron Hadlow. I told him that didn't make sense because I know hadlow loves that 6 line set up he had with flexifoil hadlow pro with the huge midsection on the kite and blocky ends, which looks nothing like the new Vegas.

Anyway is the 2015 vegas like the rebel, pretty much the same with just a few tweaks or is it more like the evo with a complete redesign?

This is mostly for curiosity sake, I ride Envys and Fuels mostly.

[Westozzy]

From reports the new Vegas is a serious competition level hard core C kite. The general freeride aspect of the Vegas is not there. That's because you can use the dice for this. Make sense?