General Kiting

A couple of months ago I picked up a 2nd hand flysurfer speed 3 from briskites. One of my concerns was about the centre lines wearing out from having to jam the bar back against the chicken loop to remove the twists , Jason mentioned that some guys have been fitting a bearing to the chicken loop to help it rotate easier. Well here is how I did it.
Removed the 2 nuts from the bottom of the quick release and replaced the inner nut and washer with a stainless roller bearing.
Also had to cut a slight tapper in the black centre collar so that the inner race of the bearing doesn't press against it and can rotate freely.
Fitted a new nylock nut with some threadlock on it and done.


I have only had the kite out once since I did this, but it works great. The lines now untwist themselve without having to jam the bar back.

Hey bro.

Are you one the water or kiting at the beach? if so i hope that bearing is a stainless one or it won't last very long at all.

hey Andy the modification I have seen uses a stainless steel or ceramic thrust bearing which seems to be a bit more tolerant to sand and salt.

The blue seal on the bearing fitted (Knowing Andy he buys quality brands) indicates it's of the stainless variety Plummet so he should be right.

A Torrington race was the way I was going to go when I was thinking about mine....

TOR-NTA6681.jpg (308.41 KiB) Viewed 408 times

but then got used to it all and now untwist it by hand in between jumps and loops to save the wear...

Andy

That thrust type washer in goz's pics looks like a tidy little unit. my only worry would be that it doesn't look to have much or any sealing on it. Not really a problem on the water, but on the sand it may grit up a bit.

Yeah, mine is a stainless bearing. I'm only using the kite on land, so fitted the bearing as is. I think though that if I was out on the water the standard grease would wash out, so maybe packing it full of marine grease would fix this.

Ok, time for a couple more simple infinity bar mods.
The first is simply cutting a piece of rubber and putting over the safty line. This helps stop the tube of the chicken loop cut into the safty line.


Removing the old aluminium guidance block, that after a while starts to wear into the safty line and front lines. The way that the front lines are now attached is very similar to how the newer speed 3's and speed 4's come standard, so it shouldn't cause any problems.
All you need is 2x medium rings (7mmx12mm) and 1x small ring (5mmx10mm) from the flysurfer online store
Remove the guidance block from the black adjuster rope and fit the 2 medium rings as in the picture below. Then just tie the small ring into the stopper knot on the safty line and run the line through the top medium ring.


A simple bar stopper for the infinty bar can also be made using the steel rings from the flysurfer store. All you need is a medium size ring (7mmx12mm) and just feed it over the depower rope above the bar. I then added an old piece of bridle line and a larger 25mm stainless ring (from bunnings), to help move it.
simple, cheap, effective.