Fractured Axel

Stone in Shoe Bob · Wed Feb 07, 2007 5:08 pm

Has anybody seen one of these before? Is it an old rev that's been discontinued?

It looks like it might be a bargain basement, entry level Rev, he talks about fibreglass spars but that could be just an error on his part.

It's certainly cheap I might have been tempted to have a go out of curiosity, but he's only willing to ship to the US.

sftonkin · Wed Feb 07, 2007 5:53 pm

See:
http://www.bfk.com/kite/ki11004.htm

Glassfibre is correct...

Stone in Shoe Bob · Wed Feb 07, 2007 6:04 pm

Curiouser and curiouser.

And it’s not listed on Revolution’s site.

I don't think I'll bother chasing this one.

johnmitchell · Wed Feb 07, 2007 7:44 pm

That is the Backtracker from Revolution.
It was manufactured for Revolution in China and had fiberglass rods.
The lines were fixed to the kite and the handles.
It was their real cheap entry into the 4 line market around 1995, which apparently did not go to well.
With the fiberglass rods it was not a very good flier. However if you changed to carbon rods, it improve quite a bit.
It is now a collectors item which some people on other kite forums have asked for at occasions.

John

Gary Matthews · Wed Feb 07, 2007 8:02 pm

John, will you be in Valencia this year???

johnmitchell · Thu Feb 08, 2007 6:27 pm

Gary Matthews wrote:
John, will you be in Valencia this year???

At this time, it does look doubtful.

Gaffer · Thu Feb 08, 2007 10:39 pm

johnmitchell wrote:
It was their real cheap entry into the 4 line market around 1995, which apparently did not go to well.

Hi John,

I'm surprised to learn that it is from the Revolution stable, I was going to guess that is was a rip-off.

Can you put it in a timeline?

As I recall, it went

Neos Omega -> Rev 1 -> Rev 2 -> Rev 1.5

Where did the backtracker come in?

Was it US only?

Andrew

oldflyer · Thu Feb 08, 2007 11:17 pm

You could buy these in the UK for a while from the Leading Edge Kite company (anyone remember them and their tie up with Mr B?). The Backtracker was only available for a short period. They were designed as a cheap entry level Rev. The problem is they looked bad and flew hooribly!

mnkby · Fri Feb 09, 2007 3:00 am

Backtrackers were out in the mid 90s, I -think- between the II and 1.5. Nasty bit of business they are.

johnmitchell · Fri Feb 09, 2007 3:43 pm

mnkby wrote:
Backtrackers were out in the mid 90s, I -think- between the II and 1.5. Nasty bit of business they are.

That is correct, it did come out between the II and 1.5. I am fairly sure it was between the last 6 months of 1994 through the first 6 months of 1995. Despite being so cheap, it was a rarity in Europe.

Jason · Fri Feb 09, 2007 3:46 pm

Save your money. I think they were designed to get people interested in quad line for less money. Unfortunately they were more likely to put people off for life.