Hey guys, Just took my 08(I think) Rise 8m out for the first time yesterday for a lesson after finally finding someone where I live to give one. It was pretty crazy wind and quite gusty but we were out on the water so it was pretty safe.

Anyway long story short, the instructor tested the kite first with the board to get the feel of it and immediately after his waterstart the kite started looping like crazy. It ends up that one of the plastic stock pulleys snapped in half. I have tried included a pic but it was bigger than 150kb(If anyone can tell me how to shrink a 2.5mb picture to a measly 150kb than I will send it…).

I just thought I would ask if this is common? I am going to replace all the pulleys on my kites with something a bit tougher. Maybe the Ronstan Orbit Block Pulleys. Have you guys upgraded the pulleys on newer kites? Upon comparison to the teacher’s stock pulleys I noticed that the one’s on my kite(Ronstan pulleys) seemed to be quite cheap looking with thinner plastic that supported the pulley.

Cheers,
Draztic

Hi Draztic,
Rudo form OR R&D here, thanks for sharing this. We have very few (if any) cases of pulley failure (I need to speak to Ross to know how much) so this is really bad.
You can however stick with the plastic Ronstans, you must have gotten a bad one on your kite OR it’s worn out like crazy. These pulley have been used for a long time and and have proven to be very adequate in the Ocean Rodeo bridled kites.
thanks,
Rudo

PS I
I want to see the high res pictures to check what went wrong, I’m sending you a message with my mail address.

PS II
Images can be resized with this handy utility: http://imageresizer.codeplex.com/

Hey Rudo, I will get that pic off to you right away, and thanks for the link to the resizer. Actually the kite is basically brand new, I bought it from Klaus the OR dealer in Finland and I think he might have tried it once or demo’d it once or twice, it looks BRAND new and I remember him telling me that it had basically never come out of the bag. Even the kite teacher remarked on it when we pulled it out But I definitely got freaked out and am pretty sure I will still upgrade the pulleys if I can get a half decent price on them. Sending you the picture now.

Cheers,
Draztic

Hi Draz, got the mail. Haven’t seen or heard this before, the plastic broke clear across the shaft hole. Wait with ordering new pulleys, we may have something for you.
Keep you posted.

Ok thanks man.

Cheers,
Draztic

I believe that this is now taken care of in the back channels Draztic, I just spoke with Ross about this and it sounds like between he and Rudo we will be sending you a solution.

As Rudo mentioned, this is the 1st instance any of us can recall of a pulley failing, sorry for your luck!

John Z

I remember my 2010 rise in the winter having a pulley failure on the snow….I just figured the plastic got cold, luckily though I had a spare one since OR always includes one so my session was saved!

Thanks John and Rudo for taking care of that. I have never received any extra pulley’s with the kites I have bought…

Cheers,
Draztic

Draztic - if you bought the kites new you will have received a spare pulley with the repair kit. Not many people notice the kits though as they are somewhat hidden. The inside of the kite bag as a 2nd pocket, inside that pocket is the repair kit with sticky back Dacron, a patch kit for the bladders and a spare pulley. Either way we will get you one!

Well the first 3 kites I bought were demo’d so I understand that they probably had the repair kit go missing into the original buyer’s fix kit but the last kite I bought was brand new and the repair kit that came with it had only the dacron patch and the small tube patch but no pulley. I even took a picture with backlight coming through the package so it is clear that there are only those two items. I checked the patch kit’s sealed plastic bag and there are no rips or tears so it doesn’t seem anyone removed it. Don’t get me wrong though, I am not saying you are lying, I know you’re not! I guess I just have bad luck with pulleys. I can send you guys a picture if you want but I mean I’m not worried about it. I have a replacement bridle for my 12m and I can just steal a pulley off of that in the meantime.

Cheers,
Draz

Guys I wonder whether the 2008 Rises had pulleys in the repair kit. Not sure.
BTW this topic had me thinking back of the stoke I had when I moved from brand X to OR Rises back in 2008. It still puts a smile on my face!