Brazil - Pipa Kite Strings
 

A reminder following a post a couple of years ago. I'm currently in Rio and spent last week just north of Salvador, on the Lina Verde coast road, which is a near truck free and wonderful coast road from Sergipe to Bahia states. Bikers use a little antenna-like wire cutter, with a hook on the end, to catch the kite strings. Roadside kite flyers are still diving kites at bikes, attempting to catch you under the chin. The kite strings are either woven nylon or coated with powdered glass. They caught one poor chap last week, fatally I'm sorry to report, hence this post. Please, if you are riding in Brazil and see the local bikers using handlebar mounted radio antenna's, check out the hook at the top. Then watch out for kites [pipa's] until you buy and fix on a wire cutter for yourself. Most bike shops sell them.

Good grief! Sorry to hear this is still going on! Thanks for letting us know Mike.

Deserve to be a Sticky.... It's stuck.

Thanks for the reminder.

Hello everybody, speaking from Brazil here.
I always say that in Brazil the Line Cutter (Antena Corta-Pipa in Portuguese) is essential for riders. Kites with cerol lines (powdered glass glued to the line) are very common here, even then using cerol is considered a crime in most states.

There are 3 different kinds of line cutters in Brazil. The least expensive alternative are line cutters like this
http://i.imgur.com/pn19Vl.jpg
They cost around $10-$15 reais each (and you should have 2 line cutters to be 100% safe) and you can find them for sale quite easily but they are ugly and not very durable (less then 6 months usually).

An other option is the one I use on my motorbike.
http://i.imgur.com/6UyzT.jpg
This one is retractable and costs around $20-$25 reais each. This is a Dual Stage and you can put it down when you need. Not pretty, but works fine.

There's a third option, this one
http://i.imgur.com/bnZUL.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/ua7Qy.jpg
This one is a lot smaller that the other 2 options, but costs around $65-$70 reais each. If you have plans to ride for a long time in Brazil is the better option, but if you pretend to stay for a short period of time stay if the 2 other options.

The results of encountering a Cerol Line are very ugly, a lot of riders dies in Brazil because of this, and if they don´t die, the result could be something like this (just the link because the image is somehow disturbing).
http://i.imgur.com/NUAjh.jpg

See also discussion at http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...look-out-68128

Danger is real I believe now
 

I've been riding recently about 15/20,000km in Brasil and took the story as a wives tale until...

The other day at a kiosk on Copacabana my server had a super nasty scar across his neck. He said it was from kite string and was lucky to be alive.

Rode to Rio for Carnival 2012 & again for 2013 after Ushuaia and a few months in Argentina. Every Brazilian city up the atlantic coast from Uruguay to Belem on the Amazon river and into the jungle. :rain: Then down through central Brasil Palmas, Brasilia and out through Minas Gerias to Rio again.

Carnival soon, anyone in Rio now wanna toast adventure? beer

bike is dangerous in Bahia
 

the "kite-subject" is one of the reasons I will never ride a bike here in Brazil, even after living here for many years and driving here professionally ...

I have done +100.000km on my Beamer RT when I lived in Europe but here I am just not up to the dangers driving a bike

the kite is a small problem compared to the sometimes very bad roads but especially to the attitude of the drivers in general : few people respect traffic laws AND just about everybody think they have more rights than anybody else, so that means everybody has priority ...

so, please be carefull driving in Brazil :cool4:

greetz from Salvador da Bahia

Ivan

Ivan

I disagree to suggest that riding in Brasil
2 months in 8000km
No pipa yet
Crazy drivers sure are
Food great
People excellent
Rds wonderful

Now need to find a rear tyre
140/80/18 Pirelli scorpion would be good

In ilhéus

Hugo

Brazil - Pipa Kite Strings
 

Bom dia,

I have been told about this a lot, many of my friends in Brazil use this things agains the strings.

But myself, and I have traveled more than 20.000kms in Brazil in 2002/3/4 and 2012, have never come across this kite strings. But at a bikers meetings, I think it was in Ponte Pora in 2003 I met a biker who had an ugly scar and he told me he was lucky to survive because of one of this kite strings.

Love Brazil. good people. good food. ignorant drivers. crazy and beautiful girls. and very stupid and arrogant police.

enjoy

mika:Beach::scooter:bier

I'm not sure I see how one of these antennae would help. I mean, wouldn't it just flex with the string and still cut you and knock you off the bike before it finally cuts the string? Anyone know of any actual case where one of these things actually helped?

Yes yes yes
My dear two wheeled friends
I bought 1 as sceptic
When you ride
And see delivery boys with 2 pipa cutters
Pay a little attention
Lucky 4 moi I never had a issue
Though I never dought and pulled it up
And yes I spoke to many Brazilian that verified my fear
What's that famous fraze
Skin is cheap
It will grow back one day
Which do u prefer

I don't doubt you that this is a concern. However, I really don't see how the cutters could help very much. Not the designs I've seen here, anyway. Are these devices a false sense of security? Has anyone seen a case where they worked (cut a string before the rider was injured)?

They don't have to actually cut the string to protect you although incorporating a cutter is pretty easy. Just need hook the string and either keep it in front of you until you see it and stop, or the string breaks and passes harmlessly each side of you. Only real requirement is that the hook has to be high enough that it either hooks the string or the string is above your head and harmless anyway.

personally, I would prefer two hooks just in case, just as aircraft carriers have several arrester cables in case the hook misses the first one.

pipa hook / cutter
 

LOL cadjuka - love your post!
Well we have been in Brazil (second time, now in the South) for about 2 months and I was also pondering how all these folks are protecting their bikes with radar trackers or GPS antennae... or was it only the radio for the delivery boys? ...Until a friend in Floripa enlightened us a week ago... just before our departure from this country.

Well it looks like we have been lucky too. But I will make sure I have one next time.

I have seen this pipa string myself. Pretty nasty. You can rip it with your hands (painfully). But at some speed with no protection it's enough to slash your neck enough to make you pull over and bleed to death whilst the perpetrators nick your bike. I am also told that folks wind together a couple of strands to make it stronger (I.E. there DOESN't HAVE TO be a kite involved).

In my OPINION these hooks should be enough to rip the cords before they inflict the damage. (Anyway why should I argue about that with a million Brazilenos that use them every day.) It's between 10 and 30 Reais only which could "save your neck" and - advice from a veteran - if it looks right, it may serve as your GPS tracking system with which you willcconvince that traffic cop in Argentina/Bolivia that you really didn't cross the speed limit :) - lol

Of course a few layers of duct tape across your throat would probably be a viable alternative. I personally have been holding my hand in front of my face the last 2000Km - I'm VERY stingy with my duct tape! ;)

Good on ya
Just about to use duct tape on my boots can't find any where I am

So was in a bike shop today boa vista
Guy serving me had the nasty pipa scare
But it wasn't
Someone had strung a cord across the rd
He was telling me all about it
After I asked if it was from a pipa

To clarify my previous post
Have you ever tried to play pool with a piece of rope ;)

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