first differance is the kite has two bar settings and i dont mean 4/5 line option it has two settings on the wing tips for a soft and hard bar feel.so those who didnt like the north bar because it was to heavy you can change the feel in the bar .i had to go back to the heavy setting as i have had several north kites ,this one feels nice and steady and has plenty of speed and power if you can try one do it its a nice kite .flew it on the 4line bar will try it as a 5 line next time time as it has differant connections on front lines of the kite not really good wind 20knt at times

Rhino, have you flown the 2011 reb? a direct comparison would be great....

cheers, T

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T one said...

Rhino, have you flown the 2011 reb? a direct comparison would be great....

cheers, T

yes, but it was in to differant wind conditions i have a 12 reb and flew my mates 9mtr reb if you like the reb you will love this fuse ..wind should be blowing by mon/ tues

Hi have flown both 10 mtr rebel and 10mtr fuse back to back same day,on skim board and twin tip so can give my opinion , fuse had less bar pressure but needed more input , the fuse went slightly more upwind and had slightly more power but wasnt quite as nimble in the air .The main difference was the fuse flew on the front lines more than the Rebel so needed more heelside edge (front line pressure ) to turn .Over all i liked both but if you like 4 lines the fuse is made for you .
Hope this is interesting
George

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Adventure Sports Noosa said...

Hi have flown both 10 mtr rebel and 10mtr fuse back to back same day,on skim board and twin tip so can give my opinion , fuse had less bar pressure but needed more input , the fuse went slightly more upwind and had slightly more power but wasnt quite as nimble in the air .The main difference was the fuse flew on the front lines more than the Rebel so needed more heelside edge (front line pressure ) to turn .Over all i liked both but if you like 4 lines the fuse is made for you .
Hope this is interesting
George

were and what wind

Noosa flat water started out with light wind 9/12 knots ended up with 20/25 and i rode them for 6hrs all up then it rained & rained & rained . But still it was fun
George

loved it in todays wind at brighton if you like the rebel you will love this one as well

love my rebs, but looking for something that wont bow-tie when i fark up in the surf... thanks for the feedback!

Hi Guys,

I demo'd the 9m Fuse yesterday and a few days prior and am trying to get a feel for it. Conditions on first day were pretty pus. Light and gusty wind with strong sweep and then slightly stronger wind at end of session. Yesterday was 13 knots up to about 17 knots. I was riding the WAM as a quad and strapless in small crap surf at Brighton and Contacio's. This is a Pre-review and is not finished, so I'm giving it warts and all as usual.

First thing I noticed was how similar it looked to the Rebel, even has the 5th line tucked in a little pocket should you wish to fly the Fuse on the 5th Element Bar.

Construction, material and bag etc all looked identical to Rebel. The Fuse has bridles with sliders in place of pulleys from memory and loses the direct and precise feel the Rebel has although it isn't hard to fly, you still basically know what it is doing, but not as precise as Rebel.

It needed more bar input to stop it falling on the edges of the window which I don't recall from Rebel. Turns as fast as the Rebel and has excellent upwind (noticeable), power seemed pretty good for a 9m.

I didn't check boost as I was strapless so no comment in this area. It did feel a bit stally, although this was mostly a "feel". I trimmed in a couple of inches to increase speed across the window and to relieve the stall feeling which seemed to work or maybe I was conscious of it and unconsciously compensating.

Down the line it is OK, not as good as the Rebel for directness and does need lots of bar out to stop from stalling. Again, this could be due to light wind conditions so I would like to try again in good wind and also on a twinny lit up where I don't think it would be an issue at all.

I cam unhooked one time and grabbed the bar with chicken loop at full power and it stalled in the misddle of the windwindow. I was able to grab the Chicken loop and save it but this was at full power on the trim.

My thoughts? I really like it but would need to try again with back lines set just a couple inches longer on the bar and at higher wind speeds.

People not wanting 5 lines will likely find happiness on it but I want to re-review again after a bit more testing. Nice kite otherwise.

Cheers,

DM

Will give more detail later (when I get a chance).

I have ridden both the rebel and have owned 12, 10 and 7m fuses since April. I prefer the fuse in both choppy freestyle and waves, over the rebel. I have ridden 4 line kites for the last five years and love these kites. I tend to find the rebel a little jerky in the power delivery, some call it "direct feel" :-), probably why I prefer 4 lines. Don't get me wrong, the rebel is still a top kite.

The only back-stalling I have found is that they tend to come "out of the bag" setup to back stall a bit (particularly the 7m in lighter wind - for smaller folks), if you have full power. Simply fix the tuning by about 100mm and you will never have a problem.

It's not always possible, but I prefer to test a kite in gusty horrible conditions rather than light wind, that way you can find the problems. Last week I had the 7m out (I weigh 95kg) in strapless/waves and tested it back to back with my GK sonic and the fuse won hands down, for;
Smoother power delivery
Better at handling gusts
and just a nicer better behaved kite.

I love these kites, and apart from the price I don't no why the beaches aren't full of fuses.

Cheers hope this helps.
ps. I don't think there great differences in the 2011 fuse coming out in March.

Had a crack on the 9m 2011 Fuse the other day.
About 14-18knt on 134 twin tip.

Out of the bag it is a bit over tuned so I would suggest backing the rear lines off a knot.

Power was good and I was holding line with 12m kites out at the time.
Main points for me were-
-Smooth power with very good bottom end
-Excellent upwind like last year
-A more dynamic kite than the 2010
-Amazing float even on the 9m, the Fuse has proven to have superior hangtime and beats the Rebel
-This year the Fuse unhooks well and gives pretty good pop for freestyle riding
-Turning tends toward pivotal and dumps a bit of power in the loop if you don't ease off the steering a bit.

Jas

Hi GUys,

I had the chance to "fiddle" with the 9 Fuse again the other day on a twin tip and in stronger winds.

I slid the foam floats up out the way and added another knot on the end of the bar leader line and then larks headed the line leader to the end of the bar leader (extended the back lines by about 3 inches).

This made a huge difference as the kite no longer back stalled at all. Speead and boosts were great, good hang, better power delivery.

Out of the bag, they are way too stall prone and NEED to have the back lines adjusted to the end of the leader. A stalling kite produces slow speed and less power. The adjustment made a completely new kite out of the Fuse.

2010 Fuse and 2011 Fuse are quite different, 2010 was punchy and rough with the power, too much grunt and jerky on the bar, new one is very smooth and very predictable, a well balanced and polished kite in every sense.

I really like it as much as Rebel, but it "feels different". Awesome!

Cheers,

DM

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AKSonline said...

2010 was punchy and rough with the power, too much grunt and jerky on the bar, new one is very smooth and very predictable, a well balanced and polished kite in every sense.

Not trying to be argumentative, but I have flown the 2010 fuses since april and really, they would be the smoothest power delivery and nicest bar feel of any kite I have ridden (rev's, chronos, sonics etc).

Maybe your 2010 kites may have been tuned a little "stally", which will cause the jerky effect.

Can't wait to give the 2011 a go.

Cheers
ps. just for the record, I don't own a shop, don't sell kites, just ride what I like.

Its amazing that North team wasnt able to produce the right kite during many months of testing, having huge budget to do so etc.......but a single person can just fiddle a little bit with the kite, do some" necesarry " changes and change the ugly North duckling into a swan.........its really amazing !!!!

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cezary said...

Its amazing that North team wasnt able to produce the right kite during many months of testing, having huge budget to do so etc.......but a single person can just fiddle a little bit with the kite, do some" necesarry " changes and change the ugly North duckling into a swan.........its really amazing !!!!

Hi cezary,

The kite is the goods, perhaps a misread note or number at the factory from the design notes, or a small stuff up somewhere along the long line of R & D can lead to small issues like this. I lengthen the back lines of most Core kites too from brand new to allow for a little front line stretch which makes them a little more stally after a few weeks of riding, makes them fly heaps better and less stall prone after the customer has left my care.

It's a simple mod anyone can do that understands a bit about kites. Sometimes it isn't something most people would even pick up on, I just tend to be hyper sensitive to kites with less than perfect characteristics and with a small tweak, can rectify it. It's not a cataclysmic issue that will see the kite be a lemon or a winner, it's just a better kite with the extra back line length.

Many people wont notice, some will, but will compensate for the problem by trimming the kite or just not sheeting in as much. It was most noticeable in the lighter winds when the bar was all the way in for full power. If you had flown it fully powered you wouldn't have noticed it at all.

Cheers,

DM

i have the 2010 fuse in 12m and its really nice, very smooth power etc
only complaint i have about the kite, is that it takes a real decent amount of bar imput to get it to turn and it seems to hunt the bottom of the window abit.
i dont "tweak" kites at all...how i buy i fly. Would there be anything i could tweak to try and make it more responsive though?
Someone said i should maybe remove the bungies?

and if someone could give me a quick definition of what it means to stall the kite that would be cool! :)

Hi guys,

Just found time to put fingers to keyboard after a bit of an absence. Thought I would update the Fuse 9m Review.

We had a demo day last weekend on SUnday and probably the most popular kite on the day was the Fuse. The difference was the Fuse felt right at home in the hands of beginners and experts alike, whereas kites like the Edge were enjoyed by intermediate and above kiters.

The Fuse flew perfectly and was so impressive to most riders that we sold a number of them the very next day at the shop.

The Fuse started slow here until people got onto them and now we are placing additional orders for more stock. They have surprised me from last years Fuse which was a bit of a dud (great kite, but failed to impress the buyers enough to open the wallet). This years Fuse is a damn nice kite which excels in surf and freeride.

Sweet!

DM

Heaps of crew over here are stoked with the new 2011 Fuse as well Daren.

Ive been riding the 7m Fuse a fair bit in anything close to or over 20knts and the 10m on the lighter days.

Nice kites.

Luke

Hows the bar pressure on the 2011 compared to the 2010, found the 2010 pretty heavy and it seemed to me to need a lot of input to turn the beast.

Hi Toppleover,

Bar pressure is light, bordering on medium. Responsiveness is not as hair trigger as Rebel but it turns with little effort, and turns fast.

You need to try one if you are unsure. Rebel and Fuse are very similar, however, when tested back to back, some riders prefered the Rebel and some the Fuse. There is no one perfect kite for every rider.

Never buy a kite on the strength of reviews on this forum, or any forum for that matter, but use it as a guide to refine down the number of kites you should demo.

DM

Cheers DM, had a quick go on a 7m today....nice kite, not too much bar pressure & fast turning "but hey it,s a 7", I will try to get a demo on a 10 soon.

Top

Demoed a 9m 2011 Fuse on a down winder today was around 18-22 knots and have to say the kite flew beautifully on all out of the box settings. Didn't notice any stalling what so ever and boy do these kites like to jump. Relaunch as good as any kite i have flown to date and bar pressure is just right (lighter than expected). Not as fast turning as a Park but no slouch either, safety system worked as described. Once flagged to safety (both front lines) pretty much all power was killed and the kite was very stable in this position with no nasty surprises.

Looking forward to getting my 7 & 10m Fuses.

Thanks to Ocean Addicts for the demo.