Naish UDS Control Bar - A look in detail

February 11, 2004

{2 comments}

The Naish UDS Bar has been on the market since August 2003, and since then not many manufacturers besides Cabrinha who has the Recon control bar, has brought forward any remarkable changes to their control bars.

What does the UDS bar do that other bars don't?

Firstly, the bar allows one to unhook from the chicken loop, and depower your kite while a static line takes the pressure off your arms. This allows for a lot of freedom of movement, and can bring forward new ways of moving your bar - you can do radical dives with the bar. This is also great for surf style riding.

Unhooking out of the chicken loop on the UDS also offers another function - it enables you to depower your kite far more than on any other conventional bar. While Naish claims the depower to be 200%, in reality one would probably gain an extra 35 - 45% of depower on most kites.

Having these amounts of extra depower allows for safer launching and landing of the kite, but also makes cruising on the water more relaxing, and those "walking upwind" walks so much easier as you have that extra depower which allows you to walk upwind easier should you need to.

Apart from this, the bar also incorporates a front line swivel system - something that advanced riders will appreciate. This system prevents your front lines from twisting when doing multiple loops.

Two really innovative features are the ability to use this bar on any other 4 line leading edge inflatable kite, and the ability to convert any existing bar to a UDS bar by just buying the relevant parts.

As long as the chicken loop goes through the middle of the bar, you can use your existing bar, lines and kite.


Download the PDF documents for the Naish Bar here :
NaishSafetySystem.pdf
NaishUDSTech.pdf

Here's some pictures and video clips from the Press Release in Maui in July 2003. The blue component leads to the leash, which is attached to the spinning collar
 

another angle
 

shows the chicken loop hooked in and the spinning leash (blue) in the background
 

Spinning the bar view 1
 

Spinning the bar view 2
 

spinning the bar view 3
 

Spinning Collar and replaceable component
 

Spinning Leash Quick Release (QR) attachment
 

Chicken loop - Spinning leash replaceable Silver Loop line and component
 

"Top Secret" spinning leash component pt. 2
 

Spinning leash, hook and collar
 

Spinning leash Quick Release ball.
 

There's also some video clips in MPEG format to download :

spinning bar hookedin far.mpeg

200percentdepower.mpeg

spinning bar unhooked and hooking in.mpeg

up close spinning leash.mpeg

steering unhooked upclose.mpeg

safety release .mpeg

spinning bar in ckn loop close.mpeg

steering out of chicken loop.mpeg


We recently did a interview with Chris Barrs, the designer of the bar here : http://forums.ikiteboarding.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=1500

Be sure to follow the link as you will find a lot of information and answers to possible questions.


2 Comments
Add your own comment to 'Naish UDS Control Bar - A look in detail'

1 Roderick 9/25/2005 8:32:06 AM

Does it really de power your kite 100% more then the usual?

2 Brad 9/25/2005 8:32:06 AM


Got down to the beach, changed my spreader bar as the UDS only works with the spin loop around the hook. Ran out the lines. Checked out the safety systems. Hooked into the leash, which is a bit of a mission. Launched not quite knowing what to expect.

Once launched it’s pretty much the same as a normal bar. That’s only if you hook in to the chicken loop. Unhooked though all the tension gets transferred to the spreader bar, when pushing the bar away from you as far as possible, the kite de powers but there’s still loads of tension on the front lines connected to your spreader bar.

It’s a weird feeling when the bar is loose and can be moved right or left, up or down. But all the time there is pull no matter how much de power you give the kite. It takes quite a bit of getting used to. Riding with a free-floating bar there’s a point at which you are sheeted in to the max and hold the entire load with your arms if you need to turn fast. But when the bar is pushed up your waist takes the load again. There is very little pull on your arms as long as you are pushing the bar away from you enough to make the back lines go slack. It does work your arms a bit more than usual but then again that is what makes you strong!

Also found it a bit difficult to know the exact position on the kite when unhooked as the back and front line tension is coming to one point.

Hooking in to the chicken loop gives very little de-power and once it power’s up is hard to get out of which is the only way to bleed of the power.

Dropped the kite and on re launching got the lines a bit tangled round the bar as there are no floats on the outside lines. The lines get a bit hooked around the depower strap and safety releases. Just something to watch for.

The bar spins in and out of the loop without tangling although out of the loop after spinning is a bit of a mission to recover the bar as it gets a bit far away and is very floppy. Also kept having my fingers jammed between the bar and line attached to the harness, which is painful and irritating as I like kiting with hands close together on the bar for rotations.

All in all I had fun kiting with the UDS it’s a different feel altogether and it has its merits, but I would definitely ride it to check it out first before getting the set up as standard on your kite.

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