Foil kite with or without adjustable mixer

[mgs]

RE mixer adjustments I was freaked out by the first foil kite I owned without a sliding mixer adjuster (all things made of rope are adjustable) it was an F-One Halo. I soon learned that you can adjust the mixer using a bit of knowledge of knots and keep it all in tune using a sharpie copying the Flysurfer LMT marks yourself. To me a pro-tune style mixer adjuster is nice but I am just as comfortable adjusting the mixer using a variety of connection knots/loops and/or adding pigtails or splicing new pulley lines. Gin sell a new mixer for Spirit for about 10% of the kite value but I haven't sold any or used any and probably never will. For me the only reason a mixer would be a differentiator in a purchase would be if the design didn't allow for a zero short mixer test (like a Pansh) , not being able to quickly see the short mixer is zero would be a show stopper otherwise to be it doesn't make much difference for me. It's worth remembering that 90% of mixer adjustments are correcting A getting relatively longer than B and C - and letting the brakes out to feel, which are usually easily adjustable.

Interesting!
Flysurfer use the term "Mixer" where you adjust the knots to realign the bridle using the marks provided. There isn't any distinction between the main bridle and the bridle that has the pulleys. (Hope that makes sense )
Where as Ozone uses the term "speed system" that refers to the part of the bridle that contains the pulleys where the standard version is not adjustable.
You can upgrade to the Pro-tune adjustable speed system where you can realign "A,B,C" connection points where the "speed system" connects to the main bridle. However, this doesn't of course include the main bridle.

In the Chrono V1 Bridle Check PDF it advises to replace your speed system if the difference between A,B,C exceeds 10mm!
From personal experience with my Chrono V1's replacing pulley lines PB1 & PB2 has so far resolved any misalignment issues.
Even when the difference has been around 10 mm to 15mm between A,B & C I haven't really noticed any loss of performance as such other noticing a slightly pronounced crease in the trailing edge as the brake (KR1) is being applied due to PB1 shortening due to shrinkage.
Should PB1 continue to shrink more brake would be applied resulting in potential " Wing Tip Tuck" A quick fix would be to move KR1 towards the kite to back off the brake, but replacing the both pulley lines being inevitable. Keeping the speed system in trim, cleaning the pulleys and the zip is the main maintence tasks that I perform.

I purchased a used R1 - 15m (V1) a few years a go and performed the "speed system" zero check to find it was over 20mm difference between A,B & C The previous owner had moved KR1 towards the kite instead of replacing PB1 & PB2.
I have since replaced the both pulley lines on each side and moved KR1 back to where it should be. The kite fly's perfectly.
As an experiment I have converted the speed system to be fully adjustable and placed adjustable loops between the speed system and the main bridle on my R1 so now it's fully adjustable in all respects.

[derek440]

Fun fact, the term speed system comes from the paragliding world where they have a "speed bar" that essentially sheets out the wing by pulling in A using your foot with ratios in the mixer/speed system, similar to how we sheet out with ratios in the mixer, which makes the paraglider fly faster/more speed. i think most people just say the "mixer" and the "bridle" for the two separate systems that join together. For a paraglider they call the mixer the "risers" and the ratios and pulleys etc are called the speed system. On any decent kite system at the connection point between mixer and bridle you can do the short mixer test which should have all the knots at the same length if the short mixer is in order (and the bridle is ok). Having said that, tuning your kite with the long mixer test accepts that your bridle has changed forever and you compensate for that by not having zero short mixer/speed system and in fact making the mixer shorter/longer in places to compensate for bridle changes (usually A longer due to more load).

One rookie error with kite tuning is seeing in the short mixer that A is longer than B and C is longer again and K/Br longer again (as they have progressively lighter load) so then trying to lengthen them all when really all you are doing is sheeting your kite out -if the ratio your are letting out is 4:2:1:0 like the mixer (I did this once with my first R1, moving B out 1cm and C out 2cm and K out about 3-4cm then someone pointed out the futility of this change). Often instead of lengthening B and C in the mixer using either pro-tune/adjustable length lines on B/C you can just shorten A which has lengthened relatively (this can be done with loops like a larks-foot or double/triple loop connection where A in mixer connects to A lines in bridle), but yes the mixer pulley lines need replacing when they are wearing out either way and the replacement line is usually longer than the old one, but then you have to let brakes out to match feel). For me when a kite is new-ish I always just zero the short mixer so all the knots line up and then I do a symmetry check in the bridle and if its misbehaving at all I might also check long mixer marks or relative lenghts at A1,B1,C1 and I almost always adjust the brakes by feel - bar pressure and performance etc.