Power Kite Forum

Question about landboards

Maven454 - 1-9-2009 at 05:38 AM

What effect does the length of the board have? What kind of difference will it make? I notice that the higher priced/ more advanced GI boards all seem to be longer.

Thanks,

Maven454 - 1-9-2009 at 05:40 AM

Stupid me, always remember to do a search first.

Drewculous - 1-9-2009 at 06:36 AM

:lol:

Kamikuza - 1-9-2009 at 07:28 AM

Damn now I have to do a search, you got me curious ... I always assumed it just made them more stable at speed but now I need to know :lol:

furbowski - 1-9-2009 at 07:41 AM

I've been scouring that section of the forum, haven't found the money site yet...

it was fun getting a slice of the PKF community from a couple years back!

whatever happened to scoopy?

indigo_wolf - 1-9-2009 at 03:40 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Maven454
What effect does the length of the board have? What kind of difference will it make? I notice that the higher priced/ more advanced GI boards all seem to be longer.


Never really made that correlation. I always assumed longer boards for cruising/carving and shorter boards for freestyle and to accomodate the riding stance of a taller rider.

Price difference I always chalked up to componentry....

The only red herring in the mix was the ATK 103 Bionic which was a limited run ATK 103 with Bionic Trucks and Vegas Hubs.

Size's for the current roster shows the rise and fall of board length Bomber to Conflict Run as follows:
35.4, 40.5 , 34.4, 36.6, 41.7, 39.4, 41.7 inches

Would love to know what your search dug up.

ATB,
Sam

Maven454 - 1-9-2009 at 03:45 PM

My search dug up the first portion of your post, being that longer boards are for cruising and shorter boards are for freestyle. I just find it odd that (at least on the GI boards) it seems like the longer the board the more expensive and the more advanced rider they seem to claim it's for. I won't claim that it's true of all of the boards, but it seems to be a trend.

indigo_wolf - 1-9-2009 at 05:51 PM

The only other thing that I could think of that would make sense for that is that a longer board could support more "pop." More material rebounding weight spread over a greater area.

A long board would also be able to better deal with harsh landings as there is more "board" to distribute the landing loads through.

I probably spend too much time thinking about this stuff. Oh well, keeps me out of police custody... thus far. :tumble:

ATB,
Sam

Kamikuza - 1-9-2009 at 05:57 PM

Longer board would be harder to keep rigid though ...?

My Kava is way long, has a thick ol' deck of like 13 ply but it has a real soft flex to it. It's massively stable at speed ... but it weighs a ton. 15kg if the Post Office is to be believed :D I feel quite comfortable standing my lard ass on it and bouncing around.
The Scrub is much shorter, thinner deck and much stiffer - way more pop - and weighs next to nothing but I feel like I'm going to break the thing ... twitchy bugger at speed or maybe it's more of a sports car vs bus in the handling stakes :lol:

Bladerunner - 1-9-2009 at 06:34 PM

Shorter board for light weight / young rider ???

Longer boards designed for adults ???

Just a guess.

FloRider - 2-9-2009 at 11:24 AM

Maybe we should have Eli ask his buds at GI this question and get a Manufacturers POV.

WadoGal - 2-9-2009 at 01:43 PM

I think you have to take into account other uses rather than kiting too. Just coming from personal experience, I demoed a MBS Leon Robbins Pro (119cm) next to my shorter, lighter Comp 90 (108cm) down a good sized toboggan hill. The ride on the comp 90 was a little rough. I was bouncing around a lot more - but the Leon Robbins was like butter on the bumpy downhill ( I was going over a few roots and light uneven terrain). I was so much more confident in my speed on the longer heavier board. I think it is kinda like comparing a skateboard to a longboard - the longer the wheelbase, the more stable - but less trickable.

Kamikuza - 2-9-2009 at 06:34 PM

My Kava has a weird shape that supposedly designed just for kiting ... I notice they don't make em like that anymore :lol: I wouldn't want to roll down a hill on it! :o

Longer board vs. short and Scoopy

ride_wv - 3-9-2009 at 07:06 AM

A longer board seems to be faster and more stable at downhill speed, while shorter boards seem to accelerate at quicker pace, but top speed is less than a longer model.

I met Scoopy several years back at a skatepark in Charleston, WV - he was new to mountainboards and I had no experience with kites so we exchanged info. and tried to get together for a sessy, but it never worked out and his number is no longer active. I hope that he turns up on this site and we can reconnect.