Interesting spreader bar. Any info ?

I was just fiddling with my kite bits, sorting through the bits I have that I'm going to sell. I noticed that on my spare harness (which is rather worse for ware, I got as part of a job lot, and never used it) the spreader bar had the little bar in the middle of the fixing (where the belt weaves through to attach it to the harness). My current spreader bar doesn't have this, and is slipping about after a turn, so I thought I'd swap them so mine stops slipping about.

When I took the spreader bar off I noticed that it was different to any one I had seen or heard of before. Its sprung, with quite a stiff spring so that the loopy bit moves in the direction of the kite (I couldn't get a pic of this, as was holding my phone).

Just out of interest really, has anyone got any info about this type of bar ? Why it didn't catch on, is it any good, etc etc.

The bar has a maui magic logo on the protective cover, and was taken off a 'bump and jump' harness, which I think is quite old.



More pics at:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/zfuo25qisug2iro/F1VnpldqoW
(Ignore the bolt, that's just for my own reference.)


Cheers,
Tim

Quote:

Originally posted by elfasa I was just fiddling with my kite bits, sorting through the bits I have that I'm going to sell. I noticed that on my spare harness (which is rather worse for ware, I got as part of a job lot, and never used it) the spreader bar had the little bar in the middle of the fixing (where the belt weaves through to attach it to the harness). My current spreader bar doesn't have this, and is slipping about after a turn, so I thought I'd swap them so mine stops slipping about.

The three last points are meant for weaving the webbing through. The central one is meant to keep the spreading bar from digging into you as it tries to torque up when the kite is high in the sky or at zenith. The two additional lash points are meant to keep the bar from shifting left or right.

I have seen bars with one and sometimes even two lash points on the underside... this borders on overkill.

Quote:

Originally posted by elfasa When I took the spreader bar off I noticed that it was different to any one I had seen or heard of before. Its sprung, with quite a stiff spring so that the loopy bit moves in the direction of the kite (I couldn't get a pic of this, as was holding my phone).

Just another method of dealing with the oblique pull of the kite. Different manufacturers have addresses this in multiple ways.

Dynabars slide, some Dakine's pivot up/down, the PL Bullet pivots up/down, and the PL Prodigy pivots up/down and side/side.

This one looks like it pivots omni-directionally and may even spin.

Can't tell from the picture, but most people's problem with stuff like this is what it does to bar-reach. Also, there's a natural resistance to things that are different.

Depending on where your grip on the bar is and what the kite is doing, you could conceivably get pinched badly by the spring mechanism.

ATB,
Sam

Cheers Sam!

Yeah, if i remember rightly (although I wasn't paying much attention) the strap was only going through the middle of the three loops on the bottom of the bar. I guess with the spring you cant put the strap above the spreader bar, as is usual.

That's right, the spring can move in any direction. It doesn't swivel though.
Pinching was a concern of mine a bit, but it does have a thin neoprene- esque cover that I took of for the sake of the pics.

I might stick it on my harness and have a play! My spreader bar is really peeing me off at the moment, it slips about so much ! :/

Thanks again,
Tim