Hi guys,

I have just started off with kiting and already broke a kite line exactly at the pigtail as shown in the picture.

The local shop wants to sell me new ones which is ridiculously expensive and according to my research, it shouldn't be that hard to fix it, however they say they won't do it for security .

If anyone has experience with this, do you think I can manage as an absolute novice? From how I understand it, there are two options:
1. Buy sleeves, cut all 4 lines to adjust length, sleeve them and sew them
2. Get a guitar string, cut all 4 lines to adjust length, splice them to create new pigtails and lark's heads

What would you recommend? I have seen that I should avoid making knots.

Thanks in advance for your advice

Phil



!

Check your kites attatchment point, some manufacturers have attatchment a with a loop, but there's a knot at the end, so if you make your loop into a knot you could use the loop at the kite end



Or get a looped pigtail for the kites then use the knot you've created on your lines, also check to see if you could swap around kites pigtails, ie swap steering for bridles if you can somehow facilitate your knot, knots in lines are a no, knots in this instance are fine, doing this may slightly reduce line length , but not enough to affect flying as long as you repeat it on the other
If you show a picture of your kites pigtails, steering and bridle I could give you rundown of what you could or couldn't do

Hey. Thanks for the reply. However as you can see from the pic one of the two loops ripped. which method should I use to get a new loop?

Your not going to make a loop, your going to change it to a knot( only if your pigtails on the kite can facilitate it, I carnt see what your kites pigtails are like to see if you can do this, hence a photo, cheers

Hey Phil

Cauncy has some good ideas there. Re-read it a couple of times and see if you can work it out.

No offense intended, (you did ask if it was above your skill level) but if you can't decipher that, perhaps you should go for the shops advice!

Best of luck

Cheers

Good afternoon

I have considered resleeving my lines, but the price the local kite repair guy charged to cut my lines resleeve and make extensions with the off cuts was so reasonable I have had him do it twice. (brand new bar and lines each time.) Dont know what the kite repair situation is where you are but worth checking out.

There are several ways to work around this break with a short pigtail as Chaucy has explained. If this is a short term repair until you have time to find a repair shop or get new parts, then get some 3mm dyneema line and dont fly it until you have double checked line lengths and shown us a picture of what you have done.

Best option by far is local repair guy if you have one. Worth finding anyway as you will need them at some point.

M

Thanks for all the input and sorry for being a bit slow.
Maybe you can recommend a repair guy in Melbourne? KR hasnt been really helpful so far :(
On the kite site, I have this knot.



What I was thinking however was to create a new loop on the side of the bar, where the loop broke open.

Option 1: Resleeve and sew the sleeve for a new loop:

1. cut to right length, sleeve, double up, stitch


or splice and create a loop through the spliced hole: 1. cut, 2. splice and guide line through hole 3. fix with a knot






I saw that stuff on
www.instructables.com/id/Sew-a-loop-end-on-a-line/
and


Cheers.

If you can't find a line maker to attach a new larks head, which would be the ideal solution... Here's another simple option

1- From your kite's bridle, remove that white line connection. you now have 3 loops:

2- Create a double larks heads with the two black loops that you now have and connect the pig tail of that line connection to it (the white line is the other way around). By doing this you now have a larks head hanging out of your bridle line:


3-Grab the end of your front line (broken part) and create a pig tail by doing a tight figure 8 knot:


4-Repeat the process on the other front line/bridle

Make sure you do the knots at the same level so your lines all have the same length.

by doing this you will shorten your front lines by about 2cm, which isn't much, and will in fact DEPOWER your kite...a bit, you probably won't notice, and you can always adjust by shortening your back lines, if necessary.

Christian

Christian beat me to my 1st though, here's another, go to local chandler , grab a mtr of dyneema approx 3 to 4 mm, make a loop 20 to 35 mm longer than your grey pigtail

This will allow for making your larks head and what you do to your kite lines

So when you un pick it it will look like this- your pigtail


Then form a larks head through bridle and other end like so


Then with the kiteline you've made from loop to knot slide through as normal



Pure genius

Hey Christian, where you get that pink table cloth, I'm loving ityou French are tres chic

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cauncy said..
Hey Christian, where you get that pink table cloth, I'm loving it you French are tres chic

well... Firstly it's a document folder, not a table cloth. Secondly, it's actually red in color (phone camera...). Thirdly, I'm Canadian, not French.

hey there, thanks to all for the good advice. I have finally understood. that looks easy enough with the pictures.

So in the end I will try to ask some more repair guys and if they are too expensive, I will just make a stevedore knot or figure 8 knot on the broken bar-side line without removing the sleeve and try to adjust the other line lengths (i suspect they are not equal anyway). If that fails, I resort to cauncy's method with the new connector.

Great forum! keep up the good work. many thanks again!!
Can't wait to get that kite back up in the air.

Ok I just have to know - how did you manage to cut the loop in half ?????

Ok - my possible solution: I have some thin flying line (ex front line that snapped due to sharp object - so most still in good nick) and have found that if I double it over and use a figure of 8 knot to join the loose ends I now have created a pigtail of any length I want - knot at one end and a larks head at the other.
Look above at Cauncy's home made pigtail for the concept - only Im not sure what knot he is using.
Im confident that my home made pigtails will hold the load as they should take twice the front line nominal load - no failures so far !

two kites got tangled and i pulled the quick-release. the pull on just one line must have been too much, plus the kite is not new (2 seasons) so maybe it wasnt that strong anymore.

Just buy new ones!... Switch Kites has some universals at 10 bucks

No way I'd try to fix stuff as a beginner. Don't underestimate what an impact DIY jobs have on your kite's flying characteristics.
If you make the lines uneven as a result you can run into trouble in a worst case scenario.

Pig tails are cheap. I bought a full set the other day for like $30.
If you don't wanna spend that sort of money, you've picked the wrong sport (it's not a cheap one).

A simple finger trap splice is as strong as you could want and very easy to do. See the videos above. Most after market line is much stronger than the stuff provided with your kite.

Simply make plain lines with spliced loop ends. You can sleeve the loop ends if you want. I double splice them (insert a length of line into the loop end and part way down the bury).

You will want to sew the bury to stop the splices slipping. You can do it in a domestic sewing machine or do it by hand.

For the pig tails use 3mm dyneema (or equivalent). It is ridiculously strong and easy to splice and sew.

Tip. Splice and sew the first line. Make the second line and adjust it to length and put a safety pin to lock the splice. That way you can get the lengths identical and take it to the sewing machine without anything slipping.

I buy line from ropegalore.com.au/dyneema-r-high-strength-rope/ I used to get line from a guy in Holland but he doesn't seem to be in business any more.

Tip 2. Splicing is easy to do but it takes all day to mark it and cut it and splice it and sew it and all the other dicking around. (That's what I am doing today so I know.)

PS. I just finished making a line set. If you're careful with the marking out then it's easy to make identical length lines. The main thing to get right is the centre point of the loop. I also mark out both ends of the loop and the end point of the bury.

PPS. If it was me I'd shorten and splice loops into the broken line and its pair then add 3mm dyneema pig tails.

PPPS. From your picture above the kite maker has simply looped the end of the line and used it as an attachment point. That's crap. You want a loop-loop attachment on the end of the line to a robust 3mm dyneema pig tail. That will be much stronger and you can use the pig tails for line length adjustment.

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snalberski said...
Just buy new ones!... Switch Kites has some universals at 10 bucks

Good point, but switch or any other brand or shop won't fix your kite if your on a trip or holiday, a bit of common sence and can do attitude will keep you on the water longer , always have a few odds and ends available, at home or on your travels, some decent tips from a few here for kiters to digest

So this is how it looks now. I suppose I should do the same with the other end in order to adjust the lengths and then shorten the steering lines at the bar end.
So far so good?

Looks good, knot end looks a little compact though.
oh and you will want to make the same length adjustment to all 4 lines otherwise you might get stalling problems

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donphil said...
So this is how it looks now. I suppose I should do the same with the other end in order to adjust the lengths and then shorten the steering lines at the bar end.
So far so good?

Your on to it, as you can see you've lost some length , you'll also lose some when you knot up your lines pigtail, I'd shorten your rears a setting, everything you do must be repeated in pairs,
If you look at what you've done you'll see both bridles are off one side of the pigtail, this will give uneven pull, place one from the left and one from the right of pigtail for more even distributed load,

Pigtails should work.I always use adjustable pigtails, so you can finetune to the finest milimeter.

in the end I got some pigtails attached to a new knot. works like a charm. Thanks a lot to everyone! greatly appreciated