Naish Torque bar ends dangerous?

[Surferduuude]

Hi,

Having Robby Naish as I childhood hero I recently purchased my first Naish kites. I didn't test them, but so far I really like the Dash

However, the bar ends seems clumsy and almost dangerous with its hard, pointy plastic. I really wouldn't want to get hit in the head with it, and I can image it ripping a wetsiut rather easy. Reviews mentions nothing of it, and are generally full of praise for the Torque bar. I find the CL and trim a bit bulky, but I must admit that the BTB works much better than feared when first holding the bar.

Now I'm considering buying a completely different bar, or perhaps just changing the stick itself. Airush, F One, North etc seems to have a bit more round and soft looking design. Perhaps I should even find a bar with non-integrated floaters, but it seems its the standard nowadays unless its a dedicated foil bar.

Am I the only one feeling a bit meeh about the bar design? Suggestions to a different solutions are welcome

Happy wind,
Niels

[longwhitecloud]

Are they not rubber/soft urethane? if not I would just hacksaw them off

Unusual engineering :-0 if hard plastic...

[Dirk]

To me those ends feel quite soft. I am using two Torque bars since 2017, BTB and ATB, never had an issue, I am teaching my kids with them. They are solid and safe, not more, not less. The swivel is easy to rotate (manually, like most bars) on both versions. I like the small bar diameter.
With the ATB you have less bulk under the bar, if that is a concern. But it does not influence your riding.

I heard in an Instagram stream by one of their team riders that Naish is coming out with a new design. I have not heard about a release date, maybe it will be later than the usual July/August release due to Corona.

[andrzej351]

I have two ATB bars and one BTB bar. These are the best bars and the most durable of those I've had.

[matth]

8 years kiting and I have never been hit in the head with my bar....go ride you will be fine..

If you want to talk about dangerous, how about some of those early foil designs??? I remember some that had spare points in front of the wing that could have penetrated your skull in a bad fall..ouch!!!

[Robsw6]

8 years kiting and I have never been hit in the head with my bar....go ride you will be fine..

If you want to talk about dangerous, how about some of those early foil designs??? I remember some that had spare points in front of the wing that could have penetrated your skull in a bad fall..ouch!!!

+1.... I have hit almost everything imaginable, but never the bar ends.... try taking up hydrofoiling for pointy sharp bits.

[Johnnyrotten204]

Are they not rubber/soft urethane? if not I would just hacksaw them off

Unusual engineering :-0 if hard plastic...

They are hard plastic- it's a part of the bar. But so is the donkey dick... Both aren't anything to worry about. You'd have to spin the bar 90 degrees, then slam it into your face with 12 inches of travel hara-kiri style.

[BillyGoatGruff]

The are the elastic line winders, complete non-issue. The blue plastic tab is on a small bungey and wraps over the black tab. If it does bother you then you could either cut them off, or wrap with some rubber self amalgamating tape around the bar ends: (wrap it over the floats width ways)

https://www.toolstation.com/self-amalga ... gK8T_D_BwE

[Matty V]

Stay home, don’t kite, don’t do anything, lawyer up and sue him..

[tautologies]

So I guess hard plastic is relative, but I also think they feel pretty soft. Definitely not something I would assume could do much damage. Also, look here is a few pics...I am not applying much force on the tab at all and it bends away. Yeah I should have rinsed off my bar but I never do.

In my 20 years of kiting, I have actually managed to hit the bar with my face but hard enough to do any damage...never the bar end tho. I am not sure how that would even work, and I agree we need to be vigilant in making sure our gear is safe. That said, having used this bar since it came out this has never been something I even registered as a point of worry.