Pumping up and packing away the Itixit X500 kayak
Вставка
- Опубліковано 7 вер 2024
- I'm going to have to re-shoot this. It's pretty woeful.
The audio is too quiet.
The video seems to be doing funny optimisation with the focus and getting it very wrong.
I couldn't actually see myself, so some of what I was doing was out of shot. Might try the selfie camera instead, so that I can see what is in frame.
But it will do as a place-holder and hopefully will help someone out.
I just bought the last X500 on Decathlon's website. It arrived today. Haven't taken it on the water yet, so I don't know about tracking, but I inflated it in my house to test for leaks, and I packed it for a sense of the capacity. It looks OK. I'll paddle it on flat water tomorrow. I have another inflatable kayak (AdvancedFrame Sport, not drop stitched) and dry bags for camping gear, and the X500 has far more storage than the Sport, plenty for my needs. The Sport is only suitable for flat water. I've paddled it many times and still like it, but I wanted a portable, sit inside kayak suitable for rougher water.
The X500 went back in the bag without too much difficulty, but UA-cam definitely helped. I've seen videos with the bow and stern on the inside and the outside after the final fold. The inside (as you fold it here) was easier. It seems harder to fold and has more potentially troublesome seams than my Sport, but I've packed the Sport many times. It was tougher at first too. The Sport only has one, low pressure bladder (plus two small bladders on the deck that I don't always inflate), but it takes as long to inflate as the X500, maybe longer.
I'm not so careful with the Sport, but I plan to store the X500 out of the bag and to pack it only when I really need to carry it a considerable distance before inflating it. I don't need it in the bag to transport it in my car, and I'd rather fold it gently when possible. One fold is enough with my back seat down.
Update: I only noticed on a second look at this video that the guy doesn't fold the kayak completely in half along its length. Most other videos do, but they shouldn't. You want the valves on the top of the kayak to lie flat after the fold, so you want to fold it just below the valves, not at the center of the keel. I also place the unfolded seat between the bow and stern sections where the tips meet in the middle. With the lengthwise fold as indicated in this video, the width of the back of the seat is just the width of the folded kayak, and packing the seat unfolded makes the folded kayak a bit thinner.
I take my X500 on the plane, and everything has to go inside. I find that laying the main pump on top of the kayak, feet over the edge and pointing downward, lets me put the orange strap around it and pull the whole lot tight before I put it in the bag. I also have a 4-piece paddle that'll go in the bag easily. There's enough space for the bilge pump and various smaller bits and pieces around the edges. One lesson I learned the hard way is, if you're flying with it, get a rucksack cover so a strap doesn't hang up on a belt and put a hole in the bag and half-way through the kayak.
It looks like the phone tries to do a blur of bokeh when detects your face.
Sorry buddy don't want to sound like a trol But itiwit instruct you to inflate the hull first then the sides and lastly the top two chambers. This is done in this order so all the stitching settles into their correct format for prolonged life.
Thanks, maybe I should have read the instructions...
@@ashtontechhelp lol I never do either but in this case I had to speak to the manufacturer about about something else and he mentioned it to me
I saw that in the manual, but I couldn't tell which valve was for the hull until I started inflating. The manual could be clearer.
@@restonthewind Yes I agree with you there, unfortunately a lot of manuals are not very clear.
Great video. One year later, how healhy is the X500 please ? No puncture or fragility on the folding areas of the pvc skin ? Thank's a lot
I have used this several times now, this far the folds have not weakened, that I can see. I am careful how I do this though, ensuring that nothing pinches.