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Addiction mods Ive done..


audioRob
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I have a premier addiction that I couldnt resist for the price I got it for. When I first took it out, it overrotated nearly ever turn by 90deg then wobbled back, axle's often grab the wingtip no matter how much slack you threw at it, and anything advanced... well forget about it. Oh yeah, the spine broke twice, once during a mild flic flac and second time during a superstart. Must mention premier was rather cool and sent freebies. very nice :wub:

Soooo I began the long processes of modding this thing to get a little more performance out of it. I dont have any pictures yet because I got a bad rod yesterday that split the left lower spreader right down the center of the rod. I think explanation should do, it's simple and cheap.

First thing that was important was to add a thick dacron "bandaid" over the nose. This was for 2 reasons, it desperately needed to be reinforced, and the slight addition of weight helped balance the kite a surprising amount.

Then I replaced the spine with .1960 pultruded graphite. Tried nearly everything under the sun and this gave the best results.

You know that weird lower spreader on the addiction? Well I dont know about you but the spine moved side to side to side constantly.Throwing the kite completely off balance. So, simply replace that single long 5mm rod with .1960 pultruded graphite and a standard 0.196 center-t. I made mine aprox 1" longer (that's 0.5" on each side) than the default to tension the sail slightly more.

The upper spread I tried, once again, just about everything. And the default 5mm worked best.

Now changing the bridle is up to you, I adjusted the connection points above the connectors. Also the adjustment portion (not sure of the correct word) of the brdiel constantly slipped so I added 3 knots to keep adjustments. The second most extreme setting gave sharp, accurate turns for me. If you take a look at it, im sure you can figure out what Im talking about.

I also made a sail modification, but it was completely cosmetic. I didnt like the default colors :)

I had 3 other experiented kitefliers testing with me along the process and took careful notes of each change. This final is the consensus of top performance between the 4 of us after around 100 changes. It can pull most all the tricks now (does require some weighting in winds above around 12-13mph, which I added a weighting system to it, but that's very optional) Hopefully this very simple mod can help someone out. For about 55$ + 10$ in parts you can have a very good performing kite.

Hopefully this is the proper forum to place this in :) Back to writing a review of the newtech bigbang and stx 2.1 for the new review forum :P

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  • 10 years later...

Very interesting since I just got a new addiction myself. Well I'm sure it's an old kite now but I just picked it up at the store a couple days ago. I would love to do some of this to have a better performing kite. I broke the spine first flight in mid air just by turning. I just wanted a decent kite to start learning a few tricks on now I'm just sad lol


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I would suspect the spine may have already been cracked & the first flight merely finished it off.  It may have been damaged in the store or during transit.  I have smacked the ground with kites & thought they were okay at that point.  When I got them in the air the first gust broke them.  At that time I thought the gust was strong enough by itself to break the tube but after discussing it with others I came to the conclusion that the damage had already been done.  I was flying a Mongoose in too strong wind one time & hit the ground during a gust.  I got the kite in the air flying it around for a bit & noticed it seemed to have a hinge in the spine.  It flew okay but I immediately landed off to the side & was relieved to see the sail was okay.  It was some time before I was able to get the proper replacement tube as I live out in the sticks.   SHBKF

Mongoose is the one that is leaning on the cinder block wall.  I had a few other kites to fly in the meantime.....

2-6-13 ten kites.JPG

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I sure hope your right. I do know the guy in the shop admitted to not know much about stunt kites. He does however fly large deltas a lot. I bought the addiction because I felt like he gave me a good deal on it and I really want to start learning some basic tricks. I am confident enough of a flyer to fly in circles and squares and land on the edge of the window.


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Many fliers talk about accidentally stepping on their kites, closing car doors on the tips, dogs attacking them when they land & so on.  Probably just a matter of time before something like that occurs for most of us.  Just recently I was loading a few in the back of a van & just before I shut the door the Prism 4D slid part way out trying to make an escape.  Luckily I saw it.  That would have destroyed that delicate little SUL no doubt.  I also have broken a kite in the first moments of the first flight & broken expensive vintage kites doing things that I knew better than to attempt.  New parts & a bit of sewing/taping/gluing have covered my sins.  But they are just kites after all.  Best of luck to you.  

Just keep flyin', SHBKF

large.56f8453d5aab1_Flighttothesun.jpg

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