t3rse wrote:^ what is the bar actually made of?
It is metal.....feels and looks like some specific (better) grade of aluminum alloy. I say that because it is very light but feels feels harder and more scratch resistant than most aluminum products.
It is indeed very simplified. A first reaction of some is that it is too simplified....like as in not having those plastic horn ends to wrap the lines. But I wrap my lines much faster (and unwrap and rig much faster) with my BRM CS bar than with my other standard bars. Ask anyone who is using the CS and I think they will say the same. So I don't miss those on land. And most importantly, I don't miss them on the water. If they don't contribute to flying and I can even make it work better without them before and after flying, why have them? (Check out the line wrap on their website).
The line width...distance between steering lines. I just leave them where they are for all my kites. Keeping it simple. I know other bars have these things that click and rotate and such to give two different widths. But as was noted above, by sliding these lines inward on the CS you actually have infinite adjustment (obviously the outermost position has a max).
True about the swivel. I could add a swivel to mine....thought about doing that....but after using it for a few months, decided not to and to continue to keep it simple. I tend to loop both ways so over a session it pretty much evens out. so I don't worry about it. If it turns out I have looped 6 to 8 times one way more than another before the session is over....I just loop a bunch to under the other way to undo it. Less than 8 one way...I don't worry, the flag still works fine. Anyway...it would be easy to add a swivel at the bar connection point if you wanted.
When I first used the bar I thought there were a bunch of things I would "add back" to the bar. Week by week of using it....each of those simplifications make sense...then you want to keep it as it was designed, all for a reason.
