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Revolution History


johnnmitchell

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What do you know historically about the Revolution Kites?

My first encounter with a Revolution kite was at the shop "Luftpirat" in Hamburg Germany in 1989 or 1990. It was a Neos Omega and the price I still remember was 850.00 German Marks(roughly $400.00). I said then I would never buy one. They are way too expensive. About a year later I did buy a REV I at a kite store in Riverside, CA. I took it out for it's first flight at a public park somewhere in Orange County. Within the first hour it was damaged. A dog was so excited it ran smack into it and ripped the sail open on the left side. The dog ran off scared and it's owner was no where to be found.

Attached is a picture of the sail taken years later. You can see where it was patched on the left side. The patches on the right side are from other things which I no longer recall what they were.

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well my first contact with stunt kites was on April last year in Valencia (Spain) I saw the 2 lines and loved it then the guys there bought out of there bags some very strange kites (completely different from what they were flying) and they had 4 lines..... way to strange....

Whe they got them um in the air I just went :o :o :o :o and felt I had to learn that... so I got up and talked to them found out they were called Revolution Kites...

3 days later I was buying an EXP from Cometalia (Spanish store) and on that friday I got my first flight experience... well it wasn't pretty :P... but I went back and back and back and with there help I ot the basics and keep learnig how to fly this mazing kites...

Thanks Revolution...

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I first saw stunt kites I was at WSIKF two years ago. First ii saw the duel lines and said to my brother, "I bet I can learn how to fly one of those". He then says "no you can't). To this day, he denies ever saying that. The first Rev I saw was flown by iQuad! (I don't know witch member). Next to them were some other people flying revs and giving lessons. I stepped in grabbed the handle and nose dived. I stood back and watched these people fly. I sat there and watched how they moved their hands to control the kite. A little while later I stepped back into the field. This time it was Stephen (St. Even) who gave me the handles. I picked up the kite and didn't crash...... hard. I actually flew quite well. He was supprised that it was the first day I had never even seen one of these things before. I wanted to buy one so bad, but just didn't have the money (I was only 13). I wasn't able to own one until the next year until Lolly and Ben gave a used one to me after I left the festival for the second time. Now I will try to come to WSIKF every year for as long as I can.

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Today I ran across this almost mint REV I from about 1992-93. This would probably be about the third generation as the metal/rubber/clip end caps had changed to plastic. It still had the old bridle with different lengths of line for upper and lower. The control lines still had metal clips on both ends for attaching to the bridle and the handles.

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Today I ran across this almost mint REV I from about 1992-93. This would probably be about the third generation as the metal/rubber/clip end caps had changed to plastic. It still had the old bridle with different lengths of line for upper and lower. The control lines still had metal clips on both ends for attaching to the bridle and the handles.

John I have that same kite never flown still in the package got it off EBAY last year for $90 ( SCORE ) mine has the metal end caps with dust covers and bridle attach points like on the end of the handles. Big barrel swivels where the clips attach to its a cool kite I like it.

sorry for the bad cam phone pics.

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I also have a similar Rev 1 (covered aluminium end caps), unfortunatly it is not in mint condition due to a rip in the LE mesh. Still flies well though. I have "modernised" it by taking off the swivels, re tying the lines to make them equal and putting a pigtail on the top bridal attatchment.

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Hello Family and do I have some photos for you. The first are pictures of the prototype that Joe spoke of and check out the wooden end caps and the wooden inserts that went in the aluminum arrow shafts that were used on the prototype.

Next is the Pontiac kite flown at the Daytona 500 race and the best we can figure the kites were flown by Chicago Fire....

Then the trainer that was given to the stores way back when........

So Family it's late and I just wanted to share this bit of Rev history and as I get more info and pictures I'll pass them on........Ben B)

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Did it have a particularly stiff LE? I can't imagine it would work very well with a 12 foot two-wrap edge (but this is, as you know, a total newbie speaking) - wouldn't the flex of the LE be too much?

Have to say though, the 'stretched-out-normal-Rev' proportions look fantastic! :)

Fraser

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Did it have a particularly stiff LE? I can't imagine it would work very well with a 12 foot two-wrap edge (but this is, as you know, a total newbie speaking) - wouldn't the flex of the LE be too much?

Have to say though, the 'stretched-out-normal-Rev' proportions look fantastic! :)

Fraser

If you look closely it does seem to have an SLE in it I wonder if those were made specific at the time because from what I understand Rev makes their own Advantage Rods.

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Did it have a particularly stiff LE? I can't imagine it would work very well with a 12 foot two-wrap edge (but this is, as you know, a total newbie speaking) - wouldn't the flex of the LE be too much?

Have to say though, the 'stretched-out-normal-Rev' proportions look fantastic! :)

Fraser

As Ben said, it was a prototype of the first Revolution on the market. This would be around 1987-88.

Joe told me some years before, that they had experimented with quite a number of different materials for spars. They finally ended up making carbon spars themselves, which they still do today.

With the long LE of this prototype, it obviously flexed probably a bit too much. That would be a reasonable reason for the shorter leading edge of the Neos Omega, later REV I that came on the market in January 1989.

They obviously achieved at that time, a robustness that no other manufacture had attained with stunt kites. I would not doubt that they can still lay claim to this today.

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If you look closely it does seem to have an SLE in it I wonder if those were made specific at the time because from what I understand Rev makes their own Advantage Rods.

Definitely not SLE rods. SLE rods came out in 1997, about 8 or 9 years later.

Revolution labels their rods for other kite markets as Advantage. This is also true to some of their quad kites such as some, if not all, of their REV Indoor (NoWind).

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Definitely not SLE rods. SLE rods came out in 1997, about 8 or 9 years later.

Revolution labels their rods for other kite markets as Advantage. This is also true to some of their quad kites such as some, if not all, of their REV Indoor (NoWind).

But they are similar correct they look very close, but as you said maybe they made them up so that could also be the prototype SLE they just didn't know it yet.

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