REBEL STRUT PROB..What the ...

[dennman]

Hi, I bought my rebel from a guy on e-bay..never openend. Its a 12m anyway on taking it home undoing the ribbon and blowin it up I noticed the problem. The strut on the far end has a tiny purpose made hole about 2mm with a piece of string coming out of it..When inflated the bladder pushes up against it so I dont think water could get in to easily. On the end of the string is a knot and I think if I pull it through it may make the hole bigger.What to do I have a surf trip in a week and I've just got rid off my 12 vegas. Anybody come across this

[-wAVe-]

Hi, sounds like a piece of string attached to the strut bladder to make changing the bladder easier.
If you attach a kite line to the string and pull the bladder out of the end of the strut the string can then be used to pull the bladder back in. This means the bladder will seat properly in the strut whereas if you tie the kite line to the valve the bladder may not seat right up against the leading edge. Thats how it works on kites I have used in the past.
I will check my Rebel later to see if it is the same.
My 12m Rebel has been fantastic!

[RORYB1]

Hey Denman,I have the Answer and it too has these extra lines, and as -wave- says ,it is for making life easier when reinserting the bladder into the correct position.
Hope this helps .
Regards Rory

[dennman]

Rory, Wave,
Cheers guy but it seems like it shouldn't be there, a 2mm hole in the strut with 3cm string hangin out. Im trying to resize the photo to post but I cant reduce the size. I've posted it on the flexifoil kiteboarding forum. Although water wont gush in Im sure that where theres a hole theres a way.

[terrios666]

Seriously, this is a huge issue with the kite. A buddy of mine brought one to the beach and while we loved the kite, we took one look at those 2 holes in the struts and immediately had very grave and serious concerns about the performance of the kite. What if the kite crashes in the water and some microscopic fish or even a baby crab makes their way in the hole and decides to live inside the kite?

If there are holes in the struts, what does this say about the quality of gear coming out of the North factory? And not only is it a gaping hole about 2mm, but some fool keeps leaving a string attached to the bladder!

My only thought is that this is part of some super secret yet uncompleted mod for the Rebel, kind of like an anti-inversion line for the struts. I heard some guys in Tarifa were rocking the mod but they were only able to get it from the pro riders.

[dennman]

at least its not the only kite, it is on both struts and it is a small hole 2mm say with a poxy piece of string hangin' out.

[ScottM]

It's for where you attach the kite tail!! ..... damn newbies!!

[-wAVe-]

It's a female kite - male kites don't have the string hanging out. Sometimes the female ones do.

[dennman]

must have a gender problem or is it a heshe.

[dennman]

I dont know if you can all see that or wether I've screwed up my resizing..