Hi guys, I've recently bought a second-hand lightwind kite (Gaastra Jet 15m) and I realised that it originally was intended to be used with a high-V bar and I only have a low-V bar...
I flew it and it seemed to be working fine but it was so hard on a bar that it made me a little bit suspicious (like if it was overpowered even though there was barely enough wind to launch it, definetely not enough to kite on a twintip).
I just wanted to ask if you know whether there is any risk involved if I use low-V bar for it?
Hi salvatore13
The results of mixing a Low V Bar with a High V Kite or vice-versa really vary a lot depending on the kite itself (model, shape, etc), the size of the kite, the bar, the settings used on the kite, how well tuned your bar is, etc. so I wouldn't trust any general assumptions that you can mix and match any bars with any kite without any performance issues.
One thing that is for sure is that kites that were designed to be used with a High V bar should always be flown with a High V bar and that kites that were designed to be used with a Low V bar should always be flown with a Low V bar.
I remember flying a older Core XR2 17m (high V kite) with an Ozone bar of the same year (Low V bar) and the results were pretty bad. It's probably worse because of the size of the kite, so in your case with a 15m kite I would not be surprised that it's a poor match.
Safety issues ? not really as long as the bar you are using has a single front line safety system this will flag out any kite, any brand and any size.
Performance wise, probably not a good idea
Christian - KiteBud
Thanks for the answer. What did you mean by saying that the results were pretty bad? The kite performance was bad but did you try the same kite on a high-v bar later for a comparison?
Of course I always used to use the original bar with that 17m at the time, only tried to mix it with a low v bar that one time, the performance was horrible but it was flying totally fine with the High V - original bar.
yeah... I would assume some bridles aren't tensioned in the low-v setup on a high-v kite... That sucks.
As I already invested I'm wondering If I can sort out how to modify the bar to high-v setup...
I found it.
It's called North V Distributor and looks like that, and costs $6 https://www.wasurf.com.au/collections/orderlyemails-recommended-products/products/2017northv-distributor
Plenty about this in
www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/Kitesurfing/Review/Ozone-Bar-for-North-Kites?page=1
I'll just need to splice a small loop on my lines, fortunately I've got some spare dyneema line at home. Thanks listery!!!
I'd go for the duotone v distributor
www.thekitesurfcentre.com/product/duotone-v-distributor-ii
You (probably) don't need to splice because it screws onto the line and the larger diameter of the split point wears the other line less. The North version was known to reduce the life of the lines a little.
To be honest after experimenting with that a little I actually just use something like from the image below... That's all basically same thing, nothing complicated here. I still need my line spliced though but it works perfectly!