Like none of you guys are interested in this?

It’s only the highest wear inducing part EVER!

Piqued my intereste the first time I read it ages ago, but like I mentioned in the razor post there were some kite sizes mentioned in that post that turned out not to be.

Wondering if this little evolution is here yet or coming someday off in the future.

Anything that reduces wear on the dopower line is a plus.

So yes, obviously its not porcelain,  but ceramic… could be another OR first.

Any feedback on the also mentioned new swivel?  I’ve really got no complaint as I’ve gone without for the past two years, but if it works well, another step towards complete bar perfection.

PS.  been using the newer chicken loop unit retro fit to my older bar and it is absolutely perfect.  Thanks.  In the span of three years you guys went from having the garage tech looking bar to the sweetest one available.  Nice werk!

Brent, you’re right about posting this, if I weren’t involved in OR R&D I would certainly join you in this.
I can tell you we’re seriously looking at alternative materials for the bushing, but we have chosen to test intensively before making it public.
Ceramic is a candidate for sure, as it’s widely used in other thread guiding applications like in textile weaving and braiding machines.
Evan was a bit early with his announcement, for the moment we can tell you we’re on the case and inform the crew once we’ve completed out testing program. It could very well be that we don’t succeed so please don’t get your hopes up too high.

The primary concern with porcelain or other ceramics is the potential they will crack. However, as Rudo said, we do intend to test some new bars with the bushings to see how they hold up but this will be a long term solution, as we will want to see how they do over extended - multi seasonal - use before we go into widespread production.

As you can imagine - and especially in light of the relative ease and low cost of replacing your trim line every 6-8 months - the costs associated with a bar recall because some fancy pants bushing cracks is not something we want to jump the gun on and risk.

On the swivel front, the reason your swivel is jamming is that it is an open bearing design that allows sand, salt and grit to get in and jam the bearings. If we switched to a sealed bearing swivel the cost per swivel would make the bars prohibitively expensive. Anyone interested in re-fitting their bar can easily do so already with any swivel they wish to use. For those who wish to re-condition the swivel they have on their existing bar the easiest thing to do is to blast the swivel with WD-40 to clean it out and then re-pack it with a good 3 in 1 grease. It is important to repack with grease though as WD40 is a cleaning solution only that does provide some short term lubrication but over the long term quickly dissipates and leaves the bearing surfaces exposed.

JohnZ