Are Cabrinha bars actually safe?

[victor]

i like cabrinha gear but think they are overengineering old stuff instead of redesigning.

i can't remember the last time i tried the quick release on my 2013 cabrinha bar. i haven't actaully HAD to use it since beginner days. i suppose i should be doing it often but it's hard to get the thing back together.

i also have little dings in the rail of my directional from that spring. i had to sew a tube of neopreme from an old wetsuit around it.

[Red_Element_Andy]

[quote]I always felt that cabrinha overdrive is overengineered bar with unnecessary complexity. {/quote]

This hits the nail on the head based on my experience. I learned on 2012 Cabrinha IDS, and was the owner and user of Cabrinha 2010 IDS and 2013 IDS.

While learning on the Cabrinha bars I often found that pulling the safety would not lead to immediate depower ... so as I wound up my lines the kite would be flopping around and pulling a bit. Furthermore, since it was such a pain to try and reset the 2013 bar, there was a slight dis-incentive to ever pull it when you were doing rinse-down.

In the last season I had a line break on 2013 System, so have started to use my new Blade Uni Bar, and have had a much better time. Flags quickly, dead-simple break-away chicken loop. Low-V makes self-landing much easier.

I miss having the rubber-shielded center lines, but otherwise feel like it's 'good riddance' to the Carbinha bar complexity.

[kitet]

I've been riding Cabrinha since '09 and never had a problem with their QR. Owned every single bar and deployed the QR a few times with each of them and it always worked flawlessly. The last time it happened was a month ago while traveling in the Caribbean. Went out on my 9m in 20-25 kts conditions and a storm came up bringing the wind up to 25-30 kts and crazy gusts. Returned to the beach and found myself alone and having to self land. The gusts by then were crazy so I had to deploy the QR. Everything worked well.

How often do you rinse your bar?

[spvone]

Interesting post.
I've never owned a Cabrinha or a North. I have ridden both. I have never felt completely safe on a Cabrinha. I have always been comfortable on a North.

[dwaynej]

I have shared my experiences on other forums. Considerable time with both 2014 and 2015 bars and they are garbage.

2014 bar barely floats in salt water and sinks in fresh water. Bar sponge is easily damaged by the quick release. Complex disimiliar front lines.

2015 bar sponge is also easily damaged by the quick release. After flag out, bar cannot easily be reset - The knots in the front line get caught internally at the transition to the pvc tube.

2015 was my last Cabrinha bar and given my issues with resetting the quick release, I replaced the quick release and depower system with a Ozone Race mechanism. The only thing I like about the bar is the "overdrive" ability to change the width of the bar. Any future bar will likely be Ozone or Slingshot. Somewhat comically, the Ozone release does not damage the sponge on the Cabrinha bar.



Proof of how bad the 2014 and 2015 bars are will be what happens in 2016... Another bar.

[Aloha]

Simple is the new Luxury

[MehYam]

It seems like Cabrinha always tried to innovate on bars and do something different than anybody else. All the way back to that weird pretzel flagging mechanism they had on their old C kites.

[WindMuch]

No comments on this topic from the local Cabrinha rep?

Kirk out

[dwaynej]

No comments on this topic from the local Cabrinha rep?

Kirk out

What's to say? I called Carbinha over every issue I had with my bars. In simple terms, that was a waste of time. Let's hope the children testing their gear get it right one day.

[Sonny]

No comments on this topic from the local Cabrinha rep?

Kirk out

What's to say? I called Carbinha over every issue I had with my bars. In simple terms, that was a waste of time. Let's hope the children testing their gear get it right one day.

I have used Cabrinha bars for many years and never had any issues. I'm pretty sure we would have heard if the bars weren't safe and safety release didn't work.