Yesterday was the first time I had the chance to test my new Bic Techno 160 windsurf board. Here is a short impression of the Board.

I had the chance to try a few different board during my vacation on Bonaire last week, were I tried various JP, Tabou and HiFly boards. So I have a some boards to compare The Bic Techno with.

First of all, the board is really lightweight eventhough it is 160 liters!! The Bic Techno is very stable and well balanced, the volume is in the back and the middle of the board what makes turning the board with very little wind easy.

The tailfin is very very long, 50cm, windsurfing in shallow waters wont work with the standard tailfin. One big problem with the long tail fin is that it makes the board jibe very slowly. The tailfin is a deep tuttle box which are unfortunately expensive to replace.

I tested the board in deep water so I had no problems with the long fin. Even though it has a long tail fin a had a few spinouts when I was over powered. But this was nothing compared to the JP Funride 140/160 boards that I tested in Bonaire.

What I noticed is that the board planes really fast. Comparing it with the Tabou Rocket or HiFly Madd 125/148/162 the Bic is much faster up to speed! I also noticed that the Bic wants to go faster if you work more. In Bonaire I sailed with a Tabou Rocket but this board just wont go faster for some reason. It almost looks like the Tabou has a speed limiter

The placement of the footstraps is always very personal. I like to place my feet on the side of the board, but you can also put the straps more to the middle.

The good:

- Fast planing
- Very light
- Well balanced

The bad:

- Long tailfin
- Spinout when overpowered
- Not a quick Jibe board (because of the long tail fin).

Update after one summer of fun

I’ve used the board one summer now and I have no regrets buying it. The fast planning is really great, the board gains a lot of speed in no time. Because the board is kind of big it is really easy to do low wind freestyle tricks.

I had some complaints about turning the board. It is not as fast as I would like to with the standard tail fin, I have not yet bought a shorter tailfin but it is worth trying I think.

Overall I cannot complaint, I even made my first duckjibe with this board So no complaints about turning the board afterall

4 Responses to “Bic Techno 160 – review”

1. Jeff says:

   December 23, 2010 at 22:40

   Hi,
   Just checking in to see if you could provide more thoughts on the Bic 160 now that it’s been over six months.

   Reply
   • Jeff says:

     January 28, 2011 at 01:52

     Well? Anything else,man?
   • soudmaijer says:

     January 28, 2011 at 08:29

     Hi Jeff,

     I will update the review tomorrow, promised!
2. Jeff says:

   November 1, 2011 at 02:06

   Anything else?

   Reply