The boot is on the other foot!

[milly0812]

Vbar has stood the test of time and as such has kept its value pretty well. I paid £185 second hand for my first one on Pro and my last one £160 so they are coming down in price. Other systems including the vortex have not worked as well out of the box and others like cgy750 and total g just haven't been embraced at all maybe because at nearly £280 they priced themselves too high before they proved themselves.

I just got a 3gx today sealed for £40 lol you get what you pay for

[RcRotaryMadness]

Ok a few shortish points..

Vbar is a long established unit and its firmware has been improved on already so its at a good working point already. The vortex was a very very late show to the party (even cheapo units made it out before them), its firmware still needs a little ironing out.

To help encourage customers over to try the vortex i think spartan set a price that would at least make people try it... which has worked as people have tried it due to its excellent price point.

I don't follow why because the vortex is priced below a vbar that for some magic reason the vbar should now be cheaper.. even though they do the same job they are still different units... you could argue if turnigy could make a unit work for a fraction of the price then both the vbar and vortex are overpriced using that logic.

Next thing.. quality of sensors.. we are told by spartan that the vortex has superior sensors but theres no way to substanciate this.. mikado claim the same with their silverline unit so that argument is null anyway. Both units will work fine providing theres no excessive vibes and mikado did actually change the sensors in the mini vbar a while ago but as far as i am aware they didnt advertise this.

I think the whole vbar vs vortex argument needs to stop its getting a bit like the electric vs nitro argument.. two different products in the same function.. marginal price difference just buy & try see if you like it.

Sent from my Galaxy S2 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

[pgkevet]

Angelos price point is his business..and trying to read the reasons for his decision is pure guesswork. It's foolsih to assume that prices pointed to for these sensors are necessarily what he apid and it's foolish to speculate at the real cost to him of the whole unit. In fact it doesn't matter. All that matters is the current price and the current price of the opposition.

Unless you have already used one of these units..and used a selection of others on the same bird then all you can take is the opinion of others who have used that or simial.. and we all know that all pilots are not equal.. nor are all birds nor all all setups and end desires. Some folk could fly the ar$e off a brick with a brushless and just be self opinionated dicks who stubbornly insist a particular unit is the best - or even voice that opinion when they don;t believe it.

Yeah, I'm a cynic.

If i had n FBL unit on a heli and I'm happy with it then I won't change in a vague hope something new will be better - cos you're inevitably changing your flying style to suit the new unit...or it's no different and pointless to swap.

the only reason for me buying a new unit is that i want to convert a heli to fbl (or I'm unhappy with a current unit in which case it would be long gone). A new conversion then comes down to money - simple fact. If money wsn't unlimited then why aren't we comparing v-bars with B demons?

Yeah i have a heli i might convert. At the moment VX1N is better priced than vbar for a nitro and anyway i hate payng for any future updates. If all the same price then it'd be B demon instead of either 'cos a rescue mode makes sense to me. If the fubar comes up avaiable again cheap enough then that'd be the way i'd go (reluctant to buy a second hand unit cos you never know why theyr'e really being sold)

[Si_B]

Some of those mini vbars were mine and were sold because I've sold off the models they were fitted to. Vbar holds its value because it works. Had no trouble selling mine, for what I thought was a fair price.

[Tim Procter]

Anyone who has been in this hobby long enough will remember the Black V-Bar costing well over £400 not too long ago.

They sold it at that price because there wasn't another FBL unit anywhere as near as good as the 10 years R&D they had put into it, good luck to them if the competition wasn't up to it no argument.

I for one am glad that prices have come down with other developers because German engineering although deemed to be the best in the world doesn't give them a licence to think of a figure and double it milking the market for what it can.

Live with the times and look at the current prices, not the ones from the past.

There are several FLB units on the market now much cheaper than the V-Bar which will perform much better than the pilots ability is capable, Each person has his own view on which suits himself.

We would all be driving the same cars around if we didn't have choices.

[Planehazza]

The current VX1n price of £160 is only a promo launch price. It will be £200 normally.

[Dave Rand]

I think it's great. I bought a bargin £140 Vbar and to think a few years ago we were spending that on a tail Gyro lol superb

[pgkevet]

The current VX1n price of £160 is only a promo launch price. It will be £200 normally.

so he says, so he may.. but that starts putting VX's it into a whole new price point... not just against vbar but also cgy750 - good reviews of the 1.31 software there...futaba may be slow with their changes but they usually get there and ahead sooner or later

[jwatts007]

I love my stuff is better than your stuff threads....gives the old forum a bit of life.....anyone want too swap a V bar silverline for a SK540 with power bus.....

[George J]

anyone want too swap a V bar silverline for a SK540 with power bus.....

No way John, the SK540 is rubbish.

[jwatts007]

No way John, the SK540 is rubbish.

V bars just work...where is the fun in that....LOL..your heli doing a extra half roll sounds more like it...or howabout the latest 540 trick...the double sided tape would not stick too the new gyro so it fell off in flight on the G4...never seen a heli move like that heli did...what great fun no more V bars for me....

[Angelos]

I am sure it didn't go unnoticed that a few mini v-bars came up for sale recently all priced around £135.

The answer is already in this thread. I don't actually see for one minute that people who own a Vortex stand a hope in hell of getting a reasonable second hand price for it but you can sell v-bars second hand all day long.

Even if I hate v-bars and love the vortex by doing the swap I will have the product that sells well second hand.

So the mini Vbar that costs around £200 with the pro upgrade fetches £135 thus retaining around 67% of its value. Whist this £160 Vortex sold for around £115 thus retaining 72%. Too close to call it either way, but certainly if I was selling my house I wouldn't be telling potential buyers that I'd like to swap my house with theirs because I think that's like to retain its value better. When we last spoke at MK you were telling me how nice that Vortex worked on your Logo. Perhaps that would be a good starting point to make a sale.

-Angelos

[Andy from Sandy]

When we last spoke at MK you were telling me how nice that Vortex worked on your Logo. Perhaps that would be a good starting point to make a sale.

That is a fair point. I have not tried to sell a VX1.

I have it in my mind that as I was offered a mini v-bar as a swap and not a silver line that its value has been well and truly suppressed by the release of the VX1n.

[ChrisB]

A Blue mini v retaining 67% of its value when it could be 3 years old,yes please,much better than a 28% loss on something barely out of nappies.

[George J]

Seriously, who buys anything for their heli with a view to selling it on in the future for a higher price than an alternative product may make used. You buy it because you just want the latest thing or want to try something different surely?