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Trouble with kite lines

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lucassoler
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Trouble with kite lines

Postby lucassoler » Thu Feb 08, 2018 6:30 pm

Hi, I was just given an HQ Montana II (about ten year old kite), and I'm not an experienced with kites. I'm in the process of getting a control bar for it. But when I took a look at the kite today, I'm noticing that it has a weird line setup from what I've seen online. This is a 4 line kite, and it has some weird white chord and pulleys attached. In the pictures, I'm holding the lines from the right-hand-side only, and it appears to have two connecting points where I think I would connect the control bar to. Has anyone ever seen this before? Am I on the right track of connecting those two end pieces to the control bar?
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HP Montana II kite.JPG

Mossy 757
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Re: Trouble with kite lines

Postby Mossy 757 » Thu Feb 08, 2018 6:55 pm

Looks like that setup doesn't use what we call "kook proof connectors." Kook proof means that the front connectors, for example, would be "male" and the rear connections would be "female." Then, your lines from your bar would have corresponding "genitals" to connect to the kite, making it impossible to hook the front on the rear or the rear on the front as you'd be going male to male or female to female.

Lots of foil kites don't use this system because there's more customization in how foils are set up. Flysurfer, for example, has this neat little ring system where you can make either connector male or female by either making a lark's head knot through the ring (female), or just using the ring as your stopper (male).

In this case, what you want to do is lay out the kite on a flat surface and start at the leading edge where the air inlets are, trace the top row of bridles back until you get to a terminal end. This is for your front lines, aka center lines. Then, starting from the trailing edge bridle, walk your way through the mixer/pulley system until you find the other terminal end, this is for your rear or outside lines.

This document is the line plan for a Flysurfer speed5, but should show essentially how all this stuff is run through: https://flysurfer.com/files/dlm_uploads ... LP-6-1.pdf

This document is the owner's manual for a speed5, but again, has diagrams showing the proper rigging and launching of a foil kite: https://flysurfer.com/files/dlm_uploads ... 016-07.pdf

You should also check out YouTube, lots of good videos there on rigging correctly.

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jakemoore
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Re: Trouble with kite lines

Postby jakemoore » Thu Feb 08, 2018 6:58 pm

What could possibly go wrong?

A partial photograph of the kite and bridle is not going to give you anybody else confidence that the kite will fly correctly without dragging you into something or someone at an unfortunate speed.

This is a good resource if you are committed learning the hard way: http://www.kitesurfingschool.org

Hopefully you can find somebody with more experience to look at the kite in person.

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RedSky
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Re: Trouble with kite lines

Postby RedSky » Fri Feb 09, 2018 2:22 am

I could be wrong but it looks to me as though the red lines were connected to the grey lines for storage purposes only, to avoid tangles. If the kite had been flown as pictured then I would expect them to look a lot more tightly bound.
Are the red lines loosely bound ?

br44
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Re: Trouble with kite lines

Postby br44 » Fri Feb 09, 2018 3:07 am

It's not weird at all. You can see the same setup, or similar, on newer HQ kites.

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RedSky
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Re: Trouble with kite lines

Postby RedSky » Fri Feb 09, 2018 4:39 am

Then maybe they are designed this way for improved brake turning performance.

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Horst Sergio
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Re: Trouble with kite lines

Postby Horst Sergio » Mon Feb 12, 2018 11:08 pm

lucassoler wrote:
Thu Feb 08, 2018 6:30 pm
Has anyone ever seen this before? Am I on the right track of connecting those two end pieces to the control bar?
Hi lucas, yes this is standard bridle for nearly all foil kites since more than 10 years, so should be all fine with your kite. But as it sounds you don't know what you are doing, take it serious what others said and take lessons or try to find someone experienced to help you. Otherwise know even a 7 m² kite is able to kill you, if connected wrong to the control bar or started in wrong weather conditions, at wrong spot, etc.


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