Easy, often effective and not risky at all.

Your kite launches badly when the wind weakens a bit, which is often the case for the slightly small and slightly heavy kites.

Your kite does not respond well, it does not do sharp turns and to turn you need to stretch one arm out and move the other one backward. This is often the case for kites with bridles linked by hooks.

The alteration consists in changing the bridling. Make a turbo bridling of indoor type which enables the kite to launch more easily, to fly in lighter wind but also to fly in strong wind while pulling less. Check the 'modular bridling' page for details. Do not skimp on the bridle quality.

Add this bridling to double up your current bridling then tie the lines to it leaving the current bridles unused. This makes up your entitlement to error. If the result is satisfactory, then remove the current bridles.

Lengths 1 and 2 are in one piece, likewise for lengths 3 and 4. Buckle 5 is the tow point for the kite lines. The lengths required in relation to spar 6 are approximately 20% for part 1, 40% for part 2, 15% for part 3, 30% for part 4 and 8cm for part 5.

Recalculate the lengths applicable to your kite while keeping the ratios. Make 2 sets of exactly equal bridles. 2mm difference is sufficient to unbalance the kite's flight.

If this seems a bit complicated, have some competition bridling made to size in a kite shop which is also a very good option, not too expensive but reliable .

Your kite only works in strong wind and moves too fast or in fits and starts, loses its shape or flaps its wings.

The above option is unlikely to be sufficient. Since you have to fly in strong wind, vent your kite.

It will no longer fly in average wind but it will pull a lot less in strong wind and will fly slowly while bending the frame less if it is made of fibreglass or not at all if it is made of carbon. For light wind you will need a second kite designed for that purpose. Check the 'Vent a kite' page for details.

Caution ! This option has no come-back. It is up to you to decide whether to take the risk or not.

It is acceptable for those who want to purchase a higher level kite and do not know what to do with the existing one. By combining this option and the previous one, very good kites have been created out of initially 'low range' types

Daring : the drastic alteration

This option affects very low price kites, more intended for fun than for sport kiting. if it is not the case of your kite, check with a kite shop since it probably only requires tuning.

Your kite definitely does not work. You are unhappy with it and just about to put it away in the attic. Give it a last chance. It's up to you !

Change the bridling as indicated in the first option.

If the spars are in heavy carbon or in fibreglass, replace them with good carbon spars, both strong and light. Stay away from carbon aggregates which crumble more easily. Ensure that they are of a sufficient diametre allowing to slip them on. While replacing the spars, it is likely that you will also need to replace the nose. Make it in flat webbing which you will have to sew and not only glue. If one spar is not enough to make a leading edge, you will need a joining tube or a piece of a finer spar to glue inside (1).

If your kite does not have a upper spreader, add one. You can buy rubber joins (2).

If your kite only has one whisker, add a second one. If it has two but does not make a partially flat back, change the placing of the whiskers to look like the picture below (3).

In the worst scenario, you will have kept only the sail. But you will have made a new kite without having to sew, to cut the sail properly, to set the joining cuts correctly ..., more difficult tasks which very few people can do precisely enough without some experience .