My friend's son just made the leap from 1, 1.5 and 3m fixed bridles to a Cool 6m that we found a good price on (looks like it MIGHT have been flown twice). Now, AFTER the fact I hear all sorts of people moaning about how bad the kite is but after toying with it with him today in marginal winds for the first time I don't know....it seems like a pretty fine kite to me.

One thing though....a lot of the moaning I heard out there was that they backstall badly and at inopportune times. Now, to look at the bar setup there's this 3-4 inch foam rubber "float" looking thing above the bar on the depower rope line. The result is...well, 3-4 inches less of bar travel....probably only 6-8 inches left. With such a tight sheeting range I'd bet backstalling would be troublesome but I also bet if you could pull that float and get that bar travel back you'd save some backstall issues.

Am I wrong? Any reason not to pull the foam bit out and get full bar travel? At this point I see that as the only big negative here.....

letting out the back will help with stall or trim to shorten front

Yeah, and that's why I'm thinking if we have 3-4 more inches of bar travel (out) it'd rectify it if it's an issue.

Depends if the kite will use it. Good chance the bar just won't go higher and the lines would be slack if you push the bar up that high. A Cool just doesn't have a bridle designed for a lof of bar input.

But of course it's worth a try, predictions on forums don't always come true :P

Have the same problem with my Rookie2, I just trim in a bit and remember that the kite doesn't depower like modern ones. Oh if you turn out to not dig it at all, and you want to get rid of it, there is a user on KF/snow&land who is specifically looking for one...