Stephen Hoath wrote:Firstly I may not be entirely unbiased in this discussion as I am rather partial to the Revolution in all it's forms.
Not to mention being a member of The Flying Squad who are "
proud to be supported by Revolution Kites", as they themselves put it.
However, two things spring to mind. Firstly the Porsche 911 has been pretty much the same thing for years and years. They may use better materials etc now but basically it is the same.
Hmmmm..... OK as
you brought it up, let's run with that simile.
The 2008 and 1988 911 have virtually no components in common. Whilst the name has remained the same it has gone through 4 major redesigns, gained 4WD, a change to the cooling system..... and more. They may share a common layout and form but that's where the similarity ends. I'd say that was more accurately applicable to
dualline kites, no ?
I think I could whip up a more
apropos automotive simile for the Rev. based on the Caterham Seven if needed....
This is not because cars cannot be better it is just that it is really really good at what it does, there is still a big demand for what it does and so it continues to be what it is.
Not arguing that point at all. And like I said, Rev-flyers/quadliners do seem to be a conservative bunch who know what they like and stick with it. If I was Rev. (the company) I'd be pushing new sails and variants onto you people until you pop.
I don't think the patent has stifled development.
You've still got your "sponsored by Revolution" cap on perhaps
C'mon now.... not even a teensy bit ?
In the days of old we quite often quad lined our dual line kites, why has this not been developed?
'Cos it interferes with tricks. I have put a
TC Ultra (when I owned one... two) through a Backspin or two but it brought a whole new dimension to tipwrap horror. It's an interesting dead end. Like the Precision-only kite.
I think the reason we have not seen the multitude of variations is that there just hasn't been the need or demand.
I can think of at least two reasons for this:-
a) the Rev. is perfect (I've got to admit it's a possibility)
b) back to the conservative nature of the flyers.
Having said that, there are some fantastic kite builders and designers on this forum let's see what we can come up with.
Simple question for ya, as a pretty hardcore quadista:- what do
you want to do ? You see I think part of the problem, if it is a problem, is that quadline flyers aren't really quadline flyers, they're
Rev. flyers. They've already got all they want or can imagine wanting (part of the reason why I don't think the AirBow did as well as it might have done).
If someone does come along with something genuinely new but all it gets is "yeah.... but it's not a Rev." then there isn't a lot of point. You've seen Steffen's
Knockout I'm sure - it does non-Rev. things - interested or not ?
Mike.