Please measure your line lengths!

[iriejohn]

Recently switched from Slingshot bars with Slingshot 23m lines to Ozone bars with Ozone 23m SK99 lines. Kites felt a lot more direct and snappy. Decided to recalibrate an Ozone bar this morning and suddenly realised that I was standing a good bit nearer to the hook the lines were on than I was used to. So measured the length of both the Slingshot bar/lines and the Ozone bar/lines with bars held at full power, both bars perfectly calibrated.

Surprise!

The Ozone lines are exactly 23m but the Slingshot lines are 24.6m!!! (Same thing with Ozone bar with 27m lines, Slingshot 28.6m!)

Went out this afternoon in marginal conditions and unsurprisingly with the 12m the low end was not as good as it used to be with the Slingshot bar/lines.

Have never read a kite test where line lengths have actually been physically measured, so it's an easy way for a manufacturer to improve a kites tested low end!

What are your published and actual line lengths?

[dylan*]

Are you measuring from the barends or at the end of the leader lines? The leader lines add a bit, so that could explain it. Plus line stretch over time.

[iriejohn]

To the bar, not the leader lines.

[evan]

http://www.infexion.nl/info/vergelijkingstabel-barren/

Made an overview a few years ago, it is in Dutch but you can focus on the last column of the table. For example Airush advertises with 23m lines where the actual length from the end of pigtails to bottom of the bar was 1.14m longer.

Ozone is the only one that exactly states the total line length including the leaders, with all others you have to add up to 2.5m to the given line length. And some are even more obscure, for years Cabrinha didn't even mention their line lengths. No problem if all their bars were the same, but that wasn't the case with lengths varying from 22-27m.

[Onda]

I´m sure it has something to do with the metric system which is a prodigy for many "imperials"

Vincent: „And you know what they call a... a... a Quarter Pounder with Cheese in Paris?“
Jules: „They don't call it a Quarter Pounder with cheese?“
Vincent: „No man, they got the metric system. They wouldn't know what the f*** a Quarter Pounder is.“
Jules: „Then what do they call it?“
Vincent: „They call it a Royale with cheese.“

[iriejohn]

http://www.infexion.nl/info/vergelijkingstabel-barren/

Made an overview a few years ago, it is in Dutch but you can focus on the last column of the table. For example Airush advertises with 23m lines where the actual length from the end of pigtails to bottom of the bar was 1.14m longer.

Ozone is the only one that exactly states the total line length including the leaders, with all others you have to add up to 2.5m to the given line length. And some are even more obscure, for years Cabrinha didn't even mention their line lengths. No problem if all their bars were the same, but that wasn't the case with lengths varying from 22-27m.

Thank you for posting that table (Google translated it into Engrish for me), much appreciated!

Wish I'd known that before getting Ozone 23m lines because Ozone 25m lines are nearer in length to Slingshot 23m lines which is what my brian (sic) is dialled into with my Enduros. Live and learn.

[baxterbradford]

Being able to measure strings ought to be even easier than area, where brands also consistently fail to be able to give correct figures.

[iriejohn]

Being able to measure strings ought to be even easier than area, where brands also consistently fail to be able to give correct figures.

Exactly. And it's one thing that I have never seen measured in tests so it's easy for a manufacturer to get a "more powerful" kite simply by increasing line length ...

[vela99]

May I add another variable to this? Maybe off topic but related.

Ignoring for a moment if it is delta shape, C-shape or hybrid shape, the same is true for kite surface area. I once saw a kite from another brand, comparable shape, which was much bigger than mine being in theory the same m2 size! (Then there is of course the real surface area vs. the projected area)

Brands seem to play with this depending on if they want to sell low or high end for a given model.

[evan]

Another variable: bridle length. That can also add up to several meters in line length between different brands and model kites.
Some have an almost direct connection to steering line pigtails on the kite where others have really long bridles.

So comparing a short bridled kite on a 23m ozone bar to one with long bridles on a 23m Slingshot bar gives maybe almost 4m difference.

I am surprised that this isn't common knowledge, especially for the ones making reviews because there is a huge difference in feeling between 23 or 27m lines.
And it is the length from your harness to the center strut that matters when comparing kites, not only the length of the steering lines...