Check your pulleys are working ok and make sure the line on your bridal has a high abrasion resistance

webby7 said...

Bought some rope and twine and fixed it myself

Twine? Id be going nylon if I was you! Never be afraid of good old fashion ingenuity, if you ever decided to live on a boat you will be dependent on it.

what kite are you flying? on the cabrinha SB2 i had this problem where sand would get stuck in the pulleys and this after a few sesh's would cause considerable wear on my bridal lines. try using floss to clean out the pulleys of all the sand (if any is in there) and this should stop you problem.

or if you want to get more use out of your bridal lines swap them around after a bit or wear shows on them.

I found this pic on KF illustrating why misaligned pulleys eat bridles.



The problem is that the hole for the line to larkshead through is at 90 degrees to the pulley, I wonder if anyone makes a suitable kite block with the hole in the same axis as the pulley?

Of course there are some excellent SLE kite designs with NO pulleys.

jumpindave said...

Why do you say the metal pulley is no good steve??? i changed all my crappy frozen plastic pulleys to the riley and havent had any problems since, one whole year and the pulley still spins and the line isn't even worn. My plastic ronstans were frozen within a week or two. Go figure.

The only pulley I have had fail like the plastic one in the post above was a metal Riley.
The pin that holds the pulley in place is only captive on one side, it split open and caused the kite to loop badly.

The Cabrinha designed and manufactured pulleys are the best I have seen, the pin is captive on both sides.

If the pulley is mounted correctly to that it can rotate and align itself with the loaded line that runs through it, then pulley wear and brand is a minor issue anyway.

What kite did you change you pulleys on?

@ Tobes, thanks mate for finding those pics.

Cya and

Goodwinds

Steve

The above post is onto it. With the metal pulley it doesnt matter if it stops, it actually still slides without much abrasion. If it does clog however you just pull hard against the pulley and run it back and foward with you hand and it will pretty much always spin again. When the plastic ronstan jams its done forever.
I was running a waroo kite.
Dave.

jt737 said...

Changed to metal Ronstan pulleys on my Rev with no problems, yet noticed the bridal lines were twisting and wearing due the plastic pulleys being jammed on a demo Rev a friend was trying out. On the Sunnie coast the pulleys jam up very quickly due to fine sand, even if the metal pulleys jam the bridal will still slide over with minimal wear.
Cost about $3 each at a good chandlery store i.e. Whitworths.

Cut the neoprene sock off the kite, its up on the leading edge behind the pulley, just cut it off, all it does is hold sand and get jammed in the pulley, or stop the pulley from turning enough to align with the bridle line.

Look for pulleys that have the axle pin captive or peened over on both sides.
The new Cabrinha ones have that, and also have a side wall that prevents a bridle line getting jammed. Don't think we can order tham as spares just yet.

If a plastic pulley jams it can be easily freed up, if the metal ones jam they can be stuck for good, happens to kites not used frequently, the pulley wheel and the metal pulley axle corrode together.

Bridles will slide over a jammed plastic pulley as easily as a metal one, damage to the bridle line will be approx the same.

Cya and

Goodwinds

Steve