The Right Kite Bridle

MBK Dowel Rokkaku on its four-leg bridle

This page is devoted to the bridling of flat, bowed, or dihedral kites only. That's about all we flew around here, except for the occasional sled or delta. OK, so there was the Soft Series for a while. And then came the Paper Series, which went back to dihedraled kites again. The same again with the Indoor series, which all fly from a single point.

With flying quite a few different types of kites, ranging from 29 cm (11 1/2 in.) up to 2.4 meters (8 feet) in span, I have fiddled with the odd kite bridle over quite at few years :-) I've pushed the limits of flyability with single-leg bridles and enjoyed smooth sailing with five-leg bridles on kites that suit them.

A few things can be learned about bridles from looking at various MBK kite designs.

That's from the tiny 1-Skewer ones right up to the absolutely huge Multi-Dowel kites.

Down below, I've gone through some bridle examples from these proven kites, starting from one leg and working up to five legs.

In all the photos, a yellow dot represents a bridle-line attachment point. Each photo corresponds to the kite highlighted in bold type, closest to it in the text.

On this page, I have chosen to illustrate with photos of Dowel Series kites and one Multi-Dowel Series monster—the 2.4 m (8 ft.) rokkaku.

No adjustment required
MBK Simple Diamond

However, the much bigger MBK Simple Diamond uses a separate short line tied around the crossing point of the spars, with a small Loop knot tied into the free end. The crossing point is exactly 25% of the distance from nose to tail, along the vertical spar.

A diamond constructed and bridled like this is not the smoothest flyer, but with enough tail it will stay in the air reliably over a fair range of wind speeds. Some flyers actually appreciate kites that wiggle about a lot, tracing their erratic motion in the air with a long thin tail!

In theory, any flat or bowed kite will fly on a single leg bridle if it is attached at just the right spot. However, I found that some of my smaller designs had terrible flying characteristics with a single leg bridle! The 1-Skewer Sode in particular.

So, one-leg bridles work fine for 25% diamonds, but cannot be guaranteed to be much good for anything else, particularly in the smaller sizes. I do remember seeing an incredibly ornate and rather large Wau kite from Malaysia on a single leg bridle though. And it flew great!

Also, there are those who like to modify larger kites to make them fly reliably from a single attachment point. These designs are known for being able to cope with a very stiff breeze since they flatten out and offer low resistance to the airflow. The trailing edge is almost as high as the leading edge in flight so the kite is "floating on top" rather than straining away at a high angle to the wind.

Deltas or any other types with a single keel, are really using the equivalent to a two-leg bridle. The leading and trailing edges of the keel take the place of the two legs.

Adjust one knot for best flight
MBK 1-Skewer Sode

The most noticeable effect is that the kite's nose is prevented from bobbing up and down in response to changes in wind speed. Instead, the kite just rises or sinks smoothly. If the air gets too slow, a bit of wing waggle can occur as the kite struggles to keep flying.

Diamond kites in particular sometimes show the opposite behavior as well, getting up a wing waggle as the wind speed approaches the maximum the kite can handle.

No kite bridle is immune to a very sudden drop in wind speed however. If this happens, the kite will flop forward onto its face and float down until the wind picks up again.

So, almost any accurately made and balanced kite will fly on two legs.

A two-leg bridle does have one important limitation. The horizontal spar(s) had better be strong enough! Near the top of the kite's wind range, a lot of bending force occurs near the middle of the spar. Of course, the stronger and therefore heavier the spars are, the more limited the light wind performance of the kite will be. My little 1-Skewer kites are reliable flyers, but aren't great in very light wind! They fly best in a moderate breeze.

Steadier flight on three legs
MBK Dowel Diamond

I'm quite fond of the three-leg bridle as another step up towards smoother flying. With the horizontal or upper horizontal spar restrained at two points, the wings can't waggle any more. The kite flies more smoothly over its entire wind range.

The bridle consists of a loop going from one side of the horizontal spar to the other. Another line then goes from the middle of this loop to well down the vertical spar.

Most diamonds fly on two-leg bridles, but the MBK Dowel Diamond uses three legs to fly better. Small to medium rokkakus also do nicely on a three-leg bridle, which saves a couple of knots compared to the standard four-leg arrangement!

Barn-door kites are fairly unique in that a three-leg bridle is the obvious, logical choice. One bridle line goes to each crossing point of the spars. I guess if the horizontal spar was high enough, you could get away with a two-leg bridle, by attaching the top bridle line to the middle of the spar. A backward step if you ask me!

Very smooth flying on four legs
MBK Dowel Sode

A little more time and effort is required to make and adjust a four-leg bridle, but for some kites it's the logical choice. And of course, it is the ultimate for smooth flying, keeping the frame of the kite quite rigid in flight.

Of the seven types of bowed kites I fly, the larger rokkaku and dopero are just made for four legs.

The big Dowel Sode is interesting from a bridling point of view. I can think of five ways of doing it, although a couple of them might require beefed-up horizontal spars! However, the four-leg bridle seemed quite a natural fit. This kite is a wonderfully smooth and high performance flyer with that bridle arrangement.

With its two rear keels, the MBK Dowel Dopero kite has the equivalent of six legs actually, since the keels are anchored at two points each. But the keels are small, and most people would look at the lines and think four-leg bridle. It's certainly close enough.

Extra support with 5-leg bridle
MBK Multi-Dowel Rokkaku

With the introduction of Multi-Dowel designs to my stable of homemade kites, five-leg bridles eventually made an appearance.

In the case of the huge barn-door, I felt the upper portions of the diagonal spars could do with a little help to stay straight when under heavy strain.

Also, with the towing point being between the leading edge and the horizontal spar, it made sense to have some attachment points closer to the leading edge.

With its five-leg kite bridle arrangement, the Multi-Dowel Barn Door flies smoothly over a wide wind range. Its upper sail area is well supported and keeps its shape under the most trying circumstances!

The other kite sporting a five-leg bridle is the Multi-Dowel Rokkaku. Having an extra line coming from the vertical spar, near the nose, allows the bridle lines on the horizontal spar to be spaced further apart. This of course keeps the upper portion of the kite more rigid in fresher winds.

Anything to extend the wind range on a design which is a bit limited in this respect!