I have two brand new 2008 Rise kites, which I am finally ready to use, and was wondering which knot to attach my lines to. The manual talks about different places to attach the pigtails for different performance, but it doesn’t address which knot to use and what performance changes would be attributed to different knots?
Could you help me on this?
Thanks,
David

Dave,

The 2008 Rise kite has a bridle system on the front which hangs off the kite with a floating front pulley. Your front lines larks head onto this pulley. Your back lines attach directly to the end of the rear line attachments which hang independently off the wing tips of the kite.

However, as you mention there are a couple rigging options you can play with:

1) Front of the kite - follow the Pulley line up to the kite where it attaches closest to the trailing edge of the kite (away from the middle). Here, where it attaches to the kite you will see that there are 2 options to attach the end of this line to the kite.
* Furthest forward = best up wind, higher bar pressure and more depower
* Furthest back = deeper in the window, lower bar pressure, less finicky bar to find the “sweet” spot in for power

2) Back of the kite - your rear lines attach to an extension hanging off the wing tips. You will see that this line can be removed and re-looped through 1 of 2 possible locations.
* Furthest forward = slower turning but less prone to stalling.
* furthest back = fastest turning but more prone to stalling.

Practically speaking I suggest you always use the forward setting on the front line options. If, however, you are more into wake style or wave style riding consider using the back of these 2.

As for the back line options, I would always use the furthest back (fastest turning) option for all kites with the exception possibly of your 6m which will be fast enough turning and could benefit from less stall inducing pull on such a small kite.

Hope this helps.

John Z - OR

Thanks John,
I am a beginning kiteboarder so my style is yet to be determined. I guess I can assume then that the reason there are different knots on a pigtail are for having a backup knot if the first knot on a pigtail gets used so much that it starts looking frayed. Kevin McLellan told me to make sure that I am using the same knot across the kite so everything is balanced. I just wasn’t sure why there was more than one knot and assumed it must be for tuning purposes.
Thanks for your response, I will save the info and learn and use it.
David

I think he means the the 2 knots on the rear lines coming from the bar - not the various setups at the kite LE for both the front and rear lines.  The rear lines come with two knots in place on each line, I’ve always used the second knot from the end and have adjusted its position slightly after a few session so that my front and rear lines are equal in length.  I know my crossbow I came with three knots on the rear lines and I always used the middle one…

Thanks CS for the discussion. I think I am confusing the issue calling them pigtails. I am referring to the knots on two of the lines from the bar that have corresponding larksheads on the kite. And the two short lines attached to the kite that have corresponding larksheads on the other two lines from the bar.

So you use the second knot, and you do it to adjust the length of the lines for getting accurate equal lengths. Thanks, that’s the kind of info I was wondering about.

I appreciate your help.
David

Yeah, I’ve always used the second knot simply because it seems to add a level of redundancy in terms of safety (as I think you mentioned in you first post) but I don’t think that is a real concern. 

In terms of making sure the front and rear lines are equal in length, there are many discussions on how to do this and why.  I think there is a thread on this forum and for sure there are a few on kiteforum.com - looks for posts from Peter Frank I think?  Not a huge deal but fun to do on a no wind day when you feel like tinkering with your kite.

On my 2009 Rise, I have slightly adjusted the position of ‘second’ knot on my rear lines (I loosened them and moved them about 1cm toward the bar) to make them the same length as the lark head ‘loops’ on my front lines.  This is with your trim line set to full power and the bar pulled all the way in to the chicken loop.  Also, I did this after I had used the kite for several sessions so that everything was stretched out.