Hello,

I decided to buy the Hadlow ID 12m 3 months ago, and I was really satisfied with it.
Anyways, I have a question: Does the Hadlow ID bar fit with other kites other than Flexifoil kites? I would like to use that bar with my RRD Obsession 2010 10.5m because the safety system is better (on the RRD if I quick release, the chicken loop can fall and sink, since the donkey dick is not long enough) so I would be more comfortable practicing handlepasses.
What do you have to look for if you want to try a bar with any kite? Do you know if the Hadlow ID bar would fit with the RRD Obsession 2010 10.5m? Can I also use the RRD bar from 2010 on the Hadlow ID 12m?

Thanks for the help,
Thomas.

My understanding is that line lengths and depower throw length are the only things that prevent universal bars. The majority of kites I know of want the lines to be all equal length at full power. But there are variations. The depower throw varies a bit more. If the bar has a long depower throw then just don't use all of it on the kites that only want a small depower throw.

Bar length matters some, but I don't find it to be critical. I use a 55 cm on my kites ranging from 8m to 13m. I have a 50cm bar for my Ovando, but my 55 works fine with it too. I've heard of bars down to 45 cm for 9m kites and below. Just preference at that point IMHO...

You can pretty much fiddle all bars to get them to fit any given kite.
Just a bit of common sense, and a whole lot of extra caution when testing them out the first time.
Nico

The other issue is how does the safety work. Reride to one front line or mini fifth to both may work better or worse on some kites.

I would agree with Nico. You can probably make it work. Also, with common sense you modify the bar to make it work. Just test everything out in light winds.

Does this apply to the Cabrinha IDS bars too? I thought I remembered reading that the cab IDS bars and kites don't work with non IDS bars and kites.

Basically for any Flexi kite, all you have to check is that all the lines are the same length when the depower / trim strap is set to full power (longest) and the bar is pulled towards the chickenloop as if you were unhooked...

So, clip the lines to your leash (using the spliced loops (ignore the 50mm grey toggles on the front lines) and tie your leash to something solid like a tree or lamppost. Set the depower strap to full power and pull the bar so the lines go tight. You should see equal tension on all the lines.

The bar will work on any Flexi / hadlow kite like this and I would presume that this is the case for most kites as it would be pretty stupid to design a kite with un-equal line lengths and rely on the toggles to make up the difference.

Of course, lines stretch with time and the front lines will stretch more than the rears so you can either adjust the rear lines under the bar floats, at the end of the leader lines or on the front lines above the depower strap to bring them back to equal length or you can use the longer knots on the rear toggles on the kite.

I also make a slight mod to my bar... I add a small toggle from the end of the safety line to the rectangular ring on the chickenloop and ride a suicide leash.

This means that if I pull the QR the safety line is attached to the chickenloop which is attached to my leash so I don't lose the chickenloop.

The one thing to bear in mind is that IF the QR did not depower the kite in an emergency (for example you had lots of twists in the lines before you activated the release) then you will be hooked in to a powered kite and need to unhook before the secondary release on the leash will have an effect.

This is a small risk in my opinion and one I am comfortable taking but you should be aware of it. Some brands safety systems (usualy where the safety line passes through the chickenloop) carry this risk as standard I believe.

Kook proof connectors makes it non-standard....as some of them cannot be connected to regular bars without a mod

That's true. I haven't yet had a kite with kook-proof connectors.... I'm not a kook...

Alright Skyte, thanks for the long explanation
Do you know then if the Hadlow ID bar can fit with the F-One Badnit 5 2012 8m? Because on kitefinder.com it says that the lines of the F-One bandit 5 2012 and Hadlow ID are both 24m long. Would I risk it a lot if I decided to buy that F-One with the F-One bar?