Welcome to Windstock.net

a little shock therapy

It's a Monday. And not just any monday but also the first day back at work after a week at the beach. It was of course a most excellent week at the beach. I just wanna go back and do it all again. But alas we are back in town and life is still good.

The Rev got a workout last week and it was a blast. I'm watching the trees for wind cuz I'm already jonesin' a bit, but there's nothing. And there's a squall line heading this way. The weather is falling into a summer routine of storms in the afternoon which is great except if you want to fly kites. We need the rain and I enjoy a good storm so it's all good really.

I got home and decided I could at least replace the broken bungee shock cord and missing washer that the Rev B needed. I was planning to repair it while at the beach but I guess relaxing got the best of me.

The Rev B had been in a kite collision some time ago. Well not collision as much as an entanglement. Back in January while flying the Rev it caught the line from another kite that had escaped from a couple on the other side of the park. (Here is the journal entry)

The collision cut the bungie and I ended up repairing it using two hundred pound test dacron. That worked quite well except it is a bit loose and the play allowed for extra wear and tear on the fabric. It also would not stretch like the bungie would and probably was the reason that i snapped an upright spar during a strong gusty day. The wind came up and just kept building and the frame of the kite strained in a tense curve and then crack the two feather rod snapped at the label.

I ordered the complete washer and bungie set from midwest kites for nine dollars and fifty cents. End caps and stoppers had already been purchased from A Wind of Change so there now are plenty of spare parts.

Repair was simple. Remove the dacron line and replace it with the bungie cord. Tie a knot on one end of the cord, feed it through the washer and then the frame and then the endcap, then back through the washer for another knot. Then clip the bungie after the knot and then use a lighter just a bit to seal the cord ends so they do not fray.

You can see that the endcap has some little rips at the top. I decided to wait and replace the caps on both sides at the same time because the replacement caps I have seem to be made out of different rubber than the stock ones. And there are some nicks in the bridle line as well, so maybe that can be replaced soon too.