Colors?

[H2Oaltitude]

Hello forum, new poster here. Just wanted to say hello, and get the groups opinion on the current trend of kite colors. Black, Black and oh yeah... Black. Is it really less UV resistant? Just the current market trend or ??? Whats your thoughts? I like black accents but if things continue down this road, the beach will start to look like a funeral procession...

[matth]

No a fan of black colors in kites. Give my bright , happy, colors.

[juandesooka]

Black kites are the stupidest thing ever ... and I should know, I have a quiver of them (BWS). Really dumb from a safety standpoint, especially in grey on grey northern climates. But I think they also degrade quicker in the hot sun. I got one used kite from Australia and it was shocking how uv damaged it was in a pretty short time period (I imagine day after day in the blistering sun).

[H2Oaltitude]

Black kites are the stupidest thing ever ... and I should know, I have a quiver of them (BWS). Really dumb from a safety standpoint, especially in grey on grey northern climates. But I think they also degrade quicker in the hot sun. I got one used kite from Australia and it was shocking how uv damaged it was in a pretty short time period (I imagine day after day in the blistering sun).

I agree. I read that "they" claim black is less prone to UV damage but I don't agree with that concept. It (black) generates more heat and therefore would seem to degrade quicker???

..." and I should know, I have a quiver of them (BWS)." I do as well, (black kites) it seems every manufacturer has purchased millions of yards of black and are ALL trying to use it up as quickly as possible LOL. Or.....maybe it confirms the conspiracy theory that all/most kites are sewn in the "one and only" factory?

[rynhardt]

Also not a fan of black kites and I own two of them
Got them cheap because nobody else wanted them I guess.

[Toby]

Safetywise black is bad, same like dark blue.

Back then we had neon yellow, red and green.
Perfect to see if things go wrong.

There already have been several rescue missions where a bright color could have helped more.

And there are such nice color schemes possible.

[iriejohn]

Black for the leading edge perhaps, but in the main panels certainly not black! And not white either which can stain very badly. I have a bit if white in my (predominently red) kites so I know I have to be careful.

If the kites were designed for animals it would perhaps make sense.

Dogs, cats, mice, rats and rabbits have very poor color vision. In fact, they see mostly greys and some blues and yellows

[Zian kiteboarding]

In general, to get a very bright color, the UV protection needs to be reduced so it's better to push them down a few shades.

Hence:
Neon / very bright colors have lower UV resistance then dark colors.
Neon / very bright colors are more prone to color (fading) then dark colors.
Black getting more warm is not related to UV damage.

How relevant UV damage is for the average kiter? I think in the case of the two Japanese canopee manufacturers its close to none as the brands and manufacturer know what to avoid. The coating and canopee gets worn anyway over time depending on person/(ab)use/location which may have more impact on your canopee than the initial UV resistance. For the average person the visibility is far more relevant to consider (imo).

[Toby]

I dislike black tubes...always fear it blows up...

[CaptainCore]

I think you'll find black is more visible than most in our Northern European 'grey sea meets grey sky' than say lighter colours. Not that I'm a fan personally even though it's the predominant colour of the kites we're selling right now, everybody seems to want the black model because our beaches are so dirty and it doesn't show up the mud, oil and other crap we end up getting on our kites here in the UK.
It's good from a commercial standpoint as it's easier to stock, the previous kite companies we dealt with refused to permit ordering by colour so we could never satisfy say a customer who wanted his/her entire quiver in the same colour and whichever colour was popular quickly ran out with the supplier (or so they said, you never really could trust Slingshots word on anything)
Traditionally the worse colour for remaining colourfast against UV is red for reasons unknown to me, but it is more likely to fade, I know this from time spent in the printing industry where the Holy Grail was a red ink that wouldn't fade on posters. So it's Henry Ford for me, you can have any colour kite you like as long as it's black..