For all the foil kite and paraglider gurus, where do you get quality (not ebay chinese fishing line) small diameter (1mm - 0.75mm) dyneema or spectra?
Edelrid
Im actually doing up an order of most likely toaramid lines to build my parakite. I really like how aramid works on my gliders and i i kn theyre not the most suitable for salt water but im banking on never having the kite in the water and only in air or launching from top of dunes and sandblows. That said im thinking getting a bit of a mix mash of coatings done to better handle the salt water if in the event of a bit of a dunking.
I've always bought paraglider line from the local paraglider dealer. Given that you won't have one of those then these guys should be able to help.
waparagliding.com/index.php/2010/10/07/repairs-a-service/ I think they're in Europe paragliding at the moment.
If that's no good then you can buy thin Dyneema from here ropegalore.com.au/o-1mm-o-1-5mm-o-2mm-donaghys-winchline/
They go down to 1mm. I normally use a guitar string to splice thin line. I had use a darning needle for 0.8mm
Dyneema is stronger and more resistant to heat, but it stretches. Kevlar or Aramid is more dimensionally stable but it doesn't like heat or friction and tends to snap without warning.
Why dont you just tell him to take a long walk off a short pier gorgo blooming hell.
Have a good look at all of edelrids products before steering him towards what i i can only assume is jiri
They have plenty of dyneema available but he is asking for bridal lines. Not alot of line burn happening in a bridal.
Blatantly trying to keep **** local helps no one when it doesnt fulfil the purpose.
The OP asked for a source of Dyneema or Spectra. I gave him two suppliers that can do that. Both are "local" sellers in that they're in Australia. They both import their products.
Edelrid make excellent stuff as do Liros. I don't know where to buy them locally. The paraglider dealers order it in from the paraglider manufacturers. Where are you going to buy thin Edelrid line?
It's fairly common knowledge that Kevlar is dimensionally stable but more brittle and affected by UV. I was mistaken about heat. That applies to Dyneema.
Thanks for info so far gents. I still have a few wonderings to share with the hive mind:
Yes, I'd prefer dyneema to aramid/kevlar for brittleness and UV factors.
Regarding thickness, I've just pulled the kite out again to compare to various lines that I already have, and the 1mm dyneema from above link.
Ropes Galore list their 1mm rope at 250kg
I have Ozone race steering lines rated at 100kg
The steering lines look pretty close to 1mm to me - possibly they're using different strength ratings/safe operating/actual breaking strain?
Anyway, the bridle lines I'm looking to replace are noticeably thinner than the Ozone 100kg lines.
It's only two lines I'm looking to replace at this stage - one about 2.5m, one about 2m, so I figure if I go a bit heavier than the stock bridle I'll not disable the kite too much - thoughts appreciated? I haven't tried splicing anything thinner than 200kg flying line yet, so even with a trusty high E string neatly folded, I wonder what the lower size limit is for splicing. Of course one can use a needle to alternately thread the tail and long end through each other at the first end, and invert the line to create the locked brummel loop at the second end, but getting the bury in seems the limiting size factor...?
Background info - I'm not going to be racing or even foiling with this beast. This 12m foil kite is to be my light wind twintip kite. So I'm not chasing every last fraction of VMG, I just want something with better low end, upwind ability and boosting glide than my aging 12m LEI and am ready for the learning curve of flying and maintaining a foil.
Mate if your fair dinkum just read the different products and treatments aint hard to find something specifically created to your needs. Pollux might be what your after but if you write down what you need and why might surprise yourself and find something else more suitable.
www.edelrid.de/en/industry.php#
As for the kevlar aramid wobble above. Kevlar lines have changed a bit since the 60s gorgo
Have a look at advances new gliders aramid lines (ive got a few theyre new wings and theyre pretty flash) give em a treatment to help them with whatever your exposeing them too and you end up with best of both worlds.
Mate if your fair dinkum just read the different products and treatments aint hard to find something specifically created to your needs. Pollux might be what your after but if you write down what you need and why might surprise yourself and find something else more suitable.
www.edelrid.de/en/industry.php#
As for the kevlar aramid wobble above. Kevlar lines have changed a bit since the 60s gorgo
Have a look at advances new gliders aramid lines (ive got a few theyre new wings and theyre pretty flash) give em a treatment to help them with whatever your exposeing them too and you end up with best of both worlds.
Yep. All good. How do you buy it?
Yes, their Pollux range looks the goods - however my few google searches have yet to work out a way to buy it at all, let alone in tiny quantities. In my fantasy there's a bricks and mortar store with a bunch of rolls of all sizes and colours on the wall and I can just get 5m of this, 10m of that. But I suspect the reality is kite companies order thousands of metres at a time and there's not really a retail market. Happy to hear otherwise ...?
I'll probably just get some of the 1mm stuff from rope galore to start with, and if it's easy to splice and I think I could work with smaller and that it would make any noticeable performance difference, I'll call the paragliding guys in WA.