Thank you guys for all the different ideas.
Just finished a set. They came out a little longer (18") than I had planned (16") but will give them a try since it's easier to cut than to add.

Nice work Glx!

Quote: Originally posted by Glx

Thank you guys for all the different ideas. Just finished a set. They came out a little longer (18") than I had planned (16") but will give them a try since it's easier to cut than to add.

so wait...u build theses awesome custom handles
nicer than anything evergriped by my fingers...
and i think have home depot lines in this pic for the powers?

Nice job.....but 18 "...:o


What size are your other sets of FB handles, anyway?

May get in way(bottom ends hit you or side rails if strop is too short and/or you hold your hands too close to body.


You'll see.


If okay..... best on your too biggest FB kites. Longer may help turn kite....up to a point anyway..

Thank you guys. After getting some good ideas in here the making was easy.
Ski. I have 12" and 16" sets. I preffer the 16" much better than the 12s for any size kite, thats is why I was shooting for 16". Forgot that i was adding over an inch at the top and a half inch at the bottom with the aluminium pieces.
After, i try them will have a better idea as to how they will work.

Nice work Glx they look awesome!!!!

I love this style of tops on the handles as they balance so well and place no leader side load between your fingers.
Also you can slide/walk your fingers easily down the handles when going up wind to apply brake to get more power out of the kite.

With the constrictor knots on the inside of the handles they tend to open up the gap between the bottom of the handles naturally with the wind pressure on your rear handles brake line when loaded up.
With my home made double ball bearing pulley on my strop line I could fly a lot of the time using only one handle when cruising.

I flew all my Peter Lynn Vapors down to 2.7m2 on 16" handles in the end to simplify the setup.
Also when I posted my gear to the East coast of Australia ready for an event, I only needed 2 sets of handles. (As I carried a spare set of 16" handles and line set in my dry bag on the buggy at all times, as sometimes I'm 25kms away from my base along the beach.) Saved a lot of dollars on the postage cost of not having to send many different handle sizes.

I found that I naturally buggied with my handles in the 45 degree apart at the bottom/ to horizontal handle position, so never had any problems with the side rails of the Sysmic buggy fouling their movement even with my short strop.

I have never used cleats on the handle bottoms as I found that just the brake leader line would foul/tangle up enough on it's own at the worst possible time. My brake leaders are a set length and all my brake adjustments are done on the top leader lines only.
All my fixed bridle kites were PL Vapors in the end and I was using the same handles/line set, so no adjustment was usually necessary when changing kite size. Only if the wind dropped off and I was too lazy to change kites I'd change the power leader trim position.

When staking/parking the kite, I wrap the shaft of the kite stake twice with both the brake leaders pinched together and then push it into the ground. Saves stuffing round trying to get the stake through loops on the base of the handles in really strong winds till I can get to the kite and pile sand on one tip of it to flag it out. With this method you can "trim" the amount of brake pressure so the kite will actually sit there on the beach on it's trailing edge till you can get to the kite to secure it.
I do let the kites fly on their front lines with very little brake pressure to pull to the front of the window in the cruise anyway.

Once again Glx, I'm super impressed with your work.

Thank you Chook. That was a nice tip on the handle tops. It must be absolutely awesome to have a beach big enough to get 25km away from base, maybe someday will get a chance to try what it means to cruise for 25km without having to turn

It is great to cruise along a beautiful beach with smooth onshore winds.
My aim is to buggy this 101 km long beach in RED as I have driven along it a few times in my 4x4 and it is awesome.

It is 200 kms to the East of me and joins onto the huge 200km long cliffs along the Great Australian Bight on the Western Australian side.

Met up and tried the new handles! They were attached to a 10m Century.

I only scudded and did light jumping with kite, but handles seem fine...especially on a big FB kite.


:bigok: