so....
i have allways said never wash your kites with fresh water yadda yadda yadda
but going thru some glider manuals im curious as to why a glider made from * porcher marine skytex evo/classic would be reccomended to be rinsed in freshwater and dried in shade if it ever went into the salty drink.
cant find much about flysurfers *lotus cloth but i found this in there manual...3. Rinsing Rinse your kite from time to time with clear water, after using it in salt water, and leave it to dry in the shade. Do not use any detergents. The warranty will be void after the use of detergents on the cloth.
hrmmmmm do i dare check the chronos and elfs?
well i tried my best to find chronos just kept comeing up with a *high tenacity sail cloth, looks like there not giving away any secrets i did find a high tenacity sailcloth weave called "c-breeze" basicly looks like your nans ugly blanket one over one under sorta deal and there was this www.northsails.com/us/sail-care/sail-care-services/sail-care-tips tho looks more directed at sails not the sailcloth im chaseing
anyways .... so from what i can tell we should be rinseing our foil kites periodicly in fresh water ?!?!
I never wash my foil kites. But occasionally they get rained on!... so that's good enough for me. In the perfect world it rains,,,, stops raining and my kite dries before I land it!.
On a side one I never drop them in the water... well maybe once every other year.
I do hose down the bar and the pullies.
you can wash them, especially i you want to get rid of mud, dirt.. Definitely rinse your bridles sometimes.If you have sand in your kite it will run out eventually by flying it through the wingtip pockets.
Always wondered are foil kites a PITA to relaunch in water if you do put them down?
Select to expand quotedefault said...
Always wondered are foil kites a PITA to relaunch in water if you do put them down?
I think they somewhat hold shape for a while with the rammed air system? Is that true???
Select to expand quotedachopper said..
Never wash them !
never wash foil kites? why not? the manuals seem to say so... sure your not getting confused with sleis?
Select to expand quoteUnhook3d said..default said...
Always wondered are foil kites a PITA to relaunch in water if you do put them down?
I think they somewhat hold shape for a while with the rammed air system? Is that true???
yeah you have a ridiculous amount of time to relaunch and there hard as hell to crash anyways many are auto zenithing etc ive mainly only used foil kites in the snow but have played around on flysurfers peaks chronos and some hairy gorillas and chargers but ive never just daily rided one for enough time to see why they would reccomend a fresh water rinseing once it gets salt water on them.
my guess is that salty dust we get on our sleis would greatly affect the coating the add to foils to maintain porosity just wondering if i should give my wings a little rinse before i hit the desert for a month hmmmm
so anyone got anymore actual info in regards to this?
Select to expand quotedefault said..
Always wondered are foil kites a PITA to relaunch in water if you do put them down?
LE down, reverse launch. LE up, same as always. Anything else, be careful. Your goal is to get air into it, a la taco launch for arcs, or around to LE down.
At Dmas time, I dropped the S3 15 for the first time in ages at the end of a ssession cos I was being lazy and didn't bother trying to keep it in a good configuratio, and it bow tied on me... right in the shIreland, so no big deal.
I wrapped up the lines well into the bridle so I could wash all the pulley lines etc too, but otherwise just let kite dry out in the sun...
Select to expand quoteKozzie said... dachopper said..
Never wash them !
never wash foil kites? why not? the manuals seem to say so... sure your not getting confused with sleis?
14 years experience...
You can spot a persons bar and lines, that have been regularly washed from a mile away, the lines are limp, frayed and aged, the same happens to the ripstop material on the kites - not to mention, if you just take it off, and fly around, the debris falls off. If your constantly washing them, your abrading the surface and forcing the dirt, sand, Chlorine, and Fluorine compounds against the material - rather than leaving it with whatever was lightly sitting on the surface before - every time you wash the kite.
In 12 months with lots of washing, the material starts to feel like silk.
You might have parts of your kite that age, i would just buy new pulleys every year, rather than wash the kite every time.
