My gear can handle it ... ?

[RickI]

I recently got a new Dakine Fusion kiteboarding seat harness. An interesting label was attached to the black painted aluminum spreader bar included with the harness:

"THIS SPREADER BAR IS NOT INTENDED FOR KITESURFING."


ALUMINUM SPREADER BAR

from:
http://www.dakine.com/frontend/catalog. ... 050-511-22

I was sufficiently intrigued by the possible explaination for this message that I gave the Dakine folks a call to ask about it. They indicated that Dakine now had purpose designed and build spreader bars for kiteboarding of STAINLESS STEEL, shown below. I hadn't heard specific stories about many spreader bar failures but wondered if this had something to do with it. Dakine indicated that yes, given the substantial loads that can occur in kiteboarding that there had been spreader bar failures or breakage during kiteboarding sessions with aluminum spreader bars.





STAINLESS STEEL SPREADER BAR





PIVOT SPREADER BAR

Stainless steel can have an ultimate or breaking strength per unit area of about 4 times greater than aluminum. Also aluminum can suffer a fatigue or cyclical failure sooner than stainless steel. Kiteboarding can introduce some dramatic short term and periodic stresses. Enough to cause metal to fail and not just aluminum either.

So what?!

Remember the recent threads about using kiteboarding gear in unusual high altitude applications and concerns about ready failures or breakage of materials? This is just one more example. Kiteboarding is definitely not as easy as it looks. Paragliding occurs in a much more demanding environment in terms of required strength of materials, pilot training and selection of appropriate equipment.

Look over your gear periodically and if you are in doubt about the strength of a component consider replacing it, soon. Stainless steel spreader bars have also broken it seems once in a while. It might be good to move up to a good stainless one if you are currently using aluminum as they should have a longer service life than aluminum, ideally.

SZ is right, swimming can suck. Stranger and potentially more damaging things can happen with sudden gear failures than just swimming too. So, checkout your stuff, it can change sometimes.

FKA, Inc.

transcribed by:
Rick Iossi



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: RickI on 2003-01-26 15:19 ]</font>

[stonezone]

yep, I broke an aluminum spreader about a month ago, and have since replaced it with stainless. swimming sucks.

SZ

[doofus]

noticed an old stainless bar had broken through one of the hook welds and replaced it quick. it was a windsurf one

but hey i broke em windsurfing too

but i is really really heavy

i noticed that my naish kitesurf one is welded on a lot better than my old windsurfing ones

[Elia]

It’s interesting that this sort of topic has not been talked about very much. I mean the idea of replacing gear that looks worn out. There seems to be a number of people on this form that are concerned (more then me) about safety yet this is the first mention or this. I know from climbing we generally replace things as soon as they show any signs of ware particularly line and webbing. It would seem to me that you would be wise to look at all of your gear, particularly your lines, for ware. Anyone who has had a line break knows how much of a problem this could be especially the line that the kite leash is attached to.

[cyclone]

YES YES YES yES.... i and many others have broken the alloy spreader bar... Took less than a weeek...Dakine warrented the claim without any questions...(maybe they already knew about its weaknesses) Its the only harness where the webbing lasted longer than the bar!

I have never broken a stainless bar...

[RC-Kiter]

I also broke a Da Kine alu-spreader after 50 hours+ of usage. Got mine replaced under warrantee.

Customer service is top notch at Da Kine and I think it's a good point that they put the warning on the spreaders now. At least you can be aware of the problem. Just switch to stainless when buying the harness and alls perfect.

[Sylt Rider]

"Just switch to stainless when buying the harness and alls perfect"
Not so!

As a Windsurfer I broke two of them.
They got rusty a tiny little bit and than broke all of a sudden.
I check them out every day I go out and wash them out with clear water afterwards.
And I keep hoping it won't happen again, cause if you are flying high I's scares me for sure.

Greetings Sylt Rider

[RC-Kiter]

Sylt Rider, you are right ofcourse, I sail a lot in sweet water and sometimes in salt water, so I don't have the rust problem. Pre-caution is always best!

[sq225917]

you guys obviously don't get out much if you'd use alloy safety equipment/ important link kit.

thats just dumb.

[Guest]

sq please explain, the Da Kine fusion is almost 2-3 years on the market and it has "up till now" been deliverd with the aluminium spreader, why are people dumb to use this.?

They bought a kite specific harness and trust that everything has been worked out and tested, all users seam to like the harness (including myself) you got to have a little bit of trust in a company right? Saying you are dumb because you use the alu-spreader which came with the harness is a little bit harsh.

PKV