Power Kite Forum

20m vs 25m lines?

BreakingWind - 9-6-2016 at 05:47 PM

Hi Fellas

Can you guys ring in on the main differences between flying our power kites on 20m vs 25m lines? Or other length flying lines? I see sizes from 15m, 22m, 27m and 30+m. Is there a benefit to flying on longer lines? I see a lot of kite manufactures use 20m as stock setup lines like HQ AND Peter Lynn on many of their kites. My Cirrus Pro 4m came stock with 25m lines.

I'm assuming one benefit with longer lines is increasing the size on the wind window?

Thanks and a world without string is chaos...

BreakingWind in San Francisco

abkayak - 9-6-2016 at 06:09 PM

I'm at the beach and really don't care...20, 22, 25 Whatever... My winds tend to be clean and work w/ whatever is on whatever kite...I know it's different w/ dirtier wind or if your looking to max out the power area of a kite a longer line will help
Bottom line you run what you brung

gemini6kl - 9-6-2016 at 06:22 PM

I just noticed u have a 7.3m frenzy in your quiver so why haven't you taken that out at the beach to play. that should be a sweet kite. :puzzled:



Quote: Originally posted by abkayak  
I'm at the beach and really don't care...20, 22, 25 Whatever... My winds tend to be clean and work w/ whatever is on whatever kite...I know it's different w/ dirtier wind or if your looking to max out the power area of a kite a longer line will help
Bottom line you run what you brung

abkayak - 9-6-2016 at 06:29 PM

Quote: Originally posted by gemini6kl  
I just noticed u have a 7.3m frenzy in your quiver so why haven't you taken that out at the beach to play. that should be a sweet kite. :puzzled:



Quote: Originally posted by abkayak  
I'm at the beach and really don't care...20, 22, 25 Whatever... My winds tend to be clean and work w/ whatever is on whatever kite...I know it's different w/ dirtier wind or if your looking to max out the power area of a kite a longer line will help
Bottom line you run what you brung


I blew that sucker up...need some cell repairs
In fact I'm kinda running thru all my stuff...but having a blast doing so

rtz - 9-6-2016 at 09:37 PM

Short lines(less than 20) can work okay if the kite is well powered up or you want them to use the kite in a smaller space. They also work good on big kites to tame them and make them easier to fly since you have more direct control over it.

25's work great for light wind use to give the kite a bigger window. If you have a kite you tend to use on the lower end of its wind range 25's may be better on it.

My 5m Octane is on 20's. I tried it with 25's thinking it would help it out for low wind use; but it's not really a light wind kite. So I put it back on 20's and fly it when it's powered.

My 4.4 and 5.5 Reactors are on 25's and I prefer them on 25's. I fly them on the lower end of their wind range.

Feyd - 10-6-2016 at 04:20 AM

As mentioned above, short lines=less power but faster steering response. Long lines = more power but slower steering response.

Longer lines can also get you above treeline chop or into better winds further up in the gradient. As opposed to the expense of another Lineset, line extensions are a handy option.

ssayre - 10-6-2016 at 05:38 AM

+1 for line extensions. Very handy to have.

Bladerunner - 10-6-2016 at 04:02 PM

You can fly the same size kite in lower or higher winds by changing up line lengths.

As mentioned 30m lines give you a big power stroke and potentially gets you up where there is more wind.

10m lines shrinks the window and the power burst. Making it easier and a bit safer to handle a kite in higher winds.

Any new PL kite I bought with 20m lines came with extensions. I almost never use them.