making it cheaper is easy. Just get 100 times as many kiters...and a fewer companies to make kites.C Johnson wrote:so will there be a space age price tag for these space age kites of the future?
howbout we work on making them cheaper rather then better? I think they are plenty good already. The prices just seem a little on the high side for what you get.
That assumes zero waste too. which pretty much never happens. especially when you're trying to cut complex canopy shapes out of squares of material.edt wrote:teijin t9600 is about $25 per meter, that's $300 for a 12m kite just for the fabric that doesn't count ripstop for the leading edge, polyester thread, labor, bridles of dyneema sk75 30 cents a foot, sheathing, polyrethane bladders, valves stainless steel rings, ronstan pulleys.
This isn't meant to be taken in a negative way :eree wrote:i wouldn't be very optimistic about much room for refinements.pmaggie wrote:...there's room for refinements but a real revolution is not that likely...
...
so i'm not really expecting to see some significant progress next decade.
I'm saying that the technology already exists for better kites.eree wrote:i'd say when chickens start piing (i.e. not in the foreseeable future).Bille wrote:When will our Kites start evolving towards This ??
Bille
why? look what kites cost today and how they are made:
- cheapest material ever - polyester
- polyester cloth is made on the looms which work usually 24/7, so, it means big numbers and low costs. nobody will build the looms for manufacturing small batches couple of times a year
- cheapest labor and technology (for south-east asian seamster it is no difference to stitch together the kite or the brassiere for the overweight lady)
- life span of the kite two to four years (depends on usage) because of polyester light degrade and wind wear
and kites still cost at least three times more than a mountain bike made from hi-tech alloys and which has life span for the decades!
now, if kite would be made like hi-tech gliders with all those carbon fibers, who could really buy them?
"ambassador" Branson and couple of dozens of his buddies?
BWD. You are comparing apples and oranges. A kite is much more complex than most sails. The boards you are looking at for 500 is not the same beefed up construction as most kiteboards. If they were we'd be all riding those ultra light construction.
Alright lads it's like this:teijin t9600 is about $25 per meter, that's $300 for a 12m kite just for the fabric that doesn't count ripstop for the leading edge, polyester thread, labor, bridles of dyneema sk75 30 cents a foot, sheathing, polyrethane bladders, valves stainless steel rings,
Sometimes that's true. However, look at the surfing industry, or the snowboarding or skiing industries. Easily a 100 times as many surfers, skiers or snowboarders as there are kiters. Yet the cost of boards, boots, bindings, suites still goes up every year.tautologies wrote:making it cheaper is easy. Just get 100 times as many kiters...and a fewer companies to make kites.C Johnson wrote:so will there be a space age price tag for these space age kites of the future?
howbout we work on making them cheaper rather then better? I think they are plenty good already. The prices just seem a little on the high side for what you get.
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