This week I've built two bars for my kite, for the total coast of £5.11, from B&Q.

Shops wanted £25 upwards, some up to over £100 for a bar - what a rip off!

I'm extremely confident that one of these bars will never break - 1" outside diameter steel tube, with tube thickness of 1/4". That bad boy's going nowhere. And for lighter wind days (I think it'd take a lot more, but why risk it when i have the stronger one) there's one made out of 20mm Cold Rolled Iron Tube. This is also a lot stronger than you'd imagine.

Flew the peel for the first time on a bar today, and it flew a treat - the beauty of these bars is that they are 1m long - of course you could build to whatever length you want, but i like to have a lot of control and thought that a 50 to 65cm bar wouldn't give the 'throws' that i want.

I'm happy, so's my wallet!

Anybody else built their own stuff? What can I build next?!

Sounds pretty cool, what did you cover the bar with?

I agree some kit is outrageously priced but there is the odd good deal around, I got a 80cm carbon Maui Magic bar with leaders for £18 from a kite shop sale.

What is the weight like compared to a commercial bar? No doubt yours will be strong enough with those specs, bars are usually made from alumimium or carbon for weight and strength I guess.

A friend has made a load of new parts for my buggy, but can't really call it home made as he is a professional and the finish is better than production parts. Front end of my buggy is new (forks and swan-neck downtube) also the backrest and a tandem kit to join two buggies, all in stainless steel and very nice (see below)!

A few people I know have made their own kites, tend to be Nasa Wings which are apparently quite easy to make, got access to a sewing machine?

Would think a small NPW5 would be fairly easy to make and probably work ok in big winds? There are lots of plans available on the web.

Would also be possible to build your own buggy if you can weld or know someone that can, I have also seen buggies that required no welding; one using clamps and another made of PVC tubing - apparently not a good idea as when it breaks it goes to sharp pieces that will shred you

Problem is the expensive bits are the wheels and seat, which you will still need.

yup the one is quite heavy, which i did think might be a bit of a problem, but flew it today in pretty much no wind and you couldn't notice there was any weight in the bar. the lighter one i am not so convinced will stand up to high winds, but it does seem very strong still - i cant bend it at all - i'll have to see how it goes.

the bar's covered with duck tape all over at the minute to prevent rust, but i'm thinking of getting some foam tube insulation to put on the bar to give it that warmer comfy feel!

its funny you should mention building a buggy, we attempted it last year, but our welding didnt look up to the job, and i dont think the materials were suitable now either!

a bigger nasa wing sounds good, around the 10m mark would be cool. maybe i'll have to give that ago!

80cm carbon bar for £18, thats quite a deal!

Shem and Chris have recently built their own kitesurf boards. Chris's was simply a piece of 12mm plywood cut into a rectangular shape, varnished with a couple of footstraps screwed into it. No rocker, no fins, no shape to the board at all....He got up and going OK on it though.

Shem's was a little more sophisticated with some rocker, and some shape to the rails. He also glassed and painted it. I'm not sure if Shem has used his yet??

Al.

yeah i was reading about somebody's attempts at building there own kitesurf board on the flexi forums. they'd tried to build a hollow board with formers inside and then filled it with this foam stuff. never heard whether it worked or not though, but it sounds like a good idea!

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Originally posted by rob

a bigger nasa wing sounds good, around the 10m mark would be cool. maybe i'll have to give that ago!

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