james wrote: ↑Mon Aug 13, 2018 9:49 pm
“Building”your own lines?
You weave them your self do you? What from angels hair and fairy wings?
Linesets, actually. I make them out of Jerry Brown 800lb Dyneema. Fortunately, it is already braided and ready to be spliced. I do have to "un-braid" some of the Jerry brown for use as serving on my sleeving. I have some colored (blue and gold) kite line for steering lines that is specifically marketed for kites. But the fronts (power lines) are Jerry Brown. I do a simple splice locked with stitching like many others use. The only thing I construct different than most is that I place an external Dacron sleeve around the loop part, but not past/over the splice (where there is one line contained in the other). Then I use the "un-braided" Jerry Brown individual braid groups as serving to seal the ends of the sleeving so that sand does not get inside of the sleeve. My stretching method for my front lines has evolved over the number of linesets I have made. I now have a routine that I have come to believe gives better results than most others methods of stretching, though it takes about an hour just to stretch a front line set.
I do not know where I can get angles hair, or fairy wings...... maybe in the pasta isle in the supermarket????
james wrote: ↑Mon Aug 13, 2018 9:49 pm
Or you buy a reel of mass produced kite line for a massive company like Liros or sk99 leader line dyneema and rig your own, on a bar that you undoubtedly designed built and tested yourself?
It isn’t a noble crusade, it’s just going kitesurfing
Dress it up that your bucking the trend and not paying money to the man but you are only kidding yourself.
First, I never said I don't like things made with modern technology and available through the free market. The issue I focus on has more to do with "brands" that are supposedly "top of the line", and how you get nothing more from them than you would from a "less hyped" and more affordable brand. Honestly, I was a victim just like the OP. I purchased gear from one of the most expensive brands and found out customer service was no better when you pay more. Later, I confirmed that customer service was still lacking when you pay less. And, very early in my kiting experience, I began purchasing locally supplied materials to construct parts I could not count on kite companies to supply me with. Things liked bars (no, I do not use bars I make any more), CL releases, and cleats that I use are commercially available of either kite or sailing manufacture. I buy parts that are proven to work/last, and make what some would call "franken bars". I have lots of parts that are almost worthless, because they would not work reliably. Those parts sit in a tub at my storage locker or come with me as a demonstrator on why someone else's old gear should be replaced. My kites are stock, with only added (more reliable) pulleys, and increased diameter to the slider material for fixed or rolling sheaves. I prefer the 1/8th Amsteel over the stock 7/64th diameter where sliders and pulleys move across them.
Second, my experience is that about 1 in 100 kiters makes their own lines at popular destinations where I kite (lots of kiters for a large sample size). But at my home lakes, I am the only one (admittedly there is a sample size of less than 100kiters). How many of the kiters on your local or destination beach make their own lines???
