I’ve seen pictures of the new slingshot range, but can’t remember where. When I find them I’ll drop the link in here. I’ve also forgotten the name of the new range…
Axisfoil review for Efoil.
So finally I got my hands on a lower set of Axis parts today. Ive been using the 75cn 19mm mast and mastfoot during full season and liked the quality.
So yesterday I saw that there was actually a Swedish shop that had taken the full Axis assortment in, so I could no longer resist. I wanted a fast foil, faster than the RL2018, which I’ve found to have sweetspot of 30km/h, but is rideable to 40km/h. For flatwater I was looking for something that could take me to 40+.
Choice landed on the High aspect 900 front wing with the HA 460 rear wing, the fastest setup that I understand Axis carry (outside kitefoiling). I coupled this with the Short fuselage at 680mm, thanks to @RIDEHYDROFOILS for convincing me not to go std fuse.
Finding1: Quality is really sub-par (gong-level), not at all the Premium Brand that seems to be consensus. Bear in mind a complete axisfoil with alu fuse/alu mast comes in at 1600€, a gong full carbon Veloce at around 1000€.
Finding 1A: Lay-up quality is really shit compared to for instance RL foils. I might have got monday specimens, but there was even several 1x1mm crevises in the epoxy. Sure cosmetic but still…
Finding 1B: Axis suck at taping threads. In premium segment you would expect that SS helicoils would be used, but it’s not. The fuselage had 1 M8 fron tapping that was only half-deep and 1 rear M6 tapping the was bad after 1/3 of the way. I bought with their screwset at 50€, so I had correct lengts. So on my virgin-ride I managed to destroy one M6 hole, since I wanted to test it before going home to my tapping kit.
Finding 1C: Eloxated Alu is nice to look at, but does not work in water. I knew this since before, since I’m using the masts for a while. Still I was eager to test the kit before going home and clear-coating it. It should be able to take a 1h sweetwater ride right? Wrong! Unfortunately you have to clearcoat all axis alu parts with several layers before taking them to water. Sure this also is cosmetic, but still, even gong paints their stuff and that works.
Ok, so now with the cosmetics out of the way, we can focus on the important part: speed!
Well unfortunately also this was a disappointment as it prooved to be speed equal to my 1600cm2 beginner foils, Naish 2019SUP XL & RL2020. Sweetspot is around 22km/h and It becomes quite unstable at 30km/h. Hmm 1600€ in the trash…?
Well perhaps not quite, althought I went out today hoping to find quality and speed, I found something else:
Finding 2A: This foil is really a beginner foil that is Super-stable and has early enought lift that will probably work in high sea.
Finding 2B: Althought stable it has much more preductable turning and quite tight radius, a real carwing machine compared to RL. Wish I had this a year ago when I was learing!
Finding 2C: Energy efficiency!!! I’ve previously seen some lighter dudes coming down to 60wh/km, but with the RL gear I’ve always been around 80 given that I’m 95kg and ride a 30kg 200L door as @Larsb correctly puts it. Well today I rode 15km with the Axis using only half of my 14s8p 21700 battery! Example going upstream in river at normal cruising speed:
I think I will keep the stuff but really hope Axis releases a Veloce L wing equivalent soon, hopefully also
sticking to gong pricing, then I have what I need.
Hope that this helps someone.
BR,
Mattias
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I like the axis masts. Bit when spending money on wings, I’ll only go Unifoil! By far the best wings I’ve ridden. Quality is also awesome.