Kite Making
Discuss kite making techniques, styles and applications here!
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Thanks guys and as riffclown pointed out, I am very much a " self proclaimed newbie"!! I will stick with what I currently have and learn to fly it and then decide what I want to do. Djinn...................🤔 I think I likely misunderstood what makatakam wrote. And thank-you Paul for the info on the french bridle. That would take some time and patience!!
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Dang I'm excited for you. You got 3 way different kites and with hours of practice they'll all fly in 3 mph. IMO wear out your stock dyneema lines. Widow with the 150# and Wolf with 90# is enough at the start. Had Laser Pro pretty early on but it was months before I could really feel a big difference. Quads is a different deal. Somewhere in the back of my mind I think I try to destroy my Nighthawk so I can get a Wolf. Remember that it won't be as stable as the Hydra or Widow. It's more twitchy and if you use the same type of inputs the oversteer will be quite dramatic. It doesn't take long to figure out. At the start it's one you should hold onto the straps instead of looping them around the wrist for sure. When the crash is coming let go.Yeah it's been said before but it is extremely important for confidence. The first breaks rattled the heck out of me. For now that should be the way for all your kites. As I developed I ended up wrapping around my wrist and doing a lot of inputs with my index finger. In higher winds I add the middle. As you get better no way is right except what you like. Dodd Gross in his videos just grips the straps and I think he might be a pro. I have a tendency to be a little kite snobby but that's not my intent at all.I've got 5 high end kites that are the bomb. Been at this 2 years next month and doubt anyone would outgrow a Hydra, Widow ng or Wolf. Yeah the feel of the high end ones is better. Tricks seem smoother and can be more rewarding. No they're not as well rounded as a Tekken(favorite). My boutiques have a more airy feel to them. The dance is more elegant. Can't really see it but you can feel it.If you get a Tica it won't take long to get the drift of what I can't really describe. Here's the thing though the high end ones have never exceeded the FUN factor of my other kites. Having fun is the most important point of all this kite stuff anyways. PLUS ya got quads too!! WOW did you jump into the deep end of the ocean. Hey that's cool I didn't drown and neither will you LOL. -
By Paul LaMasters · Posted
one more thing, you have to tune the French bridle to fit your current preferred handle leader settings before enjoying that first maiden voyage. The kite is tune correctly when it will back-up from inverted on the ground. you may need to shorter either the tops or the bottoms of the bridle attachment legs to match your existing settings, this is done by feel, (install a little overhand knot behind or in front of the existing ones and test again, when you get it right "cut off the excess"). Now when you go from one kite to another comparing, there's no tuning considerations of leaders based upon which bridle is installed. -
By Paul LaMasters · Posted
you could do a French bridle yourself, fifty feet of 100# hi-test bridle line and four hours of assembly (if you've done it before) here's the dimensions from team Crazy Drivers in France, go slow and you can do it yourself. the impact of such a bridle is most noticeably felt in a dead calm or very low wind conditions, when everything matters most, when you want a direct connection to the kite and no wiggle, when every action is one you placed there, nothing is free like overstreering, so you need a bigger action on the handles to MAKE it fly in the same manner as a stock bridle. You are grabbing the kite outside of the frame with the flying lines, so the kite feels bigger in your grasp. A little tiny steering wheel is never on a school bus. All of the responsiveness (if you like it) or twitchiness (if you don't!) is what all the fuss is about. A stock bridle has two legs that attach to the center on the leading edge, the FB uses 6! The stock one can be moved laterally( w/o the frame moving) inches at the leading edge! The French Bridle has four legs that secure your bottom flying line attachment points (so you can fly w/one line tight and 3 slack,... like WAY out there on the edge!), You're still whole connected to the frame. There's no Whump preloading necessary, that cocking action is built in. Lately I have been installing an inch spacer (loop between the bridle and the kite frame itself) so that loop wears out instead of the bridle. I buy my bridles from Eliot/Cath Shook at Flying smiles kites. There's like forty bucks a piece and I have a whole bunch of Revs. I can't afford to keep replacing them all, equals new suite of Bazzer or Eliot's kites. Does this change the dynamics of flight? Sure but not enough to spend two grand extra!!!! This is not a new bridle design and actually fits best on the old styled revs sails marked SLE 1.5 upon which it was based. I use it on a Phoenix Ash, all of my B-Pros, all of my Shook Meshes and the zen (different size) as well as the b-2/Rev2 or Eliot's new mini shook mesh (75% only, again a different sized French bridle is available to fit this format) When people consider this modification my advise is always put it on your oldest most beat up sail, see the difference compared to a brand spankin' new kite. All that matters is if it feels better to you. Enjoy if you decide to give it a go! -
By John Barresi · Posted
The Sync Bridle is tailored to the Djinn specifically and I wouldn’t vouch for transfer to another kite - there is just too much going on - even changing the length of one bridle leg by half an inch changes performance and sail pressure, the impact of different vertical spar location and kite proportions on the center portion of the bridle would be massive. To this end, the complete Sync Bridle isn’t available for purchase except on a Djinn, though the bridle components that wear out are available - as mentioned above, both the French and 1.5 style bridles transfer pretty well from kite to kite.
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