PinkNorthPride wrote:sijandy wrote: the fact is theres just not that much to say about a kite. It's a big sheet of cloth with some lines attached and some inflatable bladders...
Well if you believe that you must be incredibly naive if you'll excuse me saying so, there's a lot of difference between the various kites on the market, some are built well some are not. Some have multiple panels some are made with just a few panels so are quicker and cheaper to sew together, the more panels the more time it takes to make them, hence the more money on labour time.
Some have cheap crap material some have more expensive stuff, the trick is being able to spot the difference and wade through all the marketing bullshit that you correctly point out is everywhere.
Take the leading edge for example, some companies make it with just one or two pieces of cloth, others use lots of bits sewn together with the grain of the cloth lined up, then the inner seams get taped to prevent jaggy bits puncturing the bladder.
Some companies use basic rip stop canopy material in large panels maybe two or three, others can use up to ninety individual bits just to get the shape they want, then there's the quality of the rip stop how many filaments in it etc, The more filaments the dearer it is.
No my friend there is a lot more to kite building than just marketing bullshit, where they often fail, is the technical departments explaining exactly what they did to the marketing bulshitters, then we never really get to know unless we study them, which as you can see, I do, hence why I'm liking that Core GTS3, I really think it's a good kite and they are are good company.
Yes obviously there are differences, i think you completely missed the point i was making.
Whether it be different materials, methods of sewing, sizes, shapes, whatever at the end of the
day it is still just a kite that flys back and forth on some lines. Just compare that with
an everyday car that we all have, think of all the individual components, electrical systems,
motors, ecu's, pumps, injectors etc etc. You pretty much take any of those things i mentioned
and individually they are still way more complex than a kite and have a lot more technology
and processess going into their production no doubt. I am also under no illusions to the complexity
of aerodynamics and i realsise a couple of aero guys could probably talk all day long
about a 2 line traction kite but that is quite specific. I stick by my original point that the marketing bullshit
exists cos theres simply not that much to say about them (except on KF). If there was it would be there
instead of the bullshit. This isn't an argument it's simply my opinion of it.
ps - pinknorth, i never mentioned anything about building kites. Just talking about em.
