On the backside of my leading edge there is a seam which rubs on the kite panels. I now have a wear line which runs almost the whole length of my kite, but it's worse about 2 feet from the tips.

What should I do to fix this? Do i put tape on the backside of the leading edge so that seams are not so abrasive? Or do I just tape the inside of the panels because they are almost wearing through in spots?

Need Help.

is that a 2001 or 2002?

It's a 2001. I hope the 2002's don't have this problem cause maybe then I'll get a used 2002 Fuel 180. I think they are dacron right?

sorry to hear about ya problem. same happened to me on my wippika free air. i taped the panels where they were rubbing. it seemed to fix the problem and prevented futher damage without affecting performance.
good luck,

Jungles

What kind/type of tape did you use to fix your Free Air? Is their some type of transparent tape, so the repair doesn't look bad? Did you tape the panels on the inside? I have never done any kite repairs before, anymore advice?

Most all kites with a dacron leading edge experienced this problem. It seems that the kite manufacturers weren't aware of how abrasive this dacron seam is. The problem today is that there are still some kite manufacturers that are ignorant to this fact. The 2002 SlingShots have this abrasive seam covered by a newer flatter seam that 100% eliminates this problem. I'm not sure which other brands may employ this same tactic. I did see an interview in the latest kiteboarding magazine were they were saying that he new Gasstra kites have this new seam taped over top of the abrasive seam. The only thing I didn't care about the interview was the fact that they claimed to be the first kite manufacturer to do this, when it fact, it was SlingShot who first made use of this innovation.

So no, the newer SlingShots don't have this issue. You really should consider upgrading to one too as the 2002 SlingShot blow away the 2001 models in more ways than just that seam.

Johnny

Thanks Alot for the advice I may just upgrade next season! But what do I do to fix this for the rest of this season cause I can't get another kite until next year. Or maybe I'll upgrade kites and my wife will nevr know the difference....to bad they didn't stay with the same color scheme for 2002

AHHH! The color scheme is even better now! What I would do is run a piece of tape along the inside of the canopy to prevent having an inevitable JSA failure due to this continueing wear on your canopy. If you wish to prevent the problem from re-occuring and wearing through your new line of tape, you should also run a piece of tape about 3/8 to 1/2 of an inch wide aling this abrasive seam on the leading edge. By doing this, you will be covering that exposed edge of highly abrasive dacron. Again, SlingShot noticed and corrected this problem in just their second year of building inflatables. I don't think that this is the end of some pretty serious and much needed innovations from them that most all kites today need.

Johnny

Where can I get some of this tape? Is it the transparent mylar stuff? I need it fast!!!