I have read good words about the Rigid Thread Lines (RRD’s kite lines). At local beaches I heard some mates comparing it with other brands’ kite lines and they liked mine.
I always had good experience with it, trusted it while in the air, I’ve never snapped a line. I use a little trim by default close to the end of the season after a year of use, because I felt like the power lines become a little bit longer.
Nowadays I saw RRD’s video about their newest bar, the Global Bar V8. It includes information about the Rigid Thread Lines.
They say other brands’ “Conventional Dyneema braided kite lines” stretch up to 1% longer under load (results a 25 cm longer power lines). The RRD Rigid Thread Lines use “Unidirectional Dyneema pre-tensined fibers” which only stretch up to 0.1% (2.5 cms).
I was just about to change my old Global Bar V7 to a the V8, so I decided to make a measurement.
I started to use the lines at the beginning of 2017. I used them around 70 sessions, long ones (3+ hours). I believe I gave a big load to the lines, since I’m 95 kgs, and performed big jumps (15-20m according to Woo), and some megaloops.
During a megaloop, I believe my lines get a huge load
It was time to measure the lines.
Max 6 cm stretch after 210 hours of kiting (95 kg rider)
The stretch is about 6 cms. I guess it is pretty good. Not 0.1% as the video says, but about 0.25%. Mates at the local beaches often showed me lower quality lines with 20-30 cm stretch. Now I’m glad looking forward to use Global Bar V8 next season.
December 15, 2017 at 6:49 am
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December 18, 2017 at 3:31 pm
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September 27, 2020 at 12:06 am
Lines don’t stretch at all if they are pre-stretched at factory! It’s the opposite – the lower powered lines shrink! Dyneema lines definitely don’t stretch – but they do shrink.. It’s a common misconception in the kitesurfing world (but paragliders all know lines only shrink – as for paragliding every couple of years you will trim your lines with laser trimming – so you can read up all the exact lengths – never had a dyneema line stretch when getting older! I don’t think Aramid is used in kitesurfing – as it is more problematic regarding UV/water than Dyneema at the same weight. If exposed to temps over 70°C. there will even be significant shrinkage.
In the end most lines will be produced by Liros, Teufelberger, Edelrid or Cousin anyhow and manufacturers simply chose from their portfolio… And all bars I’ve seen use sheathed dyneema…
RRD uses very thick lines – very robust – but you can clearly notice the disadvantage vs North/Duotone/Core who use pretty thin lines, I feel when water relaunching. Not sure how much performance it costs as they are so thick. As it’s just 4 lines I think it doesn’t matter much.
Now If we would see Aramid lines in kitesurfing – we could actually be talking about stretching and not shrinking..
Now that RRD claims about lines not stretching shows me that either they don’t know what they are doing – or they just mislead customers as so common in kitesurfing where there are next to no specs given out on materials and shapes. Strangely many companies like Ozone and Co. who haver perfect spec sheets for their paragliders – tend to say next to nothing about their kite construction besides Marketing BS. There simply seem to be way too little tech nerds in kitesurfing – so the manufacturers can get away with this.