Thanks Terry, as always the aim of our reviews is to share our opinion to help the freeflight community. 🙏 However, reading the comments of some Genie X-Lite owners and watching the review again I think that overall it might come across more negative than was really intended. 🤔 In particular it might go on a bit too much about me struggling to get into the pod, the worst case of which was partially caused by me filling the rear storage pocket which, due to the design of the harness, has significantly negative effects. So, the reason for sharing this, I think Genie X-Lite pilots should be aware to not fill the rear storage as this can significantly negatively affect both getting into the pod and in-flight comfort. I have found that some other harnesses are designed such that filling the rear storage does cause such negative effects. 🤓

Thanks for sharing your experiences and views! 🙏👍😃

I also found the straps loosened themselves basically as soon as I leaned back into it! Sent it back to the shop. Rubbish.

Thanks for sharing your experiences and views! 🙏👍😃

Glad you liked this honest review. To be fair, perhaps the way I have presented the issues I experienced in this review might slightly overstate the issues I had with the harness, caused by filling the rear storage (with the usual amount of stuff I carry) which, due to the design of the harness, has significantly negative effects (see my other replies and comments for more info). Good point about footwear however in this case this was not the cause of the trouble with getting into the pod (filling the rear storage was the problem). When I did not fill the rear storage, by leaving some of the usual stuff I carry out, I did not have issues getting into the speedbag or in-flight comfort. I do feel this is an aspect that could be improved on with this harness: there are other harnesses which a) have more storage space and, most importantly, b) are designed such that if you fill the rear storage this does not cause any issues.

Thanks Lewis. We always try to be completely honest and as objective as we can in our reviews. The main challenge I find is correctly communicating exactly what I'm trying to say, so at least the majority understand it the way I meant it. You can please some of the people all of the time...

Thanks for sharing your experiences and views! 🙏👍😃 From our testing, the Genie Lite 3 and Genie X-Lite are relatively much more weight shifty than the Delight 4. Most pilots seem to prefer their harness to be a bit more stable, even more experienced ones. Only pilots who really like to throw their wings around more, who really want a more active and weight shifty harness, seem to prefer their harness to less stable, more unstable.

@@flybubblecarlo Stability and turn are not related. There are stable harnesses with wonderfull turn, and reverse, unstable ones with bad turn. Speaking of turn and stability, you can not compare the GL3 or Xlite geometry vs Delight geometry: they are completly different, not for the same purpose and not for the same kind of wings.

@@Greg-hw2gs Thanks for sharing your views on this. When you wrote "Stability and turn are not related. There are stable harnesses with wonderfull turn, and reverse, unstable ones with bad turn." I don't quite follow what you mean, sorry. Please could you elaborate a little, and give some examples from your experience? Thanks.

​@@Greg-hw2gs When you wrote: "Speaking of turn and stability, you can not compare the GL3 or Xlite geometry vs Delight geometry: they are completly different, not for the same purpose and not for the same kind of wings." I must admit I am quite surprised by this. I have tested the Gin Genie Lite 3, Genie X-lite and Supair Delight 4 (which is quite similar to the Delight 2 and 3) very extensively, sometimes swapping wings with the same harnesses to compare. From my testing, it seems to me that, other than the differences between them, which are quite significant, they are quite similar types of harness, semi-light to standard weight pod harnesses, suitable for the same kind of wings. Please could you explain a bit more what you mean by this, from your experience? I am genuinely interested, especially since it seems your view is very different to mine. Thanks.

Yes a little but we've not managed to make a review of it yet. If we can, we will.

Thanks for sharing your experiences and views! 🙏👍😃 I did of course play around with the waist strap, and other settings, and did notice this made it more roll stable (less yaw stable) but still compared to other harnesses I've tested I found it to be relatively weight shifty, to the point that I think most pilots would find it too weight shifty. Pilots who like or are used to a more weight shifty harness (like me) will like this, but I think this is the minority. I also noticed when testing collapses on the same wing e.g. Gin Evora S and M, the collapse behaviour was significantly more dynamic with the genie X-Lite compared to, say, the Delight 4. I am not surprised that you found the Genie X-Lite more stable than Lightness 1 but I am that you found it more stable than the Strike 1. Sizing can affect the stability of the harness e.g. if a pilot is a bit big for a harness (e.g. buying the smaller size to save weight, a common mistake) that will make the harness feel more weight shifty than if they went for a bigger size (e.g. to get more storage space, another common mistake). I agree with you that overall the Genie X-Lite is a good compromise, for the right pilot. It's actually slightly in a category of it's own because it's not really an ultralight harness, not really a semi-light harness; it's kind of in the middle. For some this might be an ideal compromise, for others it's neither here nor there. Since I like wanging my wing around (I only wish I was braver and more skilled to do it a lot more) I actually personally like the very weight shifty nature of the harness. It's also a good harness to use if you have a wing that doesn't turn so well, like the Photon or Volt 4, IMO. So, although I can think of combinations I would personally prefer, and seem more of a logical fit to each other, I can see why someone, like me, might want to fly the Genie X-Lite with the Photon. Thanks again for sharing your experience and point of view! 😎

Judging by your comment about the Photon it seems you've misunderstood my initial first flights review which as usual I shared for free with a view to helping pilots make a more informed choice, just like this review. To be clear I think the Photon is an excellent high C 2-liner with excellent performance, which will make many pilots happy, however, to make it even better for the pilot target group, I wish it handled better and didn't move around so much. I'm quite happy flying D wings, some of which move around more, and so it doesn't bother me that it moves around, but I think it will bother some and so I mentioned this. Since then I have spoken to make Photon pilots, including some of our customers, asking them for their opinion, and most - nearly all - say the same things, without any prompting. Although of course handling is a matter of taste, I find it hard to imagine that most if not all Photon pilots didn't wish it turned a bit better, even those who are completely in love with it, which clearly some are.

ps. I'm not expecting everyone to agree with me. I am just sharing my honest point of view as best I can. I think my main failure is in communication, which I don't find easy. I expect watchers to understand what I am saying in one way but somehow some understand it in a different way to what was intended. Rather than giving up and doing nothing, we try our best and hope it helps the freeflight community benefits from our contribution. As long as it seems some do, we'll keep doing it as long as we can.

Carlo, your honest reviews are great, and I think you communicate really well, don’t change. Photon wise, it’s a matter of taste and maybe wing size and loading, but I’ve never really noticed the moving around that you mention. The brake length took a while to tune into but once I did, it felt like any other glider whilst thermalling. Having flown it for quite a while now I just love it and yes, the X-Lite harness certainly helps in manoeuvrability.😉

Its because your still hanging in the harness, the pod rises up your calfs and the wind is also pushing it away from your heels. I have this harness and find it takes 1 relaxed attempt and straight in it. I have the small also which in winter with several layers on still does not give me the probs shown on the vid. I fly mine with a small Zeno 2 and the roll is great, helps me keep the wing in a thermal. I do agree with the leg straps squeezing the nether region a little. The cockpit clip is a daft idea as mentioned but once ive taken off I clip it in and never have had it come off even when throwing the wing around. A mate of mine uses a sandwich bag clip to combat that also. I also own the Gin Genie Lite and I think they are some of the best made harnesses around. Not sponsored at all.

Because the pilot testing the harness on this video has a poor technic. Because the harness trimming is wrong. Because looks like he is flying the wrong size. Sorry.

@@Greg-hw2gs Thanks for sharing your opinion. I fly a lot of different pod harnesses and don't usually have any issues getting into the pod, even without a bungee. This is despite me doing an exceptionally high number of takeoffs and landings, for testing. It's true that the video shows the worst example; despite my best efforts I could not get into the pod without using my hand. This was probably caused because I had filled the rear storage, which I found also significantly affects in-flight comfort. I've tested other harnesses where filling the rear storage does not cause these kinds of issues. I hope Gin improve this on the next version.

@@Greg-hw2gs The harness trimming was fine. This was not the cause of the issue.

@@Greg-hw2gs I'm 182 cm, 78 kg, average-slim build. I've tried sizes S, M and L, mostly so I could advise our customers on the sizing. The S is far too small for me. Although I do find it easier to get into the size L than the M it is obviously too big for me. The size M is a very good fit for me and so that is the size I used for testing.

I will check this out on mine, hoping I dont get a surprise.

Thanks for sharing your experience and point of view! 🙏👍😃

Thanks for sharing your experience and point of view about the Genie X-Lite. 🙏👍😃 It is good that others share their experiences so that pilots can read them and make their own minds up. 🤔💡🙂

I am sorry if I have upset you about your harness, and will assume this is the reason for the tone of your reply and very strange accusation that I'm trying to steer people away from buying Gin products when we've made many very positive reviews about them e.g. the Bonanza 3, where ironically some pilots accused us of being biased towards Gin Gliders. In this review I am only doing what we do in every review and video we make: to give our honest review, with a view to benefitting the free flight community as a whole. Sorry if you don't like my opinion but there is no need to get rude about it or make defamatory comments.