I know most kite lines should be equal length but my lines are not equal length. The rear steering lines are about one meter longer than the front centre lines. It still responds to me turning the kite but there is a lot of play and when I pull it tight full power at 12 then there is still some slack. I asked a local instructor and he said everything looked fine...

I was curious so I put piggy tails on the front lines to even it out a slight bit (not much) and attached the rear lines to the most powerful knots out of the three knots of them and something weird happened... it was as harder to hold the bar because there was more power, less pull on my harness and more on my bar. i had to do a lot of work to keep it in, and it the depower sweet spot would but much higher up the line and I kept on having to let go of the bar sometimes because it was too great on my arms.

Is a cabrinha bar from probably somewhere between 00-10.

I have not run across or heard of any 'modern' kite to have unequal lines.

Old Cab bar. But the lines should be equal at the end, when the bar is sheeted in. The instructor is a dunce. Probably

Kami is spot on re instructor

Firstly are you sure the lines are of equal length on their own?
Unwind the lines as normal
Walk the lines apart
Loop through a strong piece of rope through the line end connectors and tie the rope to a tree, fence, post, something strong.
Go to the bar and pull back as hard as you can on the chicken loop
Sheet the bar in
How far away is the bar from the top of the chicken loop? All lines must be taught!
And you should have about 3 finger widths gap between the top of the chicken loop and bar
If not, this is where you have to gauge what to adjust. The front lines or the back lines?

Secondly, you'd be surprised how much force a kite exerts when you're not hooked into the chicken loop. It's massive!

So by making the back lines shorter, you're effectively taking more and more of the kite's pulling power in your arms, and less through the front lines ie chicken loop

The advantage of doing that is more for light wind days. The less stronger the wind, the less force the kite exerts. So if you give more power of the kite's force through the back lines, you're less likely to choke the kite off power as it's harder to pull the back lines, and hence have better low end on the kite to allow you to kite in lighter winds. Too much choking of the back lines, the kite falls back and looses power.

I have a Naish kite that has the 2:1 bar system, with the pulleys at the bar, not at the kite end. So when I adjust it to 2:1 instead of. 1:1, I get twice as much turning force of the kite so that it sines faster, as it's a 15m kite, but the trade off is sore arms!

Old Cab bars have the high Y-split so the front lines WILL be shorter than the rear. But AFAIK they all need to be equal at the pigtails when the bar is sheeted in.

Pictures might help . . . !

And when you let go of your bar



did it droop?

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DylanJamo said..

Firstly are you sure the lines are of equal length on their own?
Unwind the lines as normal
Walk the lines apart
Loop through a strong piece of rope through the line end connectors and tie the rope to a tree, fence, post, something strong.
Go to the bar and pull back as hard as you can on the chicken loop
Sheet the bar in
How far away is the bar from the top of the chicken loop? All lines must be taught!
And you should have about 3 finger widths gap between the top of the chicken loop and bar
If not, this is where you have to gauge what to adjust. The front lines or the back lines?

I have done as you requested master:

This is with the piggy tails on the centre lines



With the piggy tails (about 3 inches long) removed from the centre lines






Note that in the last two pics 1 pair of pigtails (3inches) remain on the centre lines. The first pic had two sets of pig tails (total of 6 inches) on the centre lines.

So I know that you said 3 fingers is what you recommend which I probably would get without the remaining piggy tails on there but if I did that... THERE WOULD STILL BE LIKE 1 METRE difference in length between rear lines and centre lines and there is still massive play when connected to the kite on the rear lines.

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Kamikuza said..
Old Cab bars have the high Y-split so the front lines WILL be shorter than the rear. But AFAIK they all need to be equal at the pigtails when the bar is sheeted in.

Pictures might help . . . !

Ok, just check the pics above as dylan jamo said not completely equal when sheeted in bu about 3 fingers length. That would still mean there would be play in the rear lines... I mean it feels ok.. I was just worried because every single other kite I see has taught lines on both centre and rear.

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drewpweiner said..

Kamikuza said..
2008 Powerdrive bar

http://pr.cabrinhakites.com/manuals/pdf/Powerdrive2N1_UM_Web/2007UM_Powerdrive2N1_EnglishWeb.pdf

Page 13 ;)

Cool, thanks. But that still doesn't explain why that bar/line system has the rear lines so long. Was it something to do with the high-y split you were saying?

I think page 12 may help answer ur question....

Is the 2:1 engaged or r u running it at 1:1??

This may explain the extra line length....

Select to expand quote

drewpweiner said..
So I know that you said 3 fingers is what you recommend which I probably would get without the remaining piggy tails on there but if I did that... THERE WOULD STILL BE LIKE 1 METRE difference in length between rear lines and centre lines and there is still massive play when connected to the kite on the rear lines.

I used go have that same exact bar, which is around the 2007/08 era. But I remember keeping all the lines equal, without ANY pigtails on their ends, and it flew my Cab switchblade perfectly. It sounds to me, your kite bridles are stuffed.

Kami, the Powerdrive bar did not have a very high Y point, unless I am mistaken. It was closer to the bar, so if this one has a high y point then this bar is not in its original format. Someone's tinkered with it, hence the line lengths are all over the shop

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Gilly3 said..

drewpweiner said..

Kamikuza said..
2008 Powerdrive bar

http://pr.cabrinhakites.com/manuals/pdf/Powerdrive2N1_UM_Web/2007UM_Powerdrive2N1_EnglishWeb.pdf

Page 13 ;)

Cool, thanks. But that still doesn't explain why that bar/line system has the rear lines so long. Was it something to do with the high-y split you were saying?

I think page 12 may help answer ur question....

Is the 2:1 engaged or r u running it at 1:1??

This may explain the extra line length....

Omg mate, that video explains so much for me... especially about the depower toggles... thank you for posting it!

I am running it in 2:1 and that must be why, apparently though the 2:1 offers better steering performance so i might as well leave it... it must mean also that everyone else is on a 1:1 system.

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DylanJamo said..

drewpweiner said..
So I know that you said 3 fingers is what you recommend which I probably would get without the remaining piggy tails on there but if I did that... THERE WOULD STILL BE LIKE 1 METRE difference in length between rear lines and centre lines and there is still massive play when connected to the kite on the rear lines.

I used go have that same exact bar, which is around the 2007/08 era. But I remember keeping all the lines equal, without ANY pigtails on their ends, and it flew my Cab switchblade perfectly. It sounds to me, your kite bridles are stuffed.

Kami, the Powerdrive bar did not have a very high Y point, unless I am mistaken. It was closer to the bar, so if this one has a high y point then this bar is not in its original format. Someone's tinkered with it, hence the line lengths are all over the shop

Yeah it doesn't have a high Y point, but I was taking the measurement of the rear lines with the bar sheeted out and not in. I bought the bar with pig tails on it and have now removed them thanks to the advice in this thread ;)

Yeah I think 2009 on did, which would explain the massive difference if someone had fitted normal lines...