It might be synthetic happiness at play but I felt that way when I was exclusively on aluminum fuses, but now that I have been using carbon fuses (AFS) I think carbon fuses are better. I haven’t seen any corrosion yet, since you have conductive carbon, but ss bolts and ss coils. So if you don’t take care of them like me you get salt build up but that’s it.
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I just feel like with all carbon / unibody fuses I’ve ridden they’re either bendy like a noodle or stiff till they crack. The north I’m on now really illustrated it being able to compare the aluminum and carbon fuses back to back and the carbon was noticeably worse.
Reminds me I should do my stiffness test on afs
I always enjoy your insight but have to challenge your negs with a positive - how would you design a connection for mast-to-fuse and fuse to foil connection?
I’ve cracked a couple aluminum axis fuses (they were replaced under warranty without needing to ship it back thanks to nzsailing). I was using the 1300 pumping it a lot with the foil drive. Seems to last around 2 months before cracks start appearing. I have never had an issue with code fuses cracking.
Yeah man, they’re sick. Have a look for that other thread.
I find a tapered socket connection slightly larger than the mast for mast to fuse connection to be stiff and serviceable.
My north setup now with the aluminum fuse and flat mount wing is great, 0 movement in the connection from my testing(and I’m super aggressive in testing gear).
If money was no object it would be Omen - socket mast, stainless instead of aluminum, bonded front wing. But that front wing (like all front wing to fuse sockets) requires more expensive tooling so $$$ (this is why a lot of designers prototype wings with axis fuses - cheap and easy to tool) plus custom machined stainless $$$.
Regarding the cracked axis fuses vs code i imagine the axis fuse is so much stiffer it transferred more force to the connection vs more flexible carbon which absorbed the energy. Also, I think that axis is too skinny around that mast connection (added too much lightness) so yeah that crack tracks.
The latest axis fuse is thickened around the mast socket and towards the front wing. It’s also reshaped towards the tail to make pumping more efficient. Noticed a difference pumping, but felt the same stiffness.
Non-advanced axis fuses seem extra long btwn mast and foil, so that adds leverage.
“It seems like they are not making a product they want to ride themselves rather, they want to make a business.”
Couldn’t be further from the truth actually. It would be hard to find a foil on the market with a designer that combines multiple roles at high level in one person- more first hand technical knowledge/experience, ability on foil/demands on foil, first hand testing, number of hours/miles testing that actually does ride his own foils in multiple disciplines at a world class level.
Think Kane expressed his desire to design the highest performance, future proof kit possible at an accessible price point.
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in the youtube video Kane seems to hint at the possibility of a carbon fuse, unibody in the future. If price was no issue, then the best construction would be something like mikes lab, followed by omen and afs, then lift / code, then non-unibody constructions. I think if KT makes the best non-unibody system, then its probably gonna be the best price to value proposition and its going to target the largest part of the market which is dominated by armstrong/axis. It makes sense from a business perspective, but if he is purely making what he wants to ride, he would do it like mikes lab or omen i would imagine
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Agree - KT with Kane has absolutely the best ratio of pro level skill to direct design input BY FAR. Listen to how Edo speaks about Kane keeping up while putting in far less effort. Taking that ability directly into the design without wasting time trying to take a feeling and translating to words, leading to designer misunderstanding… it’s such a huge advantage.
I’m a huge fan of the intensity, the ownership and the focus and would suggest not to draw too many conclusions.
Having seen it in person, this is the the foil system I feel is likely to push the bar on commercial foils the hardest. I’m glad there is a business around it to maximise the evolution. The other approach would be Mikes Lab style extremely low volume, which I guess could have worked, but the design philosophy around KT has been to make performance more accessible, which I personally like.
(I’d have been stoked with them collaborating around an open standard system, but agree that Axis isn’t the base for that, and what KT and AFS are doing with the slotted fuse seems sensible and a few brands are working around this space, so I hope it well resolve to a standard)
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Just received the KT adapter for my Cedrus Evo Surf to be paired with the Nomad 830 Plane.
The Nomad feels right at home with the Cedrus mast. Could defiantly be a quiver killer for many.
Setup:
- Mid-Length 5’9x19" 75L board for my 195lbs
- Cedrus Evolution Surf 75cm. With the KT adapter and plane it’s 81cm
- KT Foils Nomad 830/155/63 Plane Shimmed at -1degree
I was really please to get it to work in as low as 10-13knots with a 5M wind.
That will replace my current 1050 on the low end. The gains in maneuverability, pumping efficiency and speed were very noticeable on the high winds run I had.
Stall speed is remarkable on such a small foil.
Put a video together to show the setup:
IMO the Nomad series is the real Jam in the KT lineup
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Where can we see the specs on KT foils? All I can find is either the area/span number, whatever dimension they use to name each wing is (Nomad 830). Is that span or area?
Nevermind, heres a good comment: New KT foils - who has some info - #63 by radair
@foilpatrol Nice…what foils were you riding before?
How do you like the Atlas in comparison to the Nomad?
The cedrus 81cm are measured from mast plate plane touching the board to the fuse side facing the board? Cheers
I think a simple way to put it is to compare an Atlas and a Nomad of a similar size.
For example the Atlas 790 and Nomad 830.
I’ve been riding both and they felt very familiar to me which is not surprising considering my
current go to is the Omen Operator 1050 a wing with a huge range and amazing performance.
The Atlas have the obvious advantage in glide and pumping efficiency but the Nomad is no
slouch either and overall I felt is better suited for my use case - winging, down winging and wing surf.
As a pure downwind foil I’m sure some will find the Atlas perfect for their needs.
For me it’s not specialized enough to make it into my quiver.
I’ve been testing AR 12, 13 and 14 in the 700sqcm range and the difference in glide and
pumping efficiency was noticeable in comparison to the Atlas. I believe I will land on an
AR 13/14 foil for downwind specific foil.
See some more in depth explanation from the man him self:
Btw, I’ve reached 81cm length measuring the setup from the board to the top of the fuse.
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Anyone can compare Atlas with Lift ?
Atlas 790 vs 120HA
Atlas 960 vs 150HA
Thanks 
Can anyone compare kt to code, I think that’s the elephant in the room
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I ride the 150, and got to try the 960 this summer for a day of DW. You would probably want to downsize from the 960 to get a more fair comparison.
960 feels like it has a lower top end, at least with the tail/ shim setup I was on.
960 is much more forgiving. Very hard to breach, and easy to ride aggressively. You can ride overfoiled, as I was, and drop in on waves that seem scary big, while maintaining control. It will reach its top end and hang.
150 comparatively feels fast, loose and slippery. Easy to blow up if it gets close to the surface, and hard to ride in the same overfoiled conditions.
A smaller Atlas would better match the speed of the lift 150.
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Thank you for your response. It still addresses an important and necessary point, which is understanding how to choose the size of a KT foil based on Lift. It’s not always easy to find this information, as each brand will claim that their foil has an excellent low-end range, and amateur riders don’t always have the same references for comparison.
Certainly, once we know that the Atlas 790 should be compared to the Lift 150HAX in terms of usage range, the next question is to understand what the differences are.