Postby dracop » Tue Aug 16, 2016 9:01 pm
THanks for the thoughts guys.
I considered running a double line and just tying them together. Then I came across Wunderline (eg, DC-401) and figured why bother when I can just buy that. I would have to buy new line material no matter what anyways. I placed my order at this point and am awaiting shipment.
I looked at the following solutions (and attached are my notes/logic for my decision making):
Amsteel 7/64" - 2.5mm thick, thickness creates drag on performance, strong stuff at 725 kg (1600 lb) breaking strength. Supposedly Amsteel is abit stretchy altho I dont know from experience and elasticity is partially a function of breaking/avg strength, so I doubt I would be stretching it much since I would be such a weak load for this type of line. I would have bought it just for the lower 11m section. Easy to get in USA. Too thick to sue for complete center flying lines although I could have combined a lower line of Amsteel on the Y with two pieces of Q Power Pro for the upper sections.
Q-Power Pro - Only has 600 lbs breaking strength (without including the sleeve material strength). Main advantage is from the tight weave on the exterior preventing abrasion. Because of my stretching problems and all of the power running thru that lower line, it does not solve the lower line power problem imo. Nice thin line around 1.25mm, good performance wise. I contacted a retailer, kiteboarding.com, about it. Never heard back. Sales dept must be too busy to sell. /shrug. ANother retailr, awindofchange, might offer better service than kiteboarding.com but I did not bother to contact them as I became a fan of the Liros solution by then.
DC-401 - the solution I ultimately chose. Based on newer sk-99 dyneema, it has a thin profile at 1.6mm and 580 kg of strength (1275 lbs). I can just order a spool and order whatever I want from a local sailmaker that cuts custom lines here on Maui and is familiar and capable with splicing lines/sewn knots/loops. The coating is made for kiting and the weaker version of the product, DC-301, is being used by Core for their Tectanium lines they are charging $750 USD on their Sensor 2S Pro bar. Having the same line material for the upper and lwoer section of Y matches Naish's original approach while offering a vastly superior material that can support me, eliminating issues with different eslasticities and offering the closest thing to an upgraded manufacturer product (sorely needed imo).
Purchase wise, retailer based out of Germany has been super responsive so far. Adv of a GER retailer (aside from reliability vs using a French or Spanish retailer, with the only USA importer being French) is that they were able to order the specific colors I wanted since Liros is based in GER and has some stock on hand in GER. I also have friends who live in GER who could go pick it up and handle the shipping if need be although the retailer has been proving competent at handling an international shipment so far (he knew not to whack me with the VAT component of the pricing). Waiting on my Carbon Grey DC-401 (flying) and Yellow DC-301 (steering) line spools.
Jerry Brown Hollow Spectra 1000# - weaker than either Amsteel or DC-401, has a 2.05mm diameter. Required ordering in bulk, price wise would have ended up more expensive than Liros with reduced performance.
Marlow Ropes (sold by gorilla rigging) - products not tailored for kiting. kite line race has a 1.3mm diameter and 270kg breaking strength (could not find this on their website though) while their Grand Prix D12-99 is 2.5mm and has a breaking strength of 677 kg. Its the same Dyneema sk-99 core but the products are not tailored for kiting and are either too thick or too thin.
Overall, this is what I came up with after a day's research. I am an American but travel alot and I am comfortable dealing with international suppliers. I have dealt with international suppliers/purchases from both a consumer and commercial perspective, importing via DHL/FedEx and sea based containers.
Relative to buying anything retail in the USA - comparing this line material vs buying Core replacement Tectanium lines, this is much cheaper.
Compared to buying local materials here in the USA, this is slightly more expensive (Amsteel/Q Power Pro combo would have been $30 cheaper).
Neither of these options offered the same strength/performance/color options that my approach offered, so it was a fairly easy decision actually. I suspect in the future more people will go down the same road, reading foilholio's posts from a few months ago he went down a similar path logic wise.
I will update this thread once I receive my materials and again once I complete my project of building my new lineset.
Last edited by
dracop on Wed Aug 17, 2016 12:01 am, edited 1 time in total.