Do it yourself RECON?

[MissionMan]

I don't know if I like the one pump idea though. I'd prefer to know if I have a slow leak it only effects one part of the kite, particularly when its a difficult one to find. Could you imagine having to dunk the entire kite under water to find the leak? At least if its only your leading edge going down, you know where to start looking.

The idea of the tube within a tube on a leading edge is definitely a great one, I think you are going to get some really thin leading edges from Gastra and thats something that can work.

Its difficult to say where the further progressions will be though, we all expected lighter material, durability, turning speed and maybe some better bars, but nothing quite like the Recon system, so it makes you realise there are still other things we haven't thought of. Also makes me wonder where all the advances are going to come from, because it always seemed to be Naish coming up with the little ideas (pump leash) so I kinda figured they would be the major players on development, then suddenly cabrinha brings this up (when I thought the only major development they were doing was on faster kites and durability) so it opens the market up a bit. I think this little Recon Bit is going to give them a big jump in market share as I have heard of many people who are keen to convert already.

Maybe it could be a Caution or Wipika that comes in next (bearing in minda Sebastian Catellan has a 5th line system that he reckons allows him to fly a 16m kite in 30+ knots). Then again, Naish may be quiet for a reason as I didn't see many major changes on the X3 so maybe they have something big up their sleeves. You can never count out the legendary Robbie Naish when it comes to new developments

[Leviathon]

need a schematic. C'mon SQ or Dwight!

Already posted one in the other thread on this subject. Its in the forum photo files.

Gotcha - nice one dwight.

Only thing is whats all this about the power transfer to the TE ? For real ?

[captain pugwash]

business being business, you can bet your bottom dollar Cabrinha has a retrofit RECON already tested for existing Cabrinha kites. They will flog the "have to buy a Cabrinha 2004 RECON kite" until the competition releases a RECON equivalent system. At which point it would make sense to get a smaller revenue from existing Cabrinha kite owners instead of having them go elsewhere. The challenge, if anyone dares to accept, is to find details of the retrofit RECON as soon as possible.

[SOLIDKB]

Sorry, but the 2004 Cabrinha kite is not a simple retrofit, the whole kite is partly built aroud the RECON system. There is more to it than just hollow battens... As soon as you have a chance, take a close look at a 2004 and you will see what I mean. There is no retrofit for any kite. I took a close look at one and they are very well engineered and built. But I am not here to tell everyone how its done, its their patent.....not mine..

[Ozone Kites AUS]

here's a thought for you guys, i know we all ditch our kites from time to time when trying new tricks. its innevitable.

but maybe the place for such a system is on beginner kites and not advanced kites. its almost like saying this kite is too difficult to relaunch or will fall into the water if you take your eye off it.

i applaud what cabrinah are doing for lei kites, just not patenitng it.

But advanced riders learning new moves are always plowing it in! Quick re-launch is important to these people, they do not want to spend half a day re-launching.

Its almost like you are saying that because 2004 Cabrinha kites have the recon they must be unstable and hard to re-launch?
Thats just not true for the 2003 and most of the 2002 range, and I am sure the 2004 kites are even better.

Also, I have it from a reliable source, that Cabrinha did not invent the system, so maybe they did not apply for the patent?
Anyway, if someone smart looked at the Flexifoil leashless sytem and the Wipika Air Blast bridles, they could see where this idea came from.
The recon is smart and simple, there is no Z folded line in the batten. The line that goes in to the battens is the line you connect your fly lines to, but it is quite long, compared to the pigtails on a normal kite.
There is a line connected to this line that is also connected to the first 2 struts, I think, as I have not seen the system in the flesh yet, but I will probably go have a look at them in a mates shop tomorrow.
When the front lines are released, the special line moves through the batten transferring all load to the rear linesand at the same time tensioning the line going the the struts, deforming the trailing edge to the point the kite cannot fly forwards and drops on the water.

Fast re-launches that you control are an essential part of the sports progression!

It is NOT an airblast bridle type system, which broke and left you either stranded or flying an out of control monster, and also those bridles rob you of half the feedback your kite is sending down its lines.

[Hernan]

Hi there,

I've seen the recon video, and think it looks like a nice system. Now I don't expect any big manufacturers to come out with a rip-off system (and face the patent lawsuit), but should it not be possible to rig up the same system using your own carbon battens and a few rings?

I think if you used a couple of rings attached to the existing pigtails of your kite, replaced your current batten with a much stiffer one, and rigged up the sliding 'bridle' with some hard-wearing line and some stopper-balls, you should be able to get the same effect.

Any thoughts?

Alan

I'm with you in this one. The most difficult job is founding the right lines lenghs and a simple way to simulate the "tension fitting" action, that fix the back line position in "flying mode". (is a stopper, not spherical but cylindrical) Having a simple stopper ball could work but, perhaps, it does't gives you a solid feel of the back lines.
The cylindrical nature of the "tension fitting" locks the line when downward pull is applied (steering the bar) When the front lines are released, the kite tilts back and the lines pull is more in the same plane as the stopper so it get out of the kite pocket, activating the bridle.

I have to try it, but a ring with two balls could do the job, the first (small) one pass thru the ring and locks the back line, the other (bigger) is the stopper.
A small ball (or knot) thru a ring could function as a stopper under perpendicular pull and pass thru the ring when the front lines are released.

[captain pugwash]

The difficult engineering in the RECON is in the batten ends and 'bullit stopper'. They have been specially moulded and are a good piece of engineering. The rest of the system is very reproducable using standard sailing fittings and a bit of stitching. The mounting of the hollow spar is a sinch to reproduce on an existing kite, although cabrinha have removed the tips of the leading edge from infront of the spar which is good to see. It looks well thought-out. If you can purchase spare spars and bullits, this will be easy to stitch onto an existing non RECON kite.

One point of interest will be spar replacement. I hope the plastic tips pull off the spar because otherwise I can't see a way of replacing it without re-stitching.