The question was asked by Frankm1960:
“What are the chances of the bar fetching up on the stopper or just jamming up?”
EvanOR answered:
“While anything is possible, in three years of using this system I've never seen or had a report of it happening, so effectively zero. That's why we keep it simple. A good safety system works most of the time, whereas the industry standard needs to work 100% of the time.”
My concern is stated below:
This brings up some similar questions that were asked on the Best kite forum a couple of years ago, concerning their system ("dual depower" stopper system) of bypassing the stopper ball, which operated in a similar manner to the Ocean Rodeo stopper ball override ( stopper bypass). Best called it a dual depower system. The Best system worked fine and the stopper ball was bypassed, as long as the kite was thrown to its safety while the kite was fairly powered up. The Best system did not work to fully bypass the stopper ball, however, if the kite was thrown to its safety, while the kite was DEPOWERED. This was due to the problem of friction of the power line on a number of places, where the line rubbed against the holes in the stopper ball, the hole in the bar and the hole in the chicken loop, along with the friction created by the power line “bending” sharply around the ring (there was no pulley for the power line to go around) at the top of the power line, where it joined the trim strap. On their forum, the Best representative owned up to this problem and recommended that the user should throw the kite to its safety while the kite is powered up, and noted that the stopper bypass functioning would be compromised if the kite was thrown to its safety, while the kite was depowered.
For comparison, here is a link to the Best 09 bar manual, showing pictures of the “dual depower stopper” system engaged, with the effect of bypassing or overriding the stopper ball, and thereby achieving the maximum depower of the kite, which, like the OR system, is the same amount of depower the kiter would achieve by pushing the bar all the way up the power line.
http://media.bestkiteboarding.com/manua ... Manual.pdf
So, My question is:
Does the OR design have similar friction issues, and if so, do you have a similar warning that this stopper bypass system can only be trusted to fully function , if the kite is thrown to its safety under power?
If this issue does not exist with the OR system, why not? What did OR do differently to eliminate the friction issue of the power line passing through a number of holes and around a bend?
I don't know whether or not Best solved their friction problem.