String Maintenance?

[Dust]

Is there anything that can be used to clean, condition, or possible "lube" the lines? My strings are getting a bit dirty and was curious if i should clean them somwhow.

Also when the kites twists more than 5 or 6 times i hear the tension between the lines and it made me think if there was any type of dry lube or conditioner to keep the lines supple and smooth.

Anything like that?

Just a thought.

Dust

[Spence Watson]

My usual method to clean lines is to let them soak in water, and rub them with my thumbs while the line is still on the winder. This get most of the sand and salt off of the lines. I've heard of some people using wd-40 on a rag, and applying it down the length of the lines. I've never tried this before, and cannot comment on its effectiveness.

Generally, when lines get to the point where they are binding too much, it is time to buy a new line set. You can tell it's time when you can see a lot of little spines poking out off of the line. I fly pretty often, and a line set will usually last 1-3 years for me, depending on what I do with them. Sand is particularly abrasive, and dog-staking kills a line set pretty quick.

[drdante]

Hello kitelife friends

For cleaning my lines. To rinse of sand and other fragments I use water, while the lines are rolled up on the winder.

I have occasionally used a dishwashing brush with a little soap on.

When the lines are dry, I roll them out, put a spear in each end. I then smear the lines with silicone oil.

This is a very thin silicon oil. As in Denmark may be purchased at gas stations. This oil is used to lubricate the rubber seals in the doors of a car,

I do not know if this is available in the United States. but I would think so.

after I have smeared my lines, they just lie and dry 10-15 minutes, I would recommend to repeat this a few times when the lines have not been treated before.

With this treatment, I have experienced the life extension of my lines. Furthermore, we also use it in team flying, or solo flight.

My experience with this is if your liners locks after about 5 turns, you at LEAST make 7-10 turns further until I have the feeling of my lines begin to interlock.

In team flying, you will also notice a big difference, because the lines do not have the same tendency to lock. However,

it requires all use the same treatment of similar lines.

If you use an aluminum dogstack, you may find this aluminum will rub off on your lines. So they become completely black but this should not have any impact on the function, but only on the issue of the color of the lines. This is tested on JB `s dogstack and lines in France (sorry JB :-)

The disadvantage of this treatment is that the lines can gather dust, especially on days when it is hot and dry. But I have not seen it as a problem for me!

I can only recommend it!

Sincerely, Dan (drdante)

[RobB]

Dust... what kind of lines do you have ? Quality lines like Laser Pro are an important investment to your kite flying hobby. I've messed around with the other brands of Spectra, they're all pretty much as good as long as they're even. I never do any maintenance to my lines, when they wear out, I switch them out. Like Spence says, up to 3 years is what you can expect from good lines. I do 90% of my flying on sand, and my lines go in the salt water frequently. Like I said, zero maintenance except for occasional length matching. I get 15-20 wraps out of all my linesets before they bind, even the oldest, fuzziest ones. There's something wrong with your lines if you're only getting 5-6 wraps.

Oh, I should mention that I fly dual line 98% of the time, I don't really wrap my quad lines more than 5-10 times, they do tend to bind quicker. Don't know what you fly...

[John Barresi]

On my quad line sets, after a solid year of flying, it's not uncommon to start getting a little binding (line lock) around 6 wraps.