Hi,
recently got an F1 Bandit Dos, and the bridle has been altered.
Just wondering if anyone who has the same kite can tell me if the front lines should be the same length as the rear lines straight out of the bag ?

ie. with the power set in the middle and the bar pulled back to the chicken loop

thanks,...
Rick.

I can't remember how much by but the front lines are way shorter than the back lines on a DOS due to the long bridle.

Hi Rick. There is a huge difference between the front and back lines in the Dos. I can check the exact lengths for you if it helps? A rough guess would be that the front lines are about 2 metres shorter than the back. What set up do you have and what size is the kite?

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BurkeyBoy said...

Hi Rick. There is a huge difference between the front and back lines in the Dos. I can check the exact lengths for you if it helps? A rough guess would be that the front lines are about 2 metres shorter than the back. What set up do you have and what size is the kite?

That would be a great help thanks mate.
It's an 8m Dos.
What would also be great would be a photo of your bar, showing the lines and safety setup too.

I'd like to just check that everything is as it should be from the factory before I fly it too much.

Appreciate your help !!

The adjustment may have been for the better. The bandit dos had very long bridles which caused the kite to oversheet and drop out of the sky.
Give it a fly in a safe area before flying and check it out, try sitting it at neutral, full sheet in and walk downwind. If the kite drops out of the sky perhaps look at adjusting the lines, but the stock line setup on the dos needed alot of tweaking to fly perfectly.

I guess the question is what bar are you using with it?

The original Bandit & Dos bar had a lot longer rear lines as they connected directly to the leading edge, and the front lines connected to the front bridle.

If you wanted to use a Bandit 1 or Dos with just about any other bar (most bars - including Bandit 3's onwards-all have all lines exactly the same length when fully powered up against the chicken loop), you would need to either put extensions on the rear lines / or make the rear pigtails much longer to compensate.

Therefore, if your Dos is connected to a Naish, Best, Cab, Core, Slingshot bar etc (just to name a few), then you will need to make modification (which you may have).

*Warning - don't try to use a Bandit 1 or Dos kite (that has been modified for other bars) with an original bar. This will mean the rear lines are far too short = massively overpowered, no matter how much you sheet out the bar. Hopefully it would be that overpowered that it would just stall and not fly at all. (Even worse- sheeting out/ 'depowering' on the bar may just allow it not to stall, so pushing the bar out could possibly cause it to power up!)...you don't want this ;)

In a nut shell, work out if your bar has equal length lines first, then I can give you hints on the bridle.

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au_rick said...

BurkeyBoy said...

Hi Rick. There is a huge difference between the front and back lines in the Dos. I can check the exact lengths for you if it helps? A rough guess would be that the front lines are about 2 metres shorter than the back. What set up do you have and what size is the kite?

That would be a great help thanks mate.
It's an 8m Dos.
What would also be great would be a photo of your bar, showing the lines and safety setup too.

I'd like to just check that everything is as it should be from the factory before I fly it too much.

Appreciate your help !!

Will send you a pic today and check the line length differences. I have an 8 and 12 in the DOs and a 10 in a B3. I can use the same bar and lines on both Dos's but the B3 did change. Awesome kites.

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Jr Walks said...

The adjustment may have been for the better. The bandit dos had very long bridles which caused the kite to oversheet and drop out of the sky.
Give it a fly in a safe area before flying and check it out, try sitting it at neutral, full sheet in and walk downwind. If the kite drops out of the sky perhaps look at adjusting the lines, but the stock line setup on the dos needed alot of tweaking to fly perfectly.

Thanks for that.
I have flown it and standing with the kite at 12 o'clock it seems to fly roght to the front of the window to the point where it looks like it will drop out of the sky, is that what you mean ??

Other than that it seems to fly OK, although not as powerfull as I expected.
I've heard that delta kites are supposed to have more power per square metre, but this is nowhere near as powerful as my 10m Vapor

I had the same problem a few weeks ago.
Had a 13 metre bandit 1 with no bar.
I had 2 pieces of bridle line (only used as it is thicker line) i attached to the rear of the kite, added a couple of knots.
Got a mate to help launch, had to adjust it twice, now flies great with any bar that has even lines.
It ended up about 2.5 metres (approx) in length and i keep this extension line always attached to the kite now.

Hi Rick. Here are the pics as requested. I have 2 different chicken loops, an original and an upgrade, you could have either. One has the safety attachment inside the loop, the older one is above the loop. When the bar is fully powered the front lines are 3 metres shorter than the back lines.
Hope this helps.

Thanks to all,
my bar looks like the line from the chicken loop had been shortened, which I'm guessing would make the kite fly to the front of the window ?

I bought some 2mm dyneema so I think I'll go with Wisha's suggestion of making long piggy tails for the back lines and then I can my Airush bar that has lines with equal lengths (I don't like the F1 bar that much).

Cheers,....
Rick.

Whack a few knots 30cm apart along the rear line extensions, using the 3m guide by Burkey Boy, start at 3.3m then work your way back every 10-20cm. The DOS is about as powerful as kites get, so something is wrong.

As Wisha said, the Bandit has lots of grunt. If possible, I always fly kites with the original set up. Don't add knots to the back lines, only any extension lines attached to the kite. The Bandit does fly right at the front of the window, that's not unusual. Just depower a bit on the centre lines using the knots just above the depower strap if that helps. Of course, you can modify and use your airush bar, but if you lose it or something you're back to square one. Also, I prefer my Dos bar and lines with the upgraded loop, but I use both so as to reduce wear, tear and line stretch that would happen quickly if just using the one bar on all kites. But that's just me.

Thanks again BurkeBoy.

ANy chance yoy could measure the line as shown below, as this has been changed on my bar and I think this is the main issue ??



Thanks again guys !

Hey Rick,

From where you've drawn the red line at the chicken loop to the very end of the rope, that is, where it attaches to the d-shackle, length is 430mm.

Hey All,
got to test this thing out today on a great downwinder in 18 - 22 knotts.
I went with the suggestion of putting leaders on the rear lines (also shortened the front bridle) so that I could use my Airush bar with same length front and rear lines.

Worked a treat and am pretty impressed with the kite, in that wind I would normally have put up my 10m.

Thanks for all your help and advice, another SB success story !!