Hi, I went out kiting yesterday afternoon and my two lines connecting the chicken loop snapped, only leaving the chicken loop being held by the fifth line...

Does anybody know how to fix this? Its the lines that connect to the depower unit...


If you look at the picture its the second row, first pic, the two grey lines have broken and these connect to the next pic, vario cleat, which I still have...

I am not sure how old your gear is but if you registered when you bought it (if you got it brand new) it should be covered under warranty. (extended 6 months)

Having said that, Mine broke after about what I figured was 20 hours kiting, on 2012 gear.
The Dyneema that they are using this year is Sh''te compared to last year.

I make my own up and replace it as and when I need to. (I have done in the past as well,)

Buy some grey 5 or 6mm Dyneema from the boat/yacht chandler, and then use a bic pen to feed down the centre of it, and splice and stitch. The hardest part of the whole exercise is putting the depower velcro tab back on at the finish.
Ingenuity will sort that.

Be carefull removing the "U" pin in the hub, as you will need to re-use it if you don't buy the North replacement stuff.

Once you have done it once, (slowly and carefully) it should only take about 20 minutes to change it out.

The Dyneema is about $5.00 for 2 meters, you will need a finished length of about 1.8 meters (from memory) and the effort is the same if you get a dinky di North piece or if you make it yourself.
(if you have all north gear, buy 10 meters of it and make up a few, its cheaper and you get better at it as you go.)

As a final remark, it is disappointing that North have sort inferior quality cord, but it is a small price to pay to use such dependable gear. I just hope it is not a sign of things to come as they (apart from valve glue) have a good reputation for quality.

Hey Bryce,

AS the guys have mentioned that's your depower line. I've just gone through hell replacing another one over the weekend with the North replacement line / tool on my 2011 bar.... The U pin was completely stuck to the Rotor head as the inside of the head was corroded on to the pin. so this destroyed 3 of the pissy tools North provide to "gently" tap it out....What a joke!
Has anyone else had this problem? - The bar is barely 1 season old and the metal Swivel head has completely corroded on the inside. With out a vice , Awl, Hammer much blood spilt and cursing of Norths feeble design on an otherwise top product the U pin would of never come out...And is now far from reliable or safe to use.





North needs to pick up on this flaw which they already are well aware of before we have corroded bars falling apart on every beach (Like has been happening with the new F-One Bandit 4/5 bars)

I've replaced the Depower lines on 2 other older NOrth bars which were much easier / never had this problem. Just looks like a design problem with the more recent 2011-12 bars. So, My advice to all North users is to check that you can remove the U pin and that your rotor head is OK well before your Depower line needs replacing.

Hope it's alot more straight forward for yours mate - it's normally pretty easy going.
Cheers for the chance to Rant!! Good luck with it mate, let us know how u go!

My 2012 North bar is about to snap too. Not a very well thought out piece of equipment.

BTW what alternative bar and lines can be used on North kites?

Meant to add picture of the inside of Roto head.........

Triggerhappy said...

Added a 6mm sailing line to gf's bar (hence the colour), the inner core is only 4 mm but it has a load weight of 1600 Kilos more than enough. Outer sheath should prevent chaffing plus wear and tear. I hope....... COST ONLY $7.90

I am no expert but it looks to me as though the cord you have replaced the depower strap with is not the best option. All cleat type depower straps I have seen are a single braided line whereas the cord you are using looks to be an inner core covered in an outer sheath. The problem I see here (and I may be well out of my depth) is that the cleat works by applying a bight to the depower strap to lock it in place. When this bight is applied only to the outer sheath there is the potential that this sheath will fail. I think you will find that the majority of the 1600kg load bearing property of the cord is from the inner fibers and not the outer sheath. Again I must stress that this is just an observation and I may be entirely incorrect.

Harty said...

Triggerhappy said...

Added a 6mm sailing line to gf's bar (hence the colour), the inner core is only 4 mm but it has a load weight of 1600 Kilos more than enough. Outer sheath should prevent chaffing plus wear and tear. I hope....... COST ONLY $7.90

I am no expert but it looks to me as though the cord you have replaced the depower strap with is not the best option. All cleat type depower straps I have seen are a single braided line whereas the cord you are using looks to be an inner core covered in an outer sheath. The problem I see here (and I may be well out of my depth) is that the cleat works by applying a bight to the depower strap to lock it in place. When this bight is applied only to the outer sheath there is the potential that this sheath will fail. I think you will find that the majority of the 1600kg load bearing property of the cord is from the inner fibers and not the outer sheath. Again I must stress that this is just an observation and I may be entirely incorrect.

looks pretty though.. ;)

i just removed my pin after my 10 month old Labrador chewed up my bar over the weekend.. yay.. and what a pain in the arse, soaping the line gets it through the velcro tab btw!

so whats the dealeo with buying north replacement lines.. are they an eFFing rip off from everywhere or does anybody have an international shipper they swear by that is cheap and safe?

im all for supporting local businesses blah blah hence buying my last 4 kites brand new but my local doesnt stock them and im hoping to save a bit of $$ seeing as this was an 'unfortunate accident' id like some suggestions..

Harty said...

Triggerhappy said...

Added a 6mm sailing line to gf's bar (hence the colour), the inner core is only 4 mm but it has a load weight of 1600 Kilos more than enough. Outer sheath should prevent chaffing plus wear and tear. I hope....... COST ONLY $7.90

I am no expert but it looks to me as though the cord you have replaced the depower strap with is not the best option. All cleat type depower straps I have seen are a single braided line whereas the cord you are using looks to be an inner core covered in an outer sheath. The problem I see here (and I may be well out of my depth) is that the cleat works by applying a bight to the depower strap to lock it in place. When this bight is applied only to the outer sheath there is the potential that this sheath will fail. I think you will find that the majority of the 1600kg load bearing property of the cord is from the inner fibers and not the outer sheath. Again I must stress that this is just an observation and I may be entirely incorrect.

Yea mate real sure your incorrect,inner fibre is to minimise streatch did the same thing a few years ago as soon as the outer sheath started to wear the inner just let go,also it roots the cleat quicker as it dosen't compress the same as dyneema,better going for a slightly heavier thickness of Dyneema usually the thickness goes up in 1mm incriments.

radman4 said...

Harty said...

Triggerhappy said...

Added a 6mm sailing line to gf's bar (hence the colour), the inner core is only 4 mm but it has a load weight of 1600 Kilos more than enough. Outer sheath should prevent chaffing plus wear and tear. I hope....... COST ONLY $7.90

I am no expert but it looks to me as though the cord you have replaced the depower strap with is not the best option. All cleat type depower straps I have seen are a single braided line whereas the cord you are using looks to be an inner core covered in an outer sheath. The problem I see here (and I may be well out of my depth) is that the cleat works by applying a bight to the depower strap to lock it in place. When this bight is applied only to the outer sheath there is the potential that this sheath will fail. I think you will find that the majority of the 1600kg load bearing property of the cord is from the inner fibers and not the outer sheath. Again I must stress that this is just an observation and I may be entirely incorrect.

Yea mate real sure your incorrect,inner fibre is to minimise streatch did the same thing a few years ago as soon as the outer sheath started to wear the inner just let go,also it roots the cleat quicker as it dosen't compress the same as dyneema,better going for a slightly heavier thickness of Dyneema usually the thickness goes up in 1mm incriments.

I stand corrected As I said, purely an observation. My experience with kernmantle ropes is limited to climbing and rope access work, I have no history with sailing at all. With climbing rope, the internal fiber holds the tensile strength, and the outer is essentially for its protection.

It is a weird kind of slip knot and i stitched the end together so it cannot come loose. Cant think how i came to it.

I know a lot of people who do not wash their gear after a kite and it just baffles me. The ocean corrodes, it's called preferential oxidation, ,or electron flow from high to low potential, commonly known as rust. Der, wash ya bloody gear.

That rope is one of the toughest lines made, I've been using it for years on all boats I've raced.
The inner dyneema core you would have trouble cutting with sizors, the outside sheath is tough as you will have no problems with wear and the line is made to be used in many different types of cleats so no problems.

I've done the same on an old north bar but I spliced the inner core and slide it inside the sheath and stitched them together. This is the join to the bottom of the cleat.