If they don't burst they leak in a multitude of pinholes at the creases/folds- and since they oversize them there are bound to be creases.

Here's a video of me repairing a leading edge from the inside using KITEAID. The bonus is that i did it without having to un-stitch the strut. This is a new product that I am working on and that is being tested by our KITEAID Repair Centers. I hope this video helps you when you need to repair your kite!

Did anybody had any success repairing small struts with KITEAID? I have about 3/4" clean cut accross one of the struts (still can't figure out what did I cut it with). It's not in a critical spot or anything, but I wanted to repair it in the most solid-way possible to prevent any further tearing... Problem is - KITEAID patches keep falling off. Have already gone through 4 of them... I'm guessing that it's due to the fact that struts have huge surface curvature (small diameter). And yes I've properly cleaned and prepped the material before applying these patches. Good stuff otherwise...

Come on get out your needle and thread and sew that patch on to finish the job, it's not hard and if you hand sew you don't have to undo the seam

That sounds like you used the KITEAID material for ripstop, the standard material. I did this too, before their new LE material seen in the video above came out, with the same result as you. That stuff is not made for Dacron and therfore does not stick very well (ask them why, something with stretch and stuff). However with the new material made for dacron, it works like a charm! I had some for testing this summer in Portugal and repaired my 6 or 7 large rips in LE (flew the kite into a sheet-metal roof) with excellent results! You can hardly see the repairs as the patch sits inside the strut or LE, and therefore the pressure from the bladder also helps keeping it in place.

I repaired a clients kite, the LE was ripped half way in one of the seems between segments. Worked fine!

Thanks for the input! I was kinda suspecting that it only works on the canopy material, but made a few tests with spare Dacron and it seemed to hold fine - at least on the test strips, KITEAID fabric was failing before the glue.... Anyways, the season is over here and my next trip to South is in February, so i'll wait till that new stuff hits our local stores before doing any further dacron ironing... ))) Though I can hardly imagine applying that kind of a patch from inside as the cut is located just past the middle of the strut towards the tip... got about 2.5" of diameter to work with...(((

Cheers!

Thats the beauty of it! You cut a piece that is approx 2 cm longer than the rip on each end, so 4cm in total extra. Then you just put it inside the strut through the rip (after sanding and cleaning), position it where you want it and smack the iron down for 20sec. done.

If the bladder is to narrow and the patch will be folded when the bladder is flattened with the iron, i would try to cut the patch as wide as possible without it gettin folded, and then try. You should be able to get at least 1-2 cm of "grip" on each side of the tear, which should be enough as the patch is on the inside, thus being supported by the bladder and spreading the load in a good way.

Here's the suite of my strut repair:

Stephan from KiteAid has contacted me and offered a sample of the new leading-edge patch to try. Which i've got, so here we go:

This is my last attempt in repairing the strut with the "regular" KiteAid, after 5 days of riding and sun exposure:

Note that it's already pealing off and it took no effort to remove it, even though right after the application it was rock-solid.

Here's the cut in question, note that the surface has been sanded and prepped:


Still don't know what I did it with, but my kite deflated after I accidentally landed it in the water while walking away from shore. The kite rolled, then I've relaunched it fallowing by the complete loss of air. The cut looked surgically-sharp through both the strut fabric and the bladder. Caught a piece of shell while it was rolling?:


The struts on this particular kite model don't have a zipper at the bottom, so I've got a whopping 2" of the access opening to work through:


Made a 2" flatbar out of the 1/4" thick Lexan piece. Nice and flat. Doesn't absorb heat too well.:


Cleaning the internal surface with alcohol through the cut:


The new patch is ready, note the mark in the center for the alignment purposes:


The new patch in place - already aligned and the flatbar is placed underneath. Had to roll the patch into a small tube, feed through the cut and unfold inside... What was the name of that film where they had to perform an ear surgery through the patient's ass?:


20 seconds of ironing and here we go:


Actually it's twice the 20seconds as the patch was much wider than the flatbar underneath. So i did it in 2 halfs, just like I had to apply the old-style patches because of the seam:


And a piece of DACRON on top for good looks:


The whole process with pictures and bladder removing/installing took about 1.5H and I wasn't too hard pressed. The patch feels very solid and nicely glued in place. Can't speak about it's long-term effect as our season is over up here, so this kite won't see any flying till February at least. It's a good idea to give the patch some curvature (pre-stress with the original strut's radius) while it's still hot - just a good idea...

That's about it, stupid simple and clean.

Thanks KITEAID!!!!

I did a repair in the leading edge of my kite with some self adhesive dacron. The nick (15-20mm) was quite close to the zipper on the bladder so I cut out some round oversized patches and after cleaning stuck one on the inside and outside.

I originally just did this to get me through the crazy Christmas period and then I could get it professionally repaired however I am now tempted to run the gauntlet with the home repair.
Do you guys think I would be foolish to not check the kite in and get it fixed properly or what?

Hi Frankie,

Please let us know if KITEAID can help. We are very confident in our new Leading Edge repair product for this type of repair. We could get you some in the mail asap and get it to you easily within a week..

Email us at info@kiteaid.com if you are interested in testing this new product out.

Thank you and happy New Year!


sk