I often forget to do regular checks on my pulleys.
Yesterday i went to try spin them with no luck.
Its a good idea every time you unpack your kite to walk around and ensure they spin freely.
A stuck pulley will quickly snap your bridle line resulting in an out of control kite and a long swim in.
What I do is drop the kite in the water soon after launch - to rinse the pulleys.
Never had problems with pulleys or bridle, and I self launch on sand often.
pullies and bridles wear out. depending on use but i'll fry the bridles that run through the pullies in 1 year. maybe 3years for pullies. Thats for my speed 3
i'm running ozone leis with no pullies ... therefor no pulley/bridle wear.
but it pays to check the attachment points. I have replaced the steering bridle lines on my c4 because of chaffing.
just give them a spray with silicon every few months and they stay like new. You never need to check them after this and there is no issues
Dry lube is the best for your pulleys it cleans as it lubricates........
Never had a problem even in the old days when they used to be Rostan pulleys now every brand has a branded pulley........lube it and clean it replace your brides every two years............ ;)
My kites all had the plastic ronstan pulleys and I made a habit of just pulling the line backward and forward through them virtually every time I hooked up my lines just to make sure they were moving freely.
They eventually wore out on my most used kite the 7 so I ordered some aftermarket sliders
They seemed to work very well so I have now fitted them on all of my kites, they will replace virtually any pulley.
I have always been skeptical of sliders, reason being have you ever seen what happens to dynema when it rubs hard against each other the combination of friction and heat melts them together or tears it like cotton.........
Having said that a lot of the new bridle lines are not standard dynema, would a seized pulley still not give you the same amount of friction?
Has any one compared the wear on working pulley lines and sliders say after a season...?
I have been using mine for about 6 months too and there doesn't appear to be any real wear.
Dyneema rubbing against dyneema would have a heap of friction and generate heaps of heat but rubbing against a super smooth polished steel surface I doubt that it would generate much heat at all.
I believe the BWS kites use steel rings that are similar but with these sliders just have a bigger circumference so spread the load more.
I think if you check your pulleys regularly and make sure they are hanging straight they should last ages the problems start if they are not hanging straight and the bridle starts rubbing on the sharp edge of the top section of the pulley and not on the roller, or if a gap opens up between the roller and the fixed part of the pulley and the bridle jams in there.
With the sliders there is no maintenance or checking required, time will tell but I don't think I will ever use a pulley again.
where did you order the sliders from?
I have a 9m bandit that has ruined pulleys. These would be a good replacement, probably cheaper too.
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trust me I was genuinely interested.
That is what the first wife said.
Ha ha nice one centurion. Lol. First, second , third I'd say it would all the be the same in the end.
Hey Tighlines,
what's the news on the sliders shop?
Can't find these things anywhere 'cept on the EPIC site and they have ropes on them and $20 for a pair. Way to much.
Yeah they are from Switch.
Went for a kite today and actually had a good look at my bridles, they are showing signs of wear, not to bad but the P line has flattened out a bit where it runs through the slider and is feathering slightly so maybe they are not quite as good as I first thought but the kite is 2 years old.
