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Worn bridle line repair

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darippah
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Worn bridle line repair

Postby darippah » Mon Jul 12, 2021 9:33 pm

One bridle line on My 17m r1v2 is severely worn and looks like it’s about to snap.

Would it be safe to stitch another piece of line overlapping both ends of the worn line by a few inches ?

That seems like a much easier solution than custom ordering the bridle , waiting a month for it to come, and taking the bridles apart. I’m not racing or anything so a small sacrifice would be well worth it as long as it’s a solid connection that won’t break on me

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Re: Worn bridle line repair

Postby Foil » Wed Jul 14, 2021 7:03 am

blimey, sounds like you need a proper replacement.
I have mentioned this before, and few guys know this is an option, Ozone do a full replacement set of bridals for your kite, but not just the standard thin fragile shrink back stuff, 3 options are available at what I think is a steal of a price, around £200 gmb or around 240 euro for a full set of the much better, sheathed "heavier" bridals with full speed system including the orbit pulleys are there available now! make your kite like new again, these are exactly the same spec bridals as fitted to Chrono V4 and V3, and all Hyperlinks,
I was thinking if your old bridals are that bad then patching up is not great for peace of mind during jumps or blasting out to sea, too scary of an option for me, but I do worry too much maybe, as I have seen kite bar lines come into me for replacement that have snapped and the owner has just tied in a short line, some with 2 snaps and one with just tying the two snapped ends together, they had continued flying around for months like this, so if it worked for them?
defo not for me!
even one guy who had snapped one main power line which he then just tied back together, which of course shortened the line so he tied in 5 overhand knots in the other power line to make them even, flipping Yikes! is it just me who thinks that's a bit mad

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Re: Worn bridle line repair

Postby chaosgate » Sat Oct 09, 2021 9:27 am

I don't know how the ozone bridles are set up, but with flysurfer, it's super easy to swap out a single line from inside the bridle -- you just need to undo the lark's head connections at the sail and at the higher levels, pull out the line, and put it back in -- the last thing is attaching the bridle lines to the sail again (when attaching, work from towards the sail). Making a line of the right length is easy and needs minimal tools (excellent videos are on youtube). You can get the line measurements off the bridle check chart (https://ozonekites.com/images/uploads/p ... -Check.pdf).

I would say if you're doing it for the first time, it will take 15min to make the line, and 10 min to swap it out, as long as you have enough space to lay out the kite and the bridle on the ground.

I think people recommend swapping the same line on both the left and right side, to keep the lengths the same.
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Re: Worn bridle line repair

Postby FLandOBX » Sat Oct 09, 2021 6:02 pm

I just replaced all bridles on my Cabrinha 12 m kite. Two lines in the old bridles were worn down from pulley action. I've replaced bridles (all or just a couple lines) many times with good success on Cabrinha, Flysurfer, Liquid Force, and Ozone kites.

I had my first session on the new bridles this morning. It totally sucked. The new bridles, which were ordered from a USA company and are supposed to be official Cabrinha replacement parts, are way off. The kite didn't deliver any power. Either the rear line bridles are too long or the front line bridles are too short (or both). I will need to pull out the old bridles (which I saved) and compare each bridle line length, old to new, then make appropriate bridle length adjustments. It's a a brand new bridle set ($54 USD).

Moral of the story: Don't assume that the replacement bridles that are sold by "reputable" companies will be plug-and-play. You may need to make adjustments for the new bridles to function as they should. If I had it to do over, I'd probably fabricate my own replacement bridle lines to substitute for the worn ones, and leave the rest of the old bridle system intact. That would be my recommendation to the OP.

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Re: Worn bridle line repair

Postby downunder » Sun Oct 10, 2021 2:18 am

hey,

it really takes 30 mins to make a new bridle. done it on Chrono 13m.

take a pics of everything. I guess your bad bridle is the one with a pulley where the line is spliced and looped through pulley.

if the pulley is bad, replace it. I paid AU$12 for a pair.

than measure everything or get the size from the net. search the net how to splice and off u go. if u cant find the red or blue Amstel line, grey is just fine.

good luck

IMG_10102021_092543_(405_x_720_pixel).jpg

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Re: Worn bridle line repair

Postby nixmatters » Sun Oct 10, 2021 9:47 am

FLandOBX wrote:
Sat Oct 09, 2021 6:02 pm
... Either the rear line bridles are too long or the front line bridles are too short (or both). I will need to pull out the old bridles (which I saved) and compare each bridle line length, old to new, then make appropriate bridle length adjustments.
What do you mean by that? Front and rear bridles?!

Your older bridles are certainly not having their original lengths, especially if you used that kite in salt water. Sleeved lines shrink much more than single braid
But if the kite performed great with them, better keep that setup

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Re: Worn bridle line repair

Postby FLandOBX » Sun Oct 10, 2021 12:33 pm

nixmatters wrote:
Sun Oct 10, 2021 9:47 am
FLandOBX wrote:
Sat Oct 09, 2021 6:02 pm
... Either the rear line bridles are too long or the front line bridles are too short (or both). I will need to pull out the old bridles (which I saved) and compare each bridle line length, old to new, then make appropriate bridle length adjustments.
What do you mean by that? Front and rear bridles?!

Your older bridles are certainly not having their original lengths, especially if you used that kite in salt water. Sleeved lines shrink much more than single braid
But if the kite performed great with them, better keep that setup
There are bridles that determine the distance from the kite to the attachment point of the front lines (aka "front bridles") and bridles that determine the distance from the kite to the rear steering lines (aka "rear bridles").

Whether or not the old bridles kept their original lengths is irrelevant at this point. They were the correct length for optimum performance immediately before I replaced them with bridles that did not deliver that same level of performance. I'd like to recreate the system that delivers optimum performance.


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