Best Bar Elbow Break

[alexeyga]

These are the same bar ends that Blade/Epic and i believe - GK were using (still using in case of Epic), and only the Epic's bar is adjustable in length. If you'll check the Epic's thread - there were known cases of these bar ends coming off as well.

[NYKiter]

Wow....thank you....must be a 'bar elbow contractor' in China. Great post.
I firmly believe they were designed for multiple adjustments...
Whether or not the materials engineering was suited for the task is another story.
Then again the expected maximum tension for the steering lines is somewhere around 150#.
I just happened to be dragging the kite through the water with my massive biceps..
THE TAKE AWAY is obviously don't do it....hence the intention of my thread.

[L0KI]

Just cause you think by the look of something, doesnt mean that it was designed for what you want / think it should do!

I know what the bar looks like as Ive still got one in my shed, but never thought for one minute that even when I started kiting that it should be up to the task of what you tried. More from the fact that there were (as is now) 3 different bar sizes available

Though this does serve as a pointer for others with the same bar to not try the same as they could have similar or worse scenario that you experience. Glad you managed to fix your bar with spares you had

The end on that bar was designed to be able to adjust bar width, that's why it's molded the way it is....very obviously.
It broke because it was sun baked hot, frozen cold, old and used, dried out and brittle or cracked...not because it was misused.
Some bar ends are glued on, some are attached by pop rivet, some use screws, some are glued and riveted, some are glued and screwed and Airush uses a spring loaded push in button (like an Easy Up sun shade).
Eventually many of them go the way this one did, my old Naish just crumbled over time.
Slingshot bar ends seem to hold up better than many others, and they are screwed in at the exact same spot ,before the cover boot goes on.
I have a ten year old Airush bar that is riveted from both sides (on each end) instead of one on the bottom of each end (like the one above), the two rivet on the sides works out well.
If the bar end is not dried out and/or starting to crack along the parting lines, then they are fine.
You can usually see when they are ready to die, if you look at them regularly.
My take away (after my Naish went)...is that I look at my gear closely and fairly often, not had anything funny happen on any part of any of my bars in a long time.

[Kite2Heaven]

Hey - it comes down to a bad engineering design !!!
The screw/rivet hole position is underneath - is in the critical load spreading point !!! And eventually splits, releasing the elbow.
It should be on the side of the bar. I would be weary of any bars made like this...
The naish bars are worse because the have an elongated slot with an thin alloy insert that corrodes easily.
Great examples of awesome bar prices validated for 400 odd quid

[Dr Makani]

The same happened to me too last year. Was cutting my thumb pretty bad while it snapped. Kite decided to loop, so I got to shore in no time

peace

[NYKiter]

Dude..thats plain nasty....

Thanks for the verification!!!!
Its an old bar - and the elbow did split down the seam just like you said...