Leaderboard

Abrasion is a common problem with the Rev LE Vertical Tabs caused by the vertical spars or end-caps rubbing against the Dacron tabs and eventually coming in direct contact with the LE spar. The B-Pro series kites have a piece of Kevlar sewn internally to this tab which prevents this problem. But what do you do if your kite suffers damage and does not have this nice pro feature? Introducing the Kevlar Band-Aid... It is a simple idea and is probably self-explanatory but I thought I would share how I repaired the damage to my kite in case it might help you. Here is the damage that occurred to my kite: To repair this damage I made a “Kevlar Band-Aid” from Dacron Tape, woven Kevlar, and a strong 3M adhesive tape. Here is the design followed by a picture of the Band-Aid: Note that the adhesive tape that I used is very strong and you only get one chance to apply it to anything, hence the Kevlar being slightly askew. Avoid touching it with your fingers. Apply the Band-Aid to the damaged area and clamp it for several hours. After the Band-Aid has been applied you will probably need to recreate the hole for the vertical end-cap shock-cord. I use a soldering iron or wood burning tool to do this... Applied Band-Aid and recreated hole Here is the completed repair: Your vertical spars probably have suffered some damage if this has happened to you. I labeled the damaged ends of my spars as “VB” (Vertical Bottom) to insure that I use these spars only for the verticals and place the worn ends at the bottom. From the picture it appears that there is a crack in one of the spars but this seems to be a crack in the “clear coat” that was applied to the spars. It would certainly be a good idea to have spares should a worn spar fail while you are in the field. I hope you find this useful. S.F.