Niviuk's 2024 Lineup at Coupe Icare 2023: Ikuma 3, Biroller 2, Artik R Feedback, and the Arrow P Lightweight Pod Harness
パラワールド【超多面的パラグライダー情報チャンネル】PARAWORLD
At Coupe Icare 2023, a Niviuk test pilot who is also a harness designer at the company walked through the brand's newest products. He covered a revised high-end B wing, a professional tandem for strong-wind flying, early customer feedback on the two-line C-class Artik R, and a lightweight pod harness that he presented as one of the most stable in its category. His recurring theme was adding performance or cutting weight without giving up safety, ease of use, or comfort.
Ikuma 3 and Ikuma 3 P: Same Wing, Two Material Options
The main wing Niviuk showed at the event was the new Ikuma 3, alongside the Ikuma 3 P. He explained that these are essentially the same wing. The P version uses lighter materials, while the standard version uses more durable materials.
He described the Ikuma 3 as a genuinely new design. The team started from the Ikuma 2 and tried to improve several areas, especially performance, safety, and stability over the pilot's head. He believes they managed to improve all of them. He singled out overhead stability as the change that most clearly separates it from the Ikuma 2. In his words, the wing stays "very stable always over your head," and he said pilots appreciate this in moving air. He also said speed performance is good. The team put a lot of work into turning and brake handling, which he called precise and fun.
Two-Line Technology on a B Wing
The most significant technical change he described concerns the line layout. The center of the Ikuma 3 still uses three lines. On the outer part of the wing, the team switched the third line group to only two lines. The goal was to reduce drag, and he summed up the logic simply: less drag means more performance.
He said Niviuk probably could not have done this on this kind of wing in the past. With the knowledge the company has built up, he said they can now apply it to a B-class wing without compromising safety and without making the wing harder to fly. According to him, safety is the same as before, but the wing has more performance and fewer lines.
Biroller 2 and Roller 2: Built for Strong Wind
Niviuk also presented the Biroller 2, a professional tandem designed for flying in strong wind. It is compact and comes in two sizes, 30 and 34. He said these wings are meant for places such as dunes, where pilots fly in strong conditions. The aim is to handle those conditions without compromising safety or the passenger's enjoyment.
There is also a Roller 2, which follows the same concept as a solo wing. He noted that these were the main new additions to the wing range.
Artik R: Early Feedback on the Two-Line C
Asked how the Artik R, Niviuk's two-line C-class wing, has been received, he said the feedback has been "really good." Customers describe it as an easy wing that is very homogeneous across all aspects. They say its performance is good and its speed is competitive with other wings on the market. He said customers keep pointing to the balance between safety and ease of use, which he considers a good compromise.
He was careful about comparisons with competitors. Niviuk compared the wing against some models during development, but not against the newest ones, so he said they did not really run those tests directly. Most of what he knows comes from customers who have flown it in competitions against other wings. From that feedback, he said the performance is clearly very good. What stands out most, according to customers, is how easy, intuitive, and stable the wing is compared with some others.
He admitted he wasn't sure how best to frame the performance comparison. He said the Artik R is better than some wings and similar to others. His overall summary was that, at this level of performance, it is "nearly the easiest one" and a well-balanced wing.
Arrow P and Arrow P Race: A Pod Harness Born from the X-Alps
The last topic was the new lightweight pod harnesses. He said they were originally built specifically for the X-Alps, and they come in two versions.
The Arrow P uses durable materials and weighs a little under 1.7 kg in size medium. He called that very light for this kind of harness. The Arrow P Race is the same harness built with lighter materials. It saves more than 300 grams, bringing it under 1.4 kg in medium. He stressed that both versions will be available to all customers, not just competition pilots.
Stability and Comfort at Low Weight
He said the design goal was a harness that is both stable and very light without compromising comfort. In the past, he said, it was hard to make a lightweight harness that offered comfort and stability together. He believes this one does, and called it one of the most stable harnesses in its range on the market.
As a reference point, he compared it with Niviuk's Arrow, the company's cross-country harness, which he described as very comfortable and stable. He said the new harness offers nearly the same stability while weighing more than 2 kg less.
He described stability as the biggest challenge in the project and explained why it mattered to him. In the X-Alps, in competition, or whenever a pilot is pushing hard, the pilot needs to feel the wing correctly and stay stable in the harness while on the speed bar. The pilot also shouldn't develop pressure points in the back from pushing. With this harness, he said, pilots keep good comfort and stay stable even in strong conditions. When the wing moves, they keep control and comfort, including while accelerating.
Differences Between the Versions and Protection Options
Both harnesses share the same body. The Race version uses lighter materials. The standard Arrow P adds a few more pockets and more trim adjustments.
The display model had foam protection. He said this foam compresses well enough that the harness fits into a 60-liter backpack along with a climber and all the other equipment. He added that Niviuk will soon offer the protection as a choice between foam and inflatable, so pilots can select and switch the type they use.
Okay, so yeah, hello, I'm Team from Niviuk. I'm test pilot and harness designer in the company. So yeah, this year we deliver new, really new products, a few of them.
So actually in Coupe Icare we are showing the new Ikuma 3 and the new Ikuma 3 P. So basically it's the same wing but in light materials or in durable materials. This one is clearly a new one. We start, I mean, from the Ikuma 2, but trying to improve many aspects on this thing, such as performance or safety and stability over the head of the wing.
So we managed to improve everything, I think, starting from stability over the head, that is clearly different from the Ikuma 2. We have something very stable, always over your head, and this is very appreciated when you are in moving conditions, accelerating the speed, performance, and it's really nice. And also we worked a lot on the turning, on the brake, that is really precise and fun. Yeah, it's a really nice thing.
And on this one, compared to the previous version, for example, we implement the two-liner technology on the group three. I mean, in the center of the wing it's still three-liner, but to reduce the drag on the external part of the wing, on the group three, we put only two lines on this thing. That helps to reduce drag, and so that means less drag, more performance.
Before, perhaps we were not able to implement it on this kind of wing, but with the knowledge, actually, we can do it on this kind of B wing, and without compromising the safety, without compromising or making a hard wing to fly. No, it's just the same safety such as we had in the past, but with more performance and less lines.
Yeah, we are also presenting the Bi-Roller. The Bi-Roller is a tandem that is made for... it's a professional tandem made for flying in strong wind conditions. So it's compact. We have two sizes, we have the 30 and 34, and these two wings are really made for flying like in dunes and such places where you can fly in strong conditions without compromising the safety, without compromising the pleasure of the passenger, because you have the possibility to fly with this in strong conditions, and it's, yeah, made for this.
We have the Roller 2 also, that is basically the same, but it's a solo wing. And yes, these are the few main new products in the wing range.
The feedback is good, really good. What we get is like it's an easy wing, very homogeneous in all the aspects, and performance are good. The speed is good also for competitivity compared to the others in the market. The balance is good, I think, and this is really what the customers said to us, that, yeah, a really good balance between safety and ease of use, and yeah, it's a really good compromise, I think.
Yes, we compared with some models, but when it was in the development, so not the new ones, we didn't really compare with them. But when you talk with the customers and the feedback, they made competitions against them, and yeah, what we can see clearly is that we have really good performance.
And what is really different with the Artik R, I think, is how easy it is to fly compared to some others. It's intuitive and easy and stable. This is really the main topic and main difference that the others are saying. For sure performance is really good. We are, I think, compared... I don't know how to compare, but for some wings we are really better, or for some wings we are similar, but what it's showing the most is that with such performance we are nearly the easiest one, and a well-balanced one.
You already have seen, I think, the Arrow P and Arrow P Race. These are the harnesses we made specifically for the X-Alps at the beginning, and as we can see, we made two versions. We made the version in durable material that weighs 1.7 kilos, a little bit less than 1.7 kilos for the medium size, that is for me really light, I think, for such a harness.
And we will have the possibility, or the customer will have the possibility, to choose between this one that is durable and the extremely light version that is the same but with lighter materials. And with this one you can win more than 300 grams more, so this one is less than 1.4 kilos in medium size, and this will be available for everyone.
And on this harness, what we made is a stable harness, very lightweight, but without making compromises on the comfort. I mean, here I think we have a very comfortable harness. And yeah, as I said, it's super light. In the past it was not easy to make a light harness with comfort and stability. Here we have it. I think it's, for me, one of the most stable harnesses you can find in the market in this range of harness.
And if you compare, for example, we have the Arrow, the Arrow that is our cross-country harness, which is really comfortable and stable. The new Arrow P has nearly the same stability with more than 2 kilos less.
And yeah, the stability was a big challenge on this harness, because I wanted to make something that, when you are doing the X-Alps, when you are doing competition, when you are pushing, you need to feel the wing correctly. You need to be stable in the harness when you are pushing the speed bar, and without having some bad points in your back because you are pushing. With this one you still have very good comfort and you stay stable even in strong conditions. When the wing is moving a bit, you keep the control and you keep your comfort even in accelerating.
So yeah, we have these two versions. It's the same body, the same harness, but we change the material to have something lighter on the Race version, and we have a bit more pockets, a bit more trimming adjustments on the normal version, on the P, than on the Race version. But both will be available for everyone.
And you will have also the possibility to change... actually, on the one we have here, it's foam protection, but a foam that is compressing quite well, so you can fit it with a climber and all the equipment in a 60-liter backpack. And we will have soon the possibility, as an option, to select a foam or an inflatable protection. You will be able to choose between these two protections, and with this you can, yeah, choose and change which protection you are using. Yeah, thank you so much.
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