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Hope this isn't too stupid but, Storing kites in a cold garage, is this a bag thing? Bad for valve glue etc...

Good question. I ripped the kite flying it in the winter because the double side sticky tape was old and dry. My guess was it would not have happened in the summer. But just storing I don't think so unless they were wet and then froze just guessing.

I store my foils in an unheated garage 3 months at a time ....saves me having to hang and dry them each week.
For inflatables I'll leave them with the struts pumped overnight in the cold.... but if you bring a kite pumped outside at -20c into a +20c basement be sure to check how much the pressure rises in the struts. Other than that really cold temperatures make all plastic parts more brittle so take care of the inflate and deflate stoppers.

Typically, the only bad time to store kites in a garage is when it is hot outside. Storing them in the garage and exposing them to all that heat is a really efficient way to remove the valves with zero effort on your part. Don't ask me why I know that.

Good topic. I often wondered this myself.

I noticed the rubber inflate/deflate valves on my 2009 ozone kites were a lot less flexible (rock hard in fact) in cold weather, sometimes difficult to get the bung in properly.

So it definitely has an effect on rubbery/plastic parts & they may get more brittle or fragile in really cold weather.

I also wondered if opposing temperature extremes reduced kite life span, going from a cold country to somewhere hot and back again..

My buddy ince kited in a lake in Michigan in March while it was snowing. He was wearing a 3/2 and there were still chunks of ice floating... Yeah, pretty cold...

Loon wrote:My buddy ince kited in a lake in Michigan in March while it was snowing. He was wearing a 3/2 and there were still chunks of ice floating... Yeah, pretty cold...

Hahaha.... Don't forget that it was 40mph wind and it was 1 of only 2 times I've ever had enough wind to fly an 8m! Hahahaha!