Hey.
Managed to put a small rip (aprox 40mm) in the leading edge of my kite a few weeks back. Had it repaired and was happy with the work, patched on the inside but not on the outside so a tear is still visable, not aproblem as long as the repair is sound and it does appear to be.
Packing it away the other day I noticed what at first I thought was some secondary damage to the leading edge seam, but on closer ispection realised it was where it had been opened up to fit the patch and do the stitching, once again no real problem.
The only concern I have is that the original seam had double stitching, but when it was closed up again it only has a single row of stitching.
Just after a second opinion wheather or not I should get another row of stitching done?
Cheers.

There is no need to get the original stitching replicated.
The cloth strip sewn over the outside of the LE closure seam is completely unnecessary and is a repairers nightmare.
The brand making the kite should stop using it, they only started doing because they had problems with the LE closure seam, other brands had problems too, and this cosmetic strip of cloth was added to make this brands kite LE closure seam look stronger.

It does nothing to make the LE closure seam stronger. Hace a close look at whats that crappy strip is made from, its the hemming material used on lot of clothing, and is not a suitable material for use on kites, and especially on that part of any kite.

There is no way to repair a kite with this silly strip of cloth without unpicking it and then sewing it back the way it has been.
Repair should be fine.

Cya and

Goodwinds

Steve

PS I'll let you or someone else name the brand I'm fairly confident I already know what it is.

No need to cut the webbing when doing a repair, just unpick it and move it out the way. Do the repair as normal and sew it back on. Done a few of these with no problems. The webbing makes the repair stronger as there are plenty of extra holes in the dacron after the unpick and resew and webbing handles this well.
It is a pain in the ass to unpick though, takes ages so expect to get charged more for it.
I see more brands using this now so something repairers will have to get used to.

Greenfinger said...

Is this sh1t supposed to be a professional repair ?? ^^^
lol.
I'm guessing the kite is a BEST kite .
Am I right ?
BEST uses bias binding as a finish fabric edging material over the LE seam.
A finish fabric is not designed to be structural.
It's purely used for a quality look.
It's cosmetic.
That doesn't mean the original seam (hidden under) is not integral.
The standard design of the leading edge seam on most inflato kites is the problem.
Any tear on the main pocket requires the LE seam to be unpicked at length....
so you can get access for your sewing machine.
And when it comes to stitching the seam back together, problems arise.
Problems with integrity and problems with quality finish.
The LE seam on inflato kites needs a rethink.

Yeh, Slaves replies usually confuse me as well.
Just to clarify it Slave, are you saying that the repair is not aestheticly pleasing, or not structuraly sound ???

Whats the point of me agreeing to anything waveguy says?
Wheres the fun in that?

He is talking out of a dark orifice as usual.
We don't actually know why the tape was cut, it may have been damaged in the accident that did the damage? (occured to me after my first reply)

The technique and the materials needed to make a strong and light leading edge tube are currently doing the job well, we don't hear of many top brand kites LE tubes exploding anymore.

The current system of unpicking, repairing and resewing is fine and adequate, its also very cost effective.

Cya and

Goodwinds

Steve

He is talking out of a dark orifice as usual.
We don't actually know why the tape was cut, it may have been damaged in the accident that did the damage? (occured to me after my first reply)

No, tape was fine before the repair, only noticed when packing kite away and immediately thought that it may hve been cut by lines draging over it, then realised that is where the seam was opened up.

Repair may well be structurally sound, but looks pretty poor if you ever want to re-sell the kite. There is no way my repairer would give me my kite back looking like that. I am guessing this was a very cheap repair???

Repair cost $35. Not sure if that is cheap or not as this is the only repair I've had done.
It was done fast though, as I really wanted the kite back asap and made this known when I dropped it off.
I am starting to think I should take it back and get it tidied up a bit.

Kitepower Australia said...

The current system of unpicking, repairing and resewing is fine and adequate, its also very cost effective.

Next time when you are paying for a leading edge repair......
As you peel a cheque from out of it's book,
taking care to tear along the perforated line of holes where the cheque is attached to the butt.....
think about the similarity for a second.
All that resewing on the seam using straight-stitch, along the same line of the original sewing......
there's a close resemblance to your holey chequebook.
Kites aren't designed to be repaired.
Kites are designed to be disposable.