The Miró is the big brother of the Mondrian, not a rescale of that kite but certainly speaking the same design language and with many of the same build features. At 2.6m the only current kite that compares would be the Transfer XT.s. It’s a big kite that’s aimed at pairs/team flying.

The main build difference is that it ditches the yoyo stoppers for a yoyo line (à la Fury) and adds a fourth bridle leg connecting the tow point to the centre of the LE. Both of these are adjustable via knots in addition to all other bridle legs so if you enjoy bridle fiddling this kite is going to be heaven for you. If you don’t…. then just don’t bother. With built in leaders as well the kite carries a lot of bridle that can be a pain when putting the kite away or taking it out.

Framing is necessarily beefed up with P400 LEs and the oh-so-sexy Nitro’s for LS’s. A chunky frame means that the minimum wind speed is quoted as 10km/h (6mph), although this is conservative. At that wind speed the kite is flyable without legwork, if you’re prepared to break a sweat then a little less is usable.

Again the sail is reinforced heavily where it needs to be. And again the fine details are a pleasure.

My flight time so far has been restricted but it comes across as quite a different beast to the Mondrian. If you enjoy a yank-’n'-spank approach or are used to kites that go out of their way to make you look good and hand out the moves, you may be in for a shock or a lesson. The kite needs a deliberate approach to make stuff happen – setup, action, recovery. Miss any step out or go at it half-arsed and you’ll be disappointed. Big inputs needed too with plenty of arm and no little footwork. On the few occasions that I did manage to string it together properly I got absolutely textbook moves as my reward. When I didn’t (ie; most of the time) then not so much.

The Miró flies and tricks pretty slowly at all times. Whilst OK on 30m lines it enjoyed 35m+ even more, given more room to breathe. Pull isn’t massive but even in moderate winds I might be reaching for some heavier lines and brakes (and not be flying on a frozen lake either).

I’d definitely call this a kite aimed at those who already know what they’re doing. I enjoyed the heck out of it when my flying was at the level it demanded, the size and slow pace of the kite really emphasised what was going on but when I wasn’t quite there it became a bit frustrating. It’s not difficult to fly but it is a challenge to fly well, both physically and mentally.

Once I get home I’ll put more time on it and have a crack at the bridle. If I owned one I’m not sure just how often I’d reach for it at the start of a session but it might be the one I switch to if my brain’s in gear that day.

I’ve been trying very hard to love the Miró. It hasn’t quite worked out. I suppose there were faults on both sides….

I think part of the problem is that it is highly adjustable. You’re not presented with a completed, here’s-the-kite-now-go-learn-how-to-fly-it piece of kit but (pun alert) more of a blank canvas for you to create your perfect kite experience. The kite’s never bad by any means but after a bit of fiddling I came across a really sweet setup – it all gelled together and life was good.  But then the wind changed a smidge and…. it all went away again. So it was back to knot sliding to try to find The Door Into Summer* and it being about as elusive.

When the kite is together it’s bloody marvellous . You need to adopt a very full movements to avoid Not-Quite-There Axels and 450° Flat Spins but if you concentrate and fly it like it needs to be flown you’re rewarded with textbook flight. It really is great. A big kite moving steadily (it’s never a fast kite) through a trick properly makes for a happy flyer.

Then it isn’t. And it’s so frustrating. Not that it becomes unflyable just… where has the wonderfulness gone to and can I have it back, please ?

• It’s never an especially impressive Precision kite whatever I did with it.
• I preferred it almost always with the heavier (17g.) tail weight.
• 30m lines were about the shortest I could live with.
• I simply got no line snag problems, which is very welcome.
• The huge bridle is only a problem in proximity to the kitebag.
• You’re not going to upset this frame no matter how hard you try.

Overall…. I wish I liked this kite more but finding that sweet spot and keeping it drove me up the wall. If you could spend some time with it and feed it lab. grade winds then it’d be a lot more attractive. Maybe I never did find the completely right setup.

Many thanks to Challenger Sails for the demo of the Miro.

-Mike.

* waddyamean you haven’t read it ?

When starting the K2 project, Challenger Sails was committed to build the best polyvalent kite on the market and in my opinion they got it right. I was one of those who had the chance to try the K2 STD during the Sprintkite 2009 festival in Cervia and we all struggled to find something wrong with the kite. What I’d like to do now is to talk about the UL version which is slightly different from the STD.

Construction

The frame is typical of a UL kite with Skyshark 3pt leading edges, Skyshark p100 spine, structil 6 mm upper spreader and 3 mm standoff. What’s new here is the Skyshark Black Diamond 3pt, lighter than the normal 3pt but much stiffer. As a result the kite’s feedback is that of a STD even in very low winds, allowing even those modern/new tricks that indeed stress a classical UL frame. The bridle is a fully adjustable turbo reverse which can be easily converted into a 3 point bridle. The sail is made of icarex (coloured panels), AirX500 (the white panels, same material used in the Cosmic TC Ghost), Dacron on the leading edges, Spinnaker on the trailing edges and micro cordura on the nose. Compared to the STD, the mylar reinforcements are a bit smaller and the tail weight is 12 gr. Overall weight on the UL is 35-40 grams less than the STD. Totally computerised cutting of the panels makes the kite perfectly symmetrical. Stunningly handcraft by Alex Moroni with a very cool CHS rubber logo underneath the upper spreader (I challenge anybody to wear that off !) and logo printed velcro on the tail.

In flight

The kite looks majestic in the air with its 2.5m wingspan; nose and wingtips can be clearly distinguished from 40 meter, which is very important in competition. 6/7 kmh wind speed is enough to fly the kite with a good pull and no need for either legs or arms work. With a bit of effort, 4 kmh is the minimum wind speed required to pull the kite in the air and have fun with it. At the upper end of the range, 15 kmh, the frame works just fine. The kite is very precise, similar to the NSE, and draws very straight lines. Corners are sharp and the kite gets cleanly back on track afterwards. The landing manoeuvre can be performed really close to the ground after a horizontal or diagonal flight. Given its 2.5 m wingspan landing from a vertical requires an input a few meters above the ground. When hitting the tips to the ground the kite stays right in place and does not bounce back.

As well as being very precise and steady, this kite has a great trick attitude, for both old and new school tricks. Flat rotations are stunning. I was surprised that a French style kite could be as good as the Cosmic in this respect but Taz Machine, Slot Machine, 540, Axel and Half Axel are easier and more elegant.

The half axel has a very flat nose-away position resulting in spectacular Cascade and Comete. Thanks to its stiff frame, Comete cascade can be performed at a higher speed than the Cosmic. The kite sits well on its back but the turtle is not deep. Lazy Susan, Rolling Susan, Rolling Cascade, Kombo and Flap Jack are esthetically pleasing and easy. Multy Lazys are extremely flat, slow and well balanced, and in smooth winds are dead simple: you can spin the kite as long as your lines will allow you to. Yoyos are pretty slow, especially compared to the very fast roll-ups of the STD version, and need a bit of slack. Some tweaking may help but a two-pop input will always result in a more precise and cleaner roll-up. Position of the stoppers is correct. The flight is stable even with wrapped lines and the kite is easy to unroll.

The fade is extremely stable and need no particular correction. When a gust or a pilot’s error is making the nose dive down some slack on the lines will put the kite back in place. Pancake to Fade and Flic Flac are easy and the K2 is very forgiving when trying to recover the fade position. Backspins and backspin cascade are also easy. Stalls and side slides are beautiful: the kite can slide all the way across the wind window with minimum hand work.

I couldn’t get crazy copters and yo-fades out of this kite (very easy on the STD though). I’ll let you know if a 18 grams weight on the tail will improve the kite’s pitch. However, I know for sure that with 18 gr weight on a NSE LW I cannot crazy copter or yo-fade either.

I think that’s all for now. As usual this is my personal view based on what I have experienced so far flying many others stunt kites.

Conclusion

The K2 is a 100% polyvalent kite, very precise and accurate in flight with a great attitude to perform all the tricks we know. This is an excellent choice for both the competitive athletes who need to feel confident with their kite and the amateurs who like to have fun and never get stressed with too technical or extreme kites. The K2 could also be an option for those beginners looking for their first top level kite. This is a kite you get an immediate feeling with and has no issue at all regarding the trick learning process.

Challenger Sails have really impressed me with this kite.

-Davide (care of Paolo)

It’s pretty much a regular, full-sized kite with conventional frame choice for a standard (P200 LEs and 5PT LSs), two standoffs per side and with slight battenless winglets. Build is very nicely detailed with fully covered LEs, plenty of reinforcement across the TE and spine, a reverse turbo bridle that is adjustable on every leg with leaders already in place, tidy plug-in covered wingtips and the nose area is tidily folded and sewn in a way I’ve not seen before. The logo wear patch at the US/spine area (a 3D rubber item) is a sweet touch.

As has become expected the Mondrian employs tail weight as a tuning option. Once again this is dealt with in a tidy and thoughtful manner – a metal barrel with a hole to mount it securely, held in place with velcro at the base of the spine. Yoyo stoppers are in place too, Exel standoff connectors.

The nose is very neatly done with some fine work going into it. The wingtips are enclosed and finished off with heatshrink. Whilst this makes for an astoundingly tidy setup you have to cut it away if you want to adjust the LE tension (no leech line), break the kite down for transport or have to replace a broken LE spar (which I already have had to do… not a 5 minute job).

I broke a LLE doing Yoyos in 5km/h wind on 50# line. As it has stood up to far worse than this I’m putting it down to One Of Those Things.

There are a few things I’d like to see addressed though:

• The red construction marks on the sail – everyone else seems to get by without them and they detract from the otherwise excellent build quality
• Some sort of guide to bridle tweaking would be nice. It’s pretty easy to get lost
• Whilst the wingtip detailing is tidy and snag free, if you need to break down the LE or make a repair then the shrink wrap has to be cut off and some more found. I’d prefer to see a broad rubber band or somesuch used instead
• The stoppers on the LEs for the spreader connectors are nice to see but are too big to fit through the holes in the LE dacron. Again, in case of repair these have to be removed just adding to the hassle. Smaller diameter items would still do the job
• The yoyo stoppers have got to go. Not only are they the one visual/quality weak point of the kite they impossible to move without damaging/creasing the LE dacron when making repairs and provide the one and only snag point on the kite. More times than I cared for a bridle line would hook around one and, whilst usually removable in flight with a Pancake-to-Fade it got frustrating quickly.

Overall though this is a spectacularly well put together kite, a few very minor problems aside. There’s neatness and detailing that really impress.

“So what does it fly like ?”, you may well ask.

Out of the bag with the very adjustable bridle left as it was (most reverse dynamic) and the heavier of the two supplied weights (~10g.) it was easy to like. Nothing weird happened, no strange actions needed, pretty much everything I can do I could do on this kite from the off. On tight lines it felt a bit loose with a wide turning circle and no snap to corners but OK. With the lines slack it is on the quick side – it pitches fast in either direction, Backspins and Lazies are fast enough to make it a race to keep up with in Multis. I spent most of the time on 30m x 50kg lines from 4km/h to 16km/h without problem (2 to 10mph).

In lighter winds, which is mostly what I was “blessed” with, I lightened the bridle and switched to the smaller weight (~3g.) without making any other changes. The kite pretty much stayed as it was – still quick enough in tricks to mean I had to know where I was going with my flying. Challenger Sails quote 6km/h as the minimum wind and whilst it’ll be in the air and doing stuff in a little less both you and the kite will appreciate a little more.

Once the wind decided to move up a little I could have a play with the bridle; reducing the reverse dynamic (‘cos I don’t like it), setting it all a bit heavier, back to the heavier weight too. Like this the kite really pops into life – all round snappier and more together. Neither pull nor noise ever became a problem too.

I would say that you do need to be ready to reach for the bridle knots as the wind changes. What felt good at 6~8km/h wasn’t so much fun at 12~14km/h. It’s pretty easy to do and with all the adjustments possible the setting was definitely in there somewhere. The frame stood up to any abuse the winds could dish out; the one spar failure I had (a LLE) was in very light winds and looks like a rogue spar that just gave up the ghost.

Overall though…. if I had room in my A-bag right now, I’d put a Mondrian in there. I might even consider trying to make room for one with the few changes I mentioned above. Not once did I not enjoy flying it. Not once did it go “no, not doing that that way”. I like the build (with caveats) and like what it lets me get on and do. You owe it to yourself to acquaint yourself with this kite if nothing else.

Mike.