Hi all

I'm kinda new to all this, and looking at getting a second kite for the lighter wind days. I see a lot of kites advertised without bar. Can any kite be flown with any bar? I have a 11m Griffin Argo now, and was looking at a 14m Best.

Cheers

AFAIK you can mix kites if you stick with the same brand, but not so much with different brands.

You can fly any kite on any bar provided the number of lines (4-5) and relative line lengths (front-back) are the same.

It get's more complicated when it comes to the safety system. A Cabrinha IDS bar will only work with a kite that is designed to depower on the front lines.

I guess if the systems are conceptually the same then the bar and kite will work together. ie. 5-line, mini-5th, back line flag

i use a naish univeral control bar (flags one line) on my NRG, Nomand, Ocean Rodeo and Ride kites.

Thanks guys. Makes sense, and I thought as much. 4 line kites use a 4 line bar, 5 line kite.....just make sure the safety line is compatible and all should be OK (although no responsibility offered or taken, right?).

Most kite brands these days are running 'equal length line' bars.
Makes almost all 4 line bars compatible across almost all brands.
Check line length by attaching the pigtails to a common point then pull tight at the bar end with the trim sheeted fully out and the bar pulled fully in ie all settings to full power. All equal length line bars will have all lines tight at this setting.
Small differences may be simply due to 1 or 2 lines having stretched - which should be rectified.
If all lines are tight then you should be able to use that bar on any other 'equal length line' kite.

BUT - as someone has already mentioned - there may still be rigging differences in the safety systems which may make it unsafe?
ALWAYS check with someone who is totally familiar with both brands you are planning to mix & match.
Consider too the length of the bar. Inexperienced kiters putting a long bar to a small kite (esp if you are not used to the small kite) might just uncover some very nasty potential consequences.

While it sounds as if all 4 line bars should fit all 4 line kites, I would take it slow to mix and match. Some Kites have steering and front lines of different length ( e.g. bandit dos), so you need to add extension to fix that.

Even with all lines of equal length, there is a the difference of some kites flagging out on one front line and others on both. It is for example a mistake to use a bar for kite that flags on both lines (e.g. Cabrinha Switchblade) on a kite that is designed to flag on one line (bandit) because when flagged ( released drom chivken loop) the kite is by no means sufficiently depowered. This can be bad on the water and worse on the beach. I think the other way round there is less of a seafety problem, but more of A relaunvh afer releasing from chicken loop. You can modify and rig bars that allow both, depending whether you connect the mini fifth line to one or both front lines.