DIY long pigtail

[Kitedicted]

Hi,
I want to extend the total depower throw on my slingshot compstick, but to do thi I will need to extend my backlines by about 15cm, meaning I need longer pigtails of 25 cm.

I've been reading here, and was thinking about buying 3mm dyneema, then making a brumell locking splice with a very long bury (maybe 20cm) and an overhand knot on the other side.. But reading about it makes it seem like rocket science (arguments about bury length, stitching, taper etc.)

Option two is to fold some dyneema and make a double 8 knot.

Thoughts on this? Thanks

[dango94]

Hey Kitedicted,

here is an example of a possible solution. Adjustable pigtails are available to be purchased off the shelf.
They even have multiple options in length available. Cabrinha sells them as well, but I don't know about their length.

If this is a one-time purchase I would not bother to order the material, learn the skills and do it my myself.

e.g.: https://kiteboarding.com/proddetail.asp ... et&cat=384

If you still want to do them by yourself because you are curious, why not order them off the shelf + the raw material, watch some yt-videos or manuals, and just copy them. What the manufactures do, can't be so wrong. That would give you the opportunity to measure every value, gain know-how you need to know to create them and learn some new skills. Just a thought.

Best,
Dango

[jumptheshark]

Brummell locking splice is soooooo easy. Especially with 3mm line. YouTube is your friend on this one.

[Nem0]

Why you will use such a thick line?
I would use normal lines like extensions.

[Herman]

3mm will work fine and be easy to splice but it is overkill on strength for rear lines. But
if is your first go at splicing 3mm will be a good place to start. I suspect you will be surprised how easy it is. No need to torture the fibres by doing the Brummell as for a single end which requires an inversion just pull through each end as required. Tapering 3mm is easy to do by pulling out a sequence of half of the strands near the end of the bury. Again not critical, you could just cut a angle taper, but not tapering will cause a potential wear point but with 3mm that will not be critical. I use rigging tape or narrow celotape twisted on the end to make the bury easy to grab with the wire splicing tool and easy to pull into the core. The only tools you need are piece of wire, scissors and needle and sail thread.

Have a look at oem gear and you will probably be surprised how short some of the burys are. You only need a full length bury for full strength. Generally in kiting you don’t need full line strength unless you are going thin like flying lines. Trouble is there is very little quotable data on this sort of thing and so any advice is difficult unless you err on the safe side. Maybe a 20cm bury would be overkill. Test your pigs with full body weight and you will soon build experience and confidence in splicing.

[edt]

Knot is fine. Remember that you lose about 2x strength when you make a knot. 3mm is over strength by about 4x so it's fine you don't have to splice. If you make it out of kite line you must splice.

Splicing is easy. You can do that too if you like.

[Herman]

What you refer to as pigtails might be what I would call the rear leaders, there 3mm is often used as it is easier on the hands, reverse launching etc. If you are talking leaders knots etc are fine strength wise but keeping it clean reduces hook up type tangles. A neat way is to put your adjustment under the floaters. But I have flown plenty of bars with just a larks head on leader to loop on flying line without too many issues.

[nixmatters]

Cabrinha adjustable pigtails as dango mentioned above.
Min. length is 15cm (you need to move the knot upwards). Fully extended are 30cm. One fig8 knot shortens them by 3cm.
The pigtail line is exactly the same as their leader lines.

Don't have to be original Cabrinha, repair shops make them. Fixmykite/kiteboarding.com if you're in the US, Infexion in Europe.

[vakiter]

I recently moved some slingshot lines onto a standard bar, and had to make some leader extensions also. I spliced brummel (it is easy and fun to learn) on bar end , and hook rear lines up with larks head on a knot. I really like this for adjustment and line set switching , or for bar maintenance etc. I made my front line attach with larks head too for removal without feeding entire line length through trimmer bracket also.

[Kitedicted]

Hello everyone,
Thanks for replies. I have some Liros D-pro 2mm dymeema so I practised making some brummel lock splices and they did support my bodyweight enough for pullups.

I have this idea because I already make my own depower rope (becaude I can't justify paying 40 euros for a piece of rope), and got the same feeling with pigtails.

Brumell lock splice seems easy enough, short end through long end > long end through short > 50-72x diameter long buried tail that is well tapered. What is a bit scary is testing it by kiting, it would be nice to find way to actually measure the strength of the splice.