Introduction
As a long time flyer and fan of Spanish kites, I was surprised to receive a new Neox for a review.
It is three years between buying my first Ventex Neox and getting the latest Icarex version. The sail design remains unchanged but thats not a problem as it still looks modern, minimalist and trendy. I have a soft spot for the green version.
Ready To Fly Bundle
The Neox comes with a solid “ready-to-fly” bundle of accessories.
- Full size bag (with two internal pockets for rods and lines)
- 25m lines with very good wrist/finger straps
- Optional weight
- Eolo sticker
- Instructional manual/Trick Book
More than enough 🙂
Construction
The framing of the kite remains the same as the previous Ventex sailed version. Its proven to be very durable and works well with this sail design.
- Leading edge: Dynamic DT15 with small part of CFC 6mm at the ends.
- Spine: Dynamic DT15.
- Lower spreader: Dynamic DT18
- Upper spreader: CFC 6mm.
- Ballast (inside spine rod) is optional: 15gr (default) or 19gr.
- Bridle: turbo reverse, adjustable to 3 point.
- Wingspan: 2.14m
- Weight: 280g
So what’s new now ? Well, Eolo have focused on improvements to the sail materials and construction. They’ve obviously been paying attention to the feedback of fliers of the ealier Nexo / Over designs 🙂
The kite has lighter yet more rugged leading edge dacron. The APA’s for the spreaders are covered and stitched in place. The new version looks and flies better as a result. HQ screw in standoff connectors are used and they’re really good. Light rubber end caps are also included. The sail is reinforced with mylar and dacron with kevlar used to beef up the nose. The velcro strap for the tailweight/spine is also reinforced with dacron.
The trailing edge is made of ripstop nylon and reinforced with dacron, which prevents wear from repeated yo-yo’s and lazies. The quality of the stitching is good. The yo-yo stoppers would be better if made from a harder plastic and they wear out over time, but they can always be replaced or rollbars added as preferred, the trailing edge has enough dacron reinforcement to support them.
With these improved materials the kite is now more suitable for winter flying, which is good news for those us living in regions, like Estonia, with long, cold winters.
In Flight
I’ll try to be honest. As a long time Eolo flier, I have tested my Neox to the limit. I have spent a lot of time to find out what he is made for. Let’s be clear, this is a trick kite, a freestyle kite. It excels at all types of tricks, but particularly New-Skool. The Neox is less forgiving that its sibling Over design. For best results, clean, fast (and sometimes small) inputs are required.
Catching the fade can be tricky, particularly for less experienced fliers.It’s not a problem for experienced fliers, but novices must pay attention to the fade catching moment. It needs practice in the beginning.
The Neox is best in light to medium winds, 3-3.5m/s. In flight it feels like any other Std full size kite. Although a little heavy feeling it’ll fly in light wind as well. The kite provides the flier with good feedback on the lines. Its responsive and has constant speed for solid precision. Corners are clean and theres none of that annoying oversteer.
Freestyle
So lets cut to the chase, slap on the 15gr tail weight, switch to the short 30m lines and finger straps and put it through its freestyle paces.
In light wind (2.5-3m/s) you can Yo-yo combos, the Lewis, backspin cascades, flic-flacs as well as french flic-flacs. Cometes are fast, crazy copters are possible too (rotation not as fast as I’d like). Mutex, Slot machine (multi Slot too) and 540’s are pretty flat, so put them in the Neox trick bag. Alas there’s no Taz Machine, the kite cannot be made to pull them. Yo-fades can also be done, but stable wind (3-3.5 m/s) and the fade catch is tough. Fade is stable in light breeze. The lazy’s and 360 lazy are easy to do in light wind too. The kite excels at the Jacob’s Ladder and the flier can string them together endlessly.
In medium wind you have no problem to do a duplexes, inverses, ML’s, wap-doo-wap’s, cometes as well as half-axel-cometes at the sides of the window. The kite rotates easily after first right performed Comete. Removing the weight made this trick a little bit easier. Like some high end kites the Neox can do all manner of ground work such as Coin Toss, Superstart and Flapjack. Landings are fast and clean to wingtip or two point.
Simply put, this kite is made for non-stop freestyle action and it’d be well suited for Trick’s Party / competition flying. Experienced fliers will appreciate the good vertical rotation, multi Yo-yo’s and unrolling will take just seconds.
The Neox is pure trick’s machine 🙂
Conclusion
There are many fans of the Eolo Neox in Europe and with good reason, at ~150 euros, ready to fly, this kite represents excellent value for money.
Unfortunately there’s no UL version, or custom colors available, but perhaps in the future ?
I’d like to thank Rafael from Eolo Sport who generously donated this kite and the prizes for Virtual Freestyle Round 25, and Yan Spooner for running Virtual Freestyle and for helping getting this review published.
Freestyle forever !
-Alex