My kite came w/ the original bar. Everytime out w/ it i notice the brake lines going taut. Often while just trying to hold it or bring it to zenith. The air seems to get sucked right out of it's belly. I put it on small handles yesterday, kite preformed so much nicer, but still had some tight times on the rear lines w/ the same result(little less)though more corectable. I guess i'm going to try to lengthen the trailing lines, after getting bigger handles. The thing is i had a 3m hornet up the other day and thought the same about it. So i lengthend it's lines less than 2 inches and it was unflyable, i put it back to where it was and it was fine. I think i learned that day that the hornet needs brake input at all times. I am wondering the same about the Blade but wouldn't have thought so.....Do some kites based on there shape or desired characteristics need constant brake input to fly correct? I ask this because my 3m Hornet compared to a 2.9m Raptor seems to have less pull, is slower and more dare i say user friendly.... thanks for any of your thoughts.

What version of blade is it? I had blade2's and 3's the kites would fly fine
off of the front lines with no rear line tension. The rear lines on my 4.9 were on the loose side..

Try flying it with the rear lines totally loose.. if it's flying good then shorten the rears a little at a time until
you find the balance

My vip does better with some brake tension... Its basically a 4th gen 8.5m

Itll fly one the top lines only, but it loves some brakes to go hoooj... Does your kite have different knots on the kite for the lower bridles? If so, try a knot farther from the kite... If it has an AoA setting on it, it may be set wrong, and that could be causing issues

it's a Blade3.... was gonna try it w/out the brake lines because i cant shorten the flys or lengthen the rears anymore. anything i do is outside the specs......... wondering if the steering lines have streached that much?? it's blowing 20+ right now so it will stay in the car.

My blade 3 (8.5) had very long brake leaders. Does yours not? If it does, just tie a series of knots every 2 - 3 inches below the factory knot (moving away from the kite will lengthen the brake lines) and move your brake lines up or down those knots to dial in the proper tension for best performance. IIRC my brake leaders extended a good 1-2 feet below the factory knot. If yours does too that is plenty of room to allow for adjustment without touching your fly lines.

If you are wondering if line stretch is a problem, just disconnect all the lines, stake them out and check to see how (un)even they may be. If they are off, adjust your leader knots accordingly and then play with the leader knot settings until you have them dialed to your handle / flying style. If that still doesn't work check your bridle for twists, etc to make sure a fouled bridle isn't impacting kite peformance.

leaders are long, i'm on the only knot right at the tip. There is no down to adjust, same as on the fly lines 1 knot .. i will pull,stake and measure the lines tonight. Bridle is sitting perfect not even a twist. After rereading F.Gin i'm thinking maybe i'm missing a section of line at the end of the bridle that would allow for adjustments??? Even like this i'm enjoying this foil but it cant be right. None of my other kites fold up and fall from the sky especially while moving or under load.

When flying on the bar, you had the rear / brake lines attached to the middle of the bar and the front / power lines attached to the outside of the bar, correct? Fixed bridle bars attach the opposite of depower bars.

If flying on handles, add knots to the power leaders closer to the handle and attach the powers to that knot (to effectively shorten them) and leave the brakes on the knot furthest from the handle.

My guess is your fly lines may be really stretched if the kite is on the lowest / only knot on the brake leader and the sail is still creased and backstalling. Either that or the bridle itself is stretched (which was a problem with the 3 series but only on the 6.6 and above as the 4.9 was configured differently in a way that didn't allow for as much bridle stretch as was occured on the larger blades).

yes, set up on the bar as you say. my handles i'm sure are too small for this foil, borrowed off a 3m Hornet (all i had) and wanted to see if it worked better/different. already had the power knot 1" from the bar tip and the brakes as far away as possible. in the market for proper ones, thinking i might be looking for lines as well.

If the lines are in good condition but just stretched, its cheaper and easier to fix them by adding pigtails to you short lineset or cutting and resleeving the longer set. Both options will cost you under $10 where a lineset will cost you quite a bit more than that.

The fly lines are 18" longer than the brakes. They are all in good shape but different material and seem to streach more than the brakes as well. i think im gonna try a pig tail t18/20" long before i try a permanant fix. i am figuring on shortening the steering lines as a permanant fix.... still gotta get proper handles as well.

YES, you need to make up that 18 inches somehow.

If you don't have proper line to make leaders then you could also shorten + resleeve your front lines so all are equal.

You will get a lot more out of your Blade on handles than a bar !