HI,
I just bought my second kite sans bar, I already have a bar of same brand and specs (naish 4 line, single front line flagging).
Do most people buy a bar for each kite is it common to share a bar across multiple kites or am I just being a tightarse?

Cheers Chris

It's good to have two bars in working condition so you never get stuck.
It's more dangerous to miss a session than to miss a mortgage payment - you will feel so depressed and risk spiralling into the depths of despair.

over time you will wind up with more kites than bars, often from different brands. 4 line kites and bars are all pretty interchangeable with the possible exception of north/ duablah due to the high y split on front lines

dont sweat it.

I have 2 bars. One old, one not so old. The old one is a back up. Both the same size and in good working order. Kites 11m, 10m, 8m, 5m. I use the same bar with each kite.

having a spare makes a lot of sense...ill grab a second one over the winter season.
cheers chris

Gotta have at least one spare. Just broke my third bar (main line, at the cleat) in 18 months.

My 2011 bars are still going ??

Get a new bar every year or so. The old one becomes the spare and you get to ride with a nice new bar and lines each year.

Don't restrict yourself to the same manufacturer as your kites. Pick whatever you think is best. To an extent a good bar is more important than the kite. It's the user interface that you work with the whole time.

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Gorgo said..
Get a new bar every year or so. The old one becomes the spare and you get to ride with a nice new bar and lines each year.

Agree, I used to carry around 2-3 bars and it was a pita, now just upgrade bar every year or so 52cm works well with 7 up to 12m

even a new bar gotta check and adjust lines regularly

Been using one BRM bar for 2 years now. Super clean, light-weight with a long throw... love it!

Have an older Naish bar re-rigged BRM style as my spare, but almost never use it.

Hi Guys,

There's two trains of thought. Go budget and buy 1 bar and use it to death. This is the cheapest way to go, However ...

Buying just one bar means it gets used EVERY session whereas, the kite usage may be spread over two or even three kites meaning the bar wears at up to three times the rate of the kites. When you decide to sell your kite, if you sell the bar with the kite, you have a VERY worn bar which doesn't match the wear of the kite. This puts some buyers off. It also means you have a single worn bar which will be more prone to failure through wear and tear. It also means you don't have a spare should it fail. No doubt this will happen on the most perfect day of kiting and you will be off home early.

Kites are much more difficult to sell without a bar, this quite seriously reduces your potential customer base and sale price.

The other idea is to buy a bar per kite (assuming you have loads of money and want to keep everything matching and are looking for maximum resale value. Benefits are obvious. Bar per kite, little wear and tear and a spare should anything to wrong.

Alternatively, if you have a 2 or three kite quiver, buy two bars and share them between the three kites. Every other year, replace the most worn one.

If you are running a mixed quiver (not really recommended if you can afford not to), use the Duotone Clickbar as it can be fitted to every kite on the market.

DM

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colin71 said..
Been using one BRM bar for 2 years now. Super clean, light-weight with a long throw... love it!

Have an older Naish bar re-rigged BRM style as my spare, but almost never use it.

That is definitely the worst bar i've ever seen. Looks like someone made it out of leftover crap from Bunnings.

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wishy said..

colin71 said..
Been using one BRM bar for 2 years now. Super clean, light-weight with a long throw... love it!

Have an older Naish bar re-rigged BRM style as my spare, but almost never use it.

That is definitely the worst bar i've ever seen. Looks like someone made it out of leftover crap from Bunnings.

Super simple and straightforward.

They are fantastic to use..... no additional safety leash required, all the depower in the throw and super light.

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wishy said..

colin71 said..
Been using one BRM bar for 2 years now. Super clean, light-weight with a long throw... love it!

Have an older Naish bar re-rigged BRM style as my spare, but almost never use it.

That is definitely the worst bar i've ever seen. Looks like someone made it out of leftover crap from Bunnings.



That's a Cloud bar.

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wishy said..

That is definitely the worst bar i've ever seen. Looks like someone made it out of leftover crap from Bunnings.

I am about to make the below bar set-up to replace all the equivalent on one of my bars.
No good for unhooked, but brilliant and sophisticated simple for hooked in = what I want.
Wish I could nick to Bunny for the bits...
Cheers
AP

What happens with that brm bar when you let go? Does it fly up with no stopper or just get dragged up the lines a few feet? How does it attach to the harness? Looks cool how simple it is, seems to make sense to my newbie eyes.

When riders unhook to do tricks do they still have the safety leash attached?

Cheers chris

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wishy said..

colin71 said..
Been using one BRM bar for 2 years now. Super clean, light-weight with a long throw... love it!

Have an older Naish bar re-rigged BRM style as my spare, but almost never use it.

That is definitely the worst bar i've ever seen. Looks like someone made it out of leftover crap from Bunnings.

Excuse my ingnorance , but where's the trim?

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Nathe said..

....
Excuse my ingnorance , but where's the trim?

That bunch of knots on the bottom pigtail that attaches to your harness. It sets the distance of the bar from your body. You set it before you go out and that's it for the session.

The idea is that you have virtually unlimited travel on the bar so that trim setting only matters in terms of the position you want to hold the bar.

If you watch the videos for the Cloud kites and bar and stuff Greg Drexler makes a strong case for the desirability of simple, reliable products. It all seems a bit culty to me.

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wishy said..

colin71 said..
Been using one BRM bar for 2 years now. Super clean, light-weight with a long throw... love it!

Have an older Naish bar re-rigged BRM style as my spare, but almost never use it.

That is definitely the worst bar i've ever seen. Looks like someone made it out of leftover crap from Bunnings.

I had a Wipika bar similar to that in 2001. Only it had cutouts in the end of the bar as line winders

DM

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highvolume said..
What happens with that brm bar when you let go? Does it fly up with no stopper or just get dragged up the lines a few feet? How does it attach to the harness? Looks cool how simple it is, seems to make sense to my newbie eyes.

When riders unhook to do tricks do they still have the safety leash attached?

Cheers chris

There's a steel ring about 70cm up that stops it running all the way up your centre lines.

It's not set-up for unhooking, if that's your thing use a standard chicken loop.

See www.boardridingmaui.com for videos / info

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wishy said..

colin71 said..
Been using one BRM bar for 2 years now. Super clean, light-weight with a long throw... love it!

Have an older Naish bar re-rigged BRM style as my spare, but almost never use it.

That is definitely the worst bar i've ever seen. Looks like someone made it out of leftover crap from Bunnings.

Have a look at Ian Alldredge's bar set up. He's probably the best kiter I've ever seen and his bars are stripped down ina similar way, except he ditches the flag out line and just has a release clip to ditch the whole rig.