Don Monnot wrote:Wow! No leash? No way to sheet in and out? Are you suicidal? Safety in kiting has come a long way, baby. The bar in your picture looks amazingly dangerous. You may be used to it, and may have never had issues with it, but it scares me just looking at it. I suspect nearly any modern bar would work for your kite, and be way safer. It might take some serious adjustment on your part to get used to sheeting in and out to control power, but would probably add a significant safety factor to your kiting.
jmho
Don
I almost thought your post was meant as a joke, but I believe you were serious Don ?
But I assume you thought he was a new kitesurfer, or ?
If so, I understand your concern of course
The rider asking (kito16) is a very experienced and quite skilled rider I believe (also with raceboards and extreme depower systems as used in racing) and knows most.
A pulley bar like the one shown works great, because you can hold the bar much better and freely without the stupid annoying depowerline that gets in the way all the time, and you dont need the depower when you are a skilled C kite rider.
There is in fact still a trim strap on the bar, just to get the trim "dialed in perfectly"
When looping a kite with a pulley bar, it will also help make the kite turn better
So for some unhooked C kite riders it is a win-win-win with a pulley bar.
On the very first kitebars, a FULLY fixed harness loop were used.
But even on the bar shown, there is a release on the harness loop, so it is NOT an unsafe "historical" bar IMO, but a very typical pulley bar
There is even an "oh shit" front line safety handle (or like here for the fith line), that can also be used for your safety leash if you want
It might be difficult or impossible to find these from main production brands, or any brand though, as so few are using pulley bars now.
Same problem as with "everything" that only a few uses
Peter