alan - 27-2-2004 at 05:37 PM
What's the difference?
I plan to kite ski and possibly the roller wheels. (hey I'm 50, cut me some slack!)
doomwheels - 2-3-2004 at 11:06 AM
bars best for kitesurfing, landboarding and kiteskiing...
handles best for buggying and kiteskating.
coreykite - 2-3-2004 at 01:05 PM
Please allow me to weigh in on the Handle/bar issue...
There are three main styles of 4-line kites:
The Revolution is a 4-line with positive control in all axis - Up, Down, Side-to-side, forward, reverse.
Tension is needed on all 4 lines to maintain control.
The Revs are framed, flat sails.
Inflatables are water kites with inflated (with a pump) bladders along the leading edge and as battens in the sail.
They rig from the wingtips and the back lines are for steering while the front lines are a de-power system running through the bar or fairlead and to
the "chicken-loop"
Water kiters need to be overpowered because of the issues of immersion and holding a plane.
If one were to get boosted into the air, the water absorbs most of the energy upon landing.
Land traction uses underpowered, more efficient, faster dual-surface wings instead of sails.
We can zoom the kites up and down and increase their power (aerodynamic lift).
A momentary decrease of power does not make us sink. We often don't even slow.
The faster an airfoil moves, the more power it generates.
The more power it generates, the faster you can go.
The faster you go, the more power the airfoil can generate.
Velocity Made Good.
The other reason for being underpowered on land is if you get boosted into the air, if you're lucky enough to land on your feet (and this is an
extremely bad use of the word "lucky"
, it's your ankles, knees and
spine that absorb the energy.
There goes the weekend.
Land traction uses mainly 4-line soft ram-air foils.
These are essentially 2-line kites with added bottom lines from the trailing edge that act a flaps or brakes on either side of the airfoil.
Now bars are familiar to folks coming from windsurfing and wakeboarding and with the de-power system used with water kites, bars work just fine.
Handles, used with soft-quad powerkites on land give more control to the flyer.
Bars limit control.
The limits are the bar length and turning response, and reducing the 4-lines to only de-power.
On water kites, with their lower performance potential, they work fine.
Handles, on a kite rigged to take advantage of handles, gives the flyer much more precise steering control, easy landings and take-offs AND total
de-power.
So the answer is not about which is better... But which is appropriate.
On water, without very good kite skills, keep to the inflatables and bars.
On land, with ram-air foils, handles give the flyer more.
coreylama