Kite gear is a rip of and the reason why none of my friends in high school kite is due to the huge price. Whilst my cabrinha bar has already gone through centrelines bar ends broke of and the grip is gone after 1 year. If you look on you tube you can see the vid of the core manufacturer in the core diaries. Where they are pumping out kites and paying the Sri Lanka workers peanuts.

flano said...

Kite gear is a rip of and the reason why none of my friends in high school kite is due to the huge price. Whilst my cabrinha bar has already gone through centrelines bar ends broke of and the grip is gone after 1 year. If you look on you tube you can see the vid of the core manufacturer in the core diaries. Where they are pumping out kites and paying the Sri Lanka workers peanuts.

Unfortunatley no more a rip off than anything else in this world, and more so this country, look at sneakers all pumped out of a chineese sweat shop but you could pay up to $250 in a store or get them online for half the price, but still inflated, a pair of jeans could cost you $250 - 300 and last a year, a laptop computer spat out of an assembly line for $1500K plus but broken down to really maybe a few hundred dollars, if that in parts, im looking at a new kite to replace one of the ones i bought nearly 6 years ago, and the price hasnt changed much at all since then, though noting the aussie dollar is better now than in 2006. I think all products have variations in quality and thus lifespan, i guess if you outlay $3k for a board, kite & harness, and look after the gear as best as you can, you should get at least a good two or more seasons out of it, and if you compare that to the expense of entertaining yourself in "other" ways for the same period of time, you would probally be spending more coin than that! and kids these days are probally spending/wasting that coin anyway on mobile phone bills, iphones, tablets, internet, xbox, gaming, mp3 downloads etc etc, i guess like everything in this world, if you want it bad enough, you have to work for it, save for it and sacrafice for it. i guess at least we have the luxury of at least purchasing bar & lines seperatley which saves coin when buying multiple kites of the same brand/style. Also as mentioned the per/m price of lines wouldnt be cheap so that would be at least more than half the cost.

mattyjee said...

waveslave said...

A bar is just a stick with a bunch of string.
It's low-tech simple.
lol.

Aren't the strings like 3/4 of the cost of the bar anyway? I had to buy 4 new strings for a kite once (long story) and they cost me like $200 i think? I can't remember...

I've purchased good quality 20m lineset new for about $60. so not necessarily

DanCarel said...

Wow those lines cant be too good for $60, dont know If I would bet my life on them. Hope you bought them locally and didn't put some poor Australian out of business.

Nice first post Dan . I'm more than comfortable with them thanks and have exactly zero doubt that they are a quality item as they are the same ones as I'm currently using .

RPM said...

Neptune said...

You seem to use this picture over and over again... Does it maybe apply to you just as much as anyone else you sent it to?

Well I'll leave this one especially for you...

Thanks I appreciate that a lot. Leaving a picture of a funny Asian man especially for me... I feel honored.

Neptune said...

You seem to use this picture over and over again... Does it maybe apply to you just as much as anyone else you sent it to?

And who calls it a 'control bar' anyway....?

On-line is great.
Like the guy we had in the other day.
Was quoted locally $160 for a set of new lines for his brand X kite.
Went onto ebay and found them ex Europe just $89 plus postage which ended up being $22.
Bargain - feck the local guy.
So he sent off for a 'genuine' set of kite X brand lines for 1/2 price
WOW fantastic. Why wouldnt you.

What he actually had delivered (after he had paid and waited) was a 'genuine' set of 2 lines for brand X kite.
Same price as 2 line replacements here in Oz.
But they sent the back lines; what he needed was front lines.
Went back online to be told "no problem send us another $89 and we'll send you the front lines. Which he did.
But then he didnt know how to fit them so needed a local shop to do that for him anyhow.
If he had come in first off we could have fixed his problem for $25 TOTAL.
Ended up paying for both sets of lines, 2 lots of postage plus a labour charge for refitting the lines.
Even if he had needed new lines and he bought them off the shelf they would have been fitted for free.

But hey buying on line is pretty smart - just not always.

puppetonastring said...

On-line is great.
Like the guy we had in the other day.
Was quoted locally $160 for a set of new lines for his brand X kite.
Went onto ebay and found them ex Europe just $89 plus postage which ended up being $22.
Bargain - feck the local guy.
So he sent off for a 'genuine' set of kite X brand lines for 1/2 price
WOW fantastic. Why wouldnt you.

What he actually had delivered (after he had paid and waited) was a 'genuine' set of 2 lines for brand X kite.
Same price as 2 line replacements here in Oz.
But they sent the back lines; what he needed was front lines.
Went back online to be told "no problem send us another $89 and we'll send you the front lines. Which he did.
But then he didnt know how to fit them so needed a local shop to do that for him anyhow.
If he had come in first off we could have fixed his problem for $25 TOTAL.
Ended up paying for both sets of lines, 2 lots of postage plus a labour charge for refitting the lines.
Even if he had needed new lines and he bought them off the shelf they would have been fitted for free.

But hey buying on line is pretty smart - just not always.

But in this case they guy didn't really read what he was buying or they didn't delivered what was promised. So either it was a client too stupid to understand what he ordered or it should be considered as a fraud.vThis can happen whatever u buy.

The horror stories keep coming, saving money my arse!

wishy said...

puppetonastring said...

BarryDawson said...

woodys said...

Simple answer - Yes.
But we are a small market to produce for - with way too many brands.
If they could churn them out in mega numbers then they would be way cheaper.

Are you serious?

Wouldn't the bars and lines for one brand all come from the same factory therefore being produced in mega numbers for a global market?

Or, are you saying Australia is a small market and the bars and lines for this region are manufactured in a seperate factory for this region only?

No - not saying that Barry. I am referring to a small market world wide and still way over supplied with choice.
We have more choice here in Perth for kite brands than we have for all major car brands. 1 kite to every 20,000 households - 2+ cars to every household. Go figure.
I am absolutely sure that marginal kite cos. will disappear over the next few years leaving us with still more choice than we need and a resultant significant drop in price by the majors who will be able to produce more thereby reducing many of the inefficiencies we are currently all paying for - even those of us who already support the major brands.
If kiters want cheaper kites they need to stick to the majors who are ALL making excellent products (durability & flight characteristics considered) and who will always be dealing with market forces which will always keep prices competitive.
Plain common economic sense.

This is rubbish. The cost is in the strings, and I bet they are all produced in the same factory. A piece of metal with some foam around it and some strong plastic on the ends could be produced by any monkey, in any factory, anywhere, for a very low cost.

I would like to see a comparison showing the cost of 4 x 26m ropes used for yachting vs the 4 x 26m lines used for kiting. The cost per metre difference would blow your mind and then all you have to do is trace back through the value chain and see who is adding what margins.

I dunno - my bar is made from carbon fibre - which is getting more expensive these days. The aluminium alloy that other companies may use is not cheap either.

$10 for a 75cm piece of carbon fibre tube.
rcworld.com.au

lostinlondon said...

Did you check the diameter on that tube? Like I said earlier, have a look at the cost of carbon fibre forks for bikes... that is a better comparison.

Because non carbon fibre control bars are seriously lacking in performance in comparison right......

pintofpale said...

I work in manufacturing and export so I have some idea of the costs involved. I'd say If the factory could not produce a bar and lines with a good profit for $80 then there is something wrong.. They buy materials wholesale and produce in Asian countries where labour is very cheap. I estimate $30 per bar for their R and D , $40 profit for the wholesaler, $60 profit for the retailer and $10 freight would make it worthwhile to those involved. That is $220 plus GST makes $242... The bars on my kites list at $549. Someone in the chain is making a lot more obviously. Ultimately though the value of something is what people are prepared to pay.. Therefore they must be worth $549 because that is what I paid. BTW I reckon a beer would cost a few cents for a factory to make. I've on occasion paid over $10 for one!!

You have hit the nail on the head there mate, a very accurate assessment....

mattyjee said...

waveslave said...

A bar is just a stick with a bunch of string.
It's low-tech simple.
lol.

Aren't the strings like 3/4 of the cost of the bar anyway? I had to buy 4 new strings for a kite once (long story) and they cost me like $200 i think? I can't remember...

strings are on a guitar you yokle

lines are for kites, and on them