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Can I use a single control bar for all my kites?

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Matteo V
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Re: Can I use a single control bar for all my kites?

Postby Matteo V » Mon Mar 18, 2019 3:52 pm

FLandOBX wrote:
Mon Mar 18, 2019 3:48 pm
(Caveat: For foil kites, I use separate bars that remain attached to the kites.)
Yep, I do to. Forgot to add that about foil kites. But I only use foils on snow or an occasional demo on the water.

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Re: Can I use a single control bar for all my kites?

Postby knotwindy » Mon Mar 18, 2019 4:07 pm

You can always have the lines cut down to 23 or whatever you like and have the leftover made into extensions. Lots of places do it for a fair price. :bye:

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Re: Can I use a single control bar for all my kites?

Postby POACHER » Mon Mar 18, 2019 5:02 pm

knotwindy wrote:
Mon Mar 18, 2019 4:07 pm
You can always have the lines cut down to 23 or whatever you like and have the leftover made into extensions. Lots of places do it for a fair price. :bye:
This is what I would do.


I use 28m lines on my 14m kite when I'm trying to get out on marginal days. The extra length does help for lighter air, but I switch back to 22-24m lines the second the wind is up and consistent.

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Re: Can I use a single control bar for all my kites?

Postby edt » Mon Mar 18, 2019 11:57 pm

Don't listen to what others say go see what you like for yourself. For many years I flew everything on 30m lines but now that I just foil and twin tip I switched to 20m. You can fly kites any size line you like. It's what you like that matters.

In general the the advice here about line size in various conditions is good just see for yourself too.

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Re: Can I use a single control bar for all my kites?

Postby alford » Tue Mar 19, 2019 4:24 am

@ OP, are you certain about line length on your bar?The Sentinel 20" bar (50cm) has 20 meter lines and 3m extensions. The 23" bar has the 27m lines.

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Re: Can I use a single control bar for all my kites?

Postby jadog » Tue Mar 19, 2019 6:15 am

I'll have to measure it to be sure, but I believe the seller I bought from may have replaced with 27M. I'll double check though to be sure.

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Re: Can I use a single control bar for all my kites?

Postby pākihiroa » Tue Mar 19, 2019 10:45 am

Matteo V wrote:
Mon Mar 18, 2019 3:21 pm
The best way to train is to buy (cheap used, of the same make as your 6m) and fly it on land with the biggest bar you have. If you train this kite hard by doing drills such as not looking at the kite the entire session, crossing the window and trying to do instant redirects, and multiple loops, you can get used to a faster tempo than you will have to use on the water with your 6m. This is the fastest way I know of to train yourself to push the limits of a smaller kite.
fly it on land ???
Well, they say that what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. But that sounds like particularly dangerous advice to me. Especially on an unfamiliar 6m on the biggest bar you have. You could easily unintentionally loop it and launch yourself into a car or a tree before you even have time to blink.

I don't really care if someone who should know better hurts themselves following this advice. I do care a bit if someone who doesn't know any better hurts themselves.

And, I especially care if some idiot knocks themselves unconscious unnecessarily practicing with a kite on land thereby causing me to lose an hour's worth of prime kiting time waiting for the ambulance to arrive. It's a real dilemma. Do you do the right thing and stay with them ? Or do you say to yourself "That's just Darwin at work, hope they will be OK" and hit the water anyway ? Yes, this is speaking from personal experience and, yes, of course I stayed at the entrance to the kite park in order to direct the ambulance expeditiously to the victim.

Why not give yourself some safety margin and practice on the water ?

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Re: Can I use a single control bar for all my kites?

Postby Matteo V » Tue Mar 19, 2019 3:05 pm

pākihiroa wrote:
Tue Mar 19, 2019 10:45 am
Well, they say that what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. But that sounds like particularly dangerous advice to me. Especially on an unfamiliar 6m on the biggest bar you have. You could easily unintentionally loop it and launch yourself into a car or a tree before you even have time to blink.

I don't really care if someone who should know better hurts themselves following this advice. I do care a bit if someone who doesn't know any better hurts themselves.
Thanks for pointing out something I need to be more clear on, and please re-read my origional post as I have made a correction. Understand that because I was a snowkiter first, I forget that many kiters have virtually no experience with land/snowkiting - other than launching and landing. And in almost all beginner through intermediate land/snowkiting, the kiter can (and almost always does) use a smaller kite by sometimes 4-5m, than they would use on the water in that same wind speed.


My first correction would be that every single kiter needs to know that being overpowered on the land is extremely dangerous at any kite size/wind speed. So even water kiters would not want to put up a 6m if the winds are too strong for a 6m at their skill level. This is because at every "launch on land" water kiting location, there is always the increased risk of an accident because being on land is unavoidable, at least for a time. And that time spent launching and landing is where the greatest danger something going wrong exists.

Second, on land, there is no need to fly powered, and definitely no need to fly overpowered. You can use a 6m kite to fly static on land in winds that you would need a 9m to 17m on the water. For all practical purposes, the 6m will fly just as well as those larger kites with much less pull when using that 6m on land in lighter winds. The difference will be that the 6m, due to it's size, will turn much faster. Given a longer bar to fly it, the kiter will be able to simulate the increased turning speeds in higher winds. This could be a good way to address your safety concerns while still learning smaller kites.

Or, as my advice suggested, get a 4m to fly on land in high wind conditions. Just make sure that the winds on the day you are flying on land are around 7m to 12m winds for water kiters. This will prepare you for the increased turning speed.


As pākihiroa points out, there are still dangers that the kiter must accept if they want to go down in size. I feel it is best to wait before you go down to a small kite for some time. And do so incrementally. Go down 2m after about 6months of frequent riding. Then another 2m in another 6months. For the ultimate in safety, consider using only large kites in light wind, though that is not completely safe itself.

And for you, pākihiroa, there is an even safer way for you to simulate a fast turning small kite in high winds with almost zero risk. I discovered this while giving trainer kite lessons when I first was moving down to a 7m kite. In those trainer kite lessons, I found that while demonstrating to students looping in medium winds, I was not extremely accurate with re-directing the kite more than about 80% of the time. Realizing this, I decided to train myself with the trainer once again, but with a different focus. That focus was higher winds and not looking at the kite. Sometimes I would even cause my self to be disoriented to practice recovery. With this practice, I quickly increased my control of my 7 and 5m kites in winds that did justify their use on the water with my 100kg weight.

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Re: Can I use a single control bar for all my kites?

Postby iriejohn » Tue Mar 19, 2019 6:26 pm

I fly 6/8/10/12m on the same Ozone 50cm (20") bar with 25m lines no problem. :thumb:

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Re: Can I use a single control bar for all my kites?

Postby JakeFarley » Tue Mar 19, 2019 9:46 pm

As the OP indicated, his quiver of kites are all the same brand/model. If you have a mixed quiver like I do, a single bar might not work as some kites need a high Y or a low V configuration.


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