How I built my own kite surfing bar

[downunder]

Are you absolutely sure in that Kami?

I'm talking above the depower straps wrapping. But it's irrelevant now, that bar is old and they changed it on a new bar.

[Kamikuza]

Are you absolutely sure in that Kami?

I'm talking above the depower straps wrapping. But it's irrelevant now, that bar is old and they changed it on a new bar.

You mean the trim straps? Wrapping around the safety line? Only if you’ve fiddled with it and screwed it up

[downunder]

No,

wrapping around itself. As you said, looping to one side only. There was no swivel as you know

Even with one, it would wrap, right? It was impossible to unwrap this manually after some time, simply because one would need to dissemble the lines.

[Kamikuza]

What exactly are you talking about? Because there’s no way anything you’ve described is plausible

[Tomlutz]

Dear All,

I was some days ill at home and had plenty of time to build a new bar. I don't have any sophisticated tools, no 3D printer and the like. So as simple as possible, and I used bike spare parts ordered from Aliexpress for roughly 30 USD.

The adjuster (for the back lines) is placed in the tube by a system if lines and knots, and for this I designed to have as much space as possible inside the tube.

I would have bought the ingenious Pintxo Bar from Rainer Kauper, but he doesn't sell it yet in 60 cm.

There some details I still have to optimise, but I will test it on water as soon as I have recovered. At first only for foiling, later maybe for TT as well. I chose a wichard for simplicity (both release and swivel functionalities in one), but you could also have a separate safety leash with the lines going a bit different.

The adjuster works great (I hardly use it).

I hope not to have an error in thinking, but please advise if there is an issue.

Kind regards

Tom

[winduser]

Very good. Can you give us the link of the parts that you order from Aliexpress

[Tomlutz]

Very good. Can you give us the link of the parts that you order from Aliexpress

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3289809 ... 4c4dq9j8x9

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3260379 ... 4c4dq9j8x9

[Herman]

Great stuff Tomlutz. Wish you a speedy recovery and good luck with the sea trials.

I presume the u bolt center line fairlead is steel. I would keep an eye out for the dyneema center line wearing the carbon of the bar. Perhaps a rubbing strake of hard or sacrificial material might be worth considering. I had a carbon bar with resin center hole and that wore out in about a year.

The u bolt looks much neater than the bulky external fairlead but I presume you have to drill the bar. It will be interesting to see how well it holds up. Thanks for sharing etc and I admire the lateral thinking.

Regards Herman.

[Tomlutz]

I presume the u bolt center line fairlead is steel.
The u bolt looks much neater than the bulky external fairlead but I presume you have to drill the bar.

It is a simple thin rope in a plastik tube. Two bigger holes to let the tube in, and on the other side two thin holes for the rope to get through. A simple knot on the other side. I don't expect there to be strong forces, let's see. Thanks for the advice for prectecting the carbon surface. I would not have expected there to be a lot of rubbing.

[Herman]

Tomlutz
Thanks for info on the fair lead, were you running a temperature when you had all these good ideas!!

I think you will have plenty of time to observe if there will be a significant wear rate on the carbon. The bar I was referring to had a lot of use in the year of it's life. It was also heavy weight TT stuff. Your bar is beautifully simple as it is and hopefully you can keep it that way. Thanks again.

Regards Herman