Replacement bridles

[sflinux]

A simple, clean, no sew, strong, and easily adjustable loop is the zacher knot. All you need is a blunt quilting needle.

[sflinux]

zacher knot

[S\/EN]

I need to replace some bridles too for my 2006 Naish Shockwave. Naish is asking $20 per bridle, which is really nothing but a piece of string with a loop (I believe that's the "lark's head"?) on both ends. Seems expensive even if it's a really strong string.

I saw this tutorial:
http://www.stormriderkites.com.au/zacher-knot.htm
basically the same as sflinux's post above. Looks good, but I tried it with one of my broken original bridle pieces and the outside weaving is so dense that it's impossible to insert anything into the rope. I couldn't even push the quilting needle into the torn open end of the line.

So my question: Where can I get the right string for this? Strong and thin enough for a bridle, yet spliceable as in that tutorial. Ideally also available in blue and red as the original bridles.

Alternatively, can someone in the bay area make reliable bridles for less than $20 a piece? sflinux offered above, is that still valid?

[sflinux]

Hi Sven,
That link you gave for the zacher looks right.
Check out a sailing shop like west marine, amsteel is what you want. Depending on the store, the diameter may be on the big side. What you want is 7/64" diameter = 2.5 mm, which is very strong with a tensile strength of 1600. It is 100% dyneema SK-75, with a 12 strand braid, which is hollow, so spliceable and bomber.
It is similar to the pulley bridle section as you'd find on Best, Eclipse, and Royal kites.
If you want thinner, you are probably looking at 500# spliceable spectra.
With dense unspliceable lines, it is better to sew them.
If anyone has trouble making their own bridles, give me a holler.

[mbzporvida]

Way outside at Waddell home made bridle breaks have to self rescue and body drag in.how much would you pay for a boat ride in? $50.00 :o

[S\/EN]

How did you make that home-made bridle, if I may ask? What material, what fastening?
Always good to learn from others' mistakes...

[elli]

If your destroyed bridle is old, it is probably stretched, and when you copy it you copy a stretched bridle with wrong dimensions. If you are going to copy, you may want to copy a fairly new bridle that did not stretch yet.

[windhorny]

Yeah, I dont think most understand the accuracy required to do this right. I modified paraglider wings for a few years and 1/4" off here and there is a HUGE difference. When i was flying Slingshot and the bridles were wrong from the factory, they sent a new pair that was barely distinguishable fromt he original in lengths, yet made a difference. Measuring a new set is key! But try it and maybe you will get lucky.