i finally depower - modded our twister 7.7 !
it was easier than i thought ! two pulleys, a little bit of rope and around half an hour of working time.


more pictures here: http://tinyurl.com/4muwv5o


testing it today, sadly in very low winds onlye. just barely enough to keep the kite in the air. flying it on handles i could feel the depower effect and that the kite seems to turn faster and flies faster depowered. but a real test needs to be made in higher wind and on a bar. i am very excited! it was so easy to do and it actually did fly after modding it :eureka:

best thing is: didnt need to change the original bridle, so i can revert to fixed bridle anytime i want; i can even revert to fixed bridle by simply knotting the depower rope that controls the C-row to the front lines instead of to the breaks.
i will make a video and more pictures as soon as the wind picks up.



(better picture soon)

as you can see here, A+B rows are cascaded and come together to 3 main lines. C rows are completely seperate from a and b and result in 3 main lines. so the twister is perfect for a 1 level depower mod ( pansh blaze 2 has 1level depower; zebra slope < 12 qm has also 1level depower)

@kami: yes, sort of similiar to the flysurfer depower or ozone kites; but with just one pulley per side.

@acampbell: how about the reactor II in 10 sqm ? does it have a seperable C-Row ? or is the C-Row cascaded together with a and b rows ?

This looks far more simple and light than the UDS ?

I don't want to lose the terrific bottom end from my Reactor. I will have my Reactor with me today and see how this will work for me. Angus should check as well since it seems you want his op'.

@blade: yes, its much more simple (and depower will be limited to, but better 1:2 or 1:3 depower than NO depower) and trust me - this simple mod did not hurt the lowend of my twister - on friday there was almost no wind, and as usual i could launch the twister by running backwards and keep it up by flying it through the wind window.


here is a short description how i did it:

what you need:
* two pulleys or two small steel rings
* 3 meter robust ( 300 kg or more?) kite line

1. i took my twister and splitted AB-row lines from C-row lines by opening the frontlines connection pigtails
2. did put back the AB-row lines into the fronlines pigtails
3. put one pulley on the C-row lines of the left side; the other pulley on the right side.
4. cut the 4 meter kiteline into two 2 meter long lines
now description for left side, right side similiar of course:
5. larks-head'ed one end of the 2meter long rope to the front line pigtails (now containing only AB-row bridle lines)
6. run the line through the pulley
7. made a thik (double) knot at the other end, larkshead the brake line pigtail onto the rope
8. now the critical part: make sure the end of all bridle lines from AB, C and the brake line pigtail are on the same level, i.e. same length. get a helping hand from a friend. now you have to make the new knots where you will attach front- and backlines.
as yo can see in the close-up picture above, the 2 meter line running through the pulley is now divided into four sections first section goes from original frontline pigtail to the (to be made) knot for the frontlines, next section goes up to the pulley, runs through the pulley; next section goes down to the (to be made knot) for the backlines; and last section goes up again to the original brake line pigtail.

now simply adjust all sections such, that all bridle lines and brake pigtail are on same level; and that the new knots will be on the same level.

hope that was not too confusing - my english is lacking a bit

p.s. will make new closeup pictures asap.

Checked to Reactor II out today. It has A,B,C, groups and then cascades in 4 groups. Similar to my 9m Blade II but with a few less thanks to the X bracing inside. No simple way to depower this one that I see?

What a shame . I like the easy switch to FB and basic nature of this mod.

Pleasantly disapointed to see that the bridle is reduced + kite crossed braces. I bought the RII because it was affordable power.

Sounds like a pain to try this on the Reactor II. You'd need to make up a new set of secondaries for the C-row, and hope you guess right at the length. I spent a lot of hours rigging up a Kitesurfer XXL with new secondaries for UDS (2 pulley) depower, and was just starting to get it tuned when I traded the kite. I put the old FB back on. But maybe you'd get lucky only doing one set of secondaries. Make 'em a bit shorter than the ones you'd recycle for the A+B lines, and use a simple eye splice with big loops and the tails left out so you can quickly adjust the efective length. Then you can bury the tails and stitch them to lock the splice when it's tuned.

Did I already say a lot of hours?

Cool mod , Herc.

krumly