fushion julz

OK...what sort of helmet is recommended? I have an FIA/RAC MSA approved full-face job (for car racing/track days), but I suspect this will be a) too heavy b) too restrictive and c) too hot. I also have a funky cycle type lightweight helmet...but a) these look silly if you aren'y on a bike (could be argued they look silly even ON a bike) and b) they aren't designed for sideways impacts only to stop you headbtting the pavement! What *type* of helmet is recommended? I've got some leather knee pads and I'll probably use these for now...I won't be wearing shorts , but probably some waterproof hiking trousers that are fairly abrasive resistant...

What sort of helmet, pads, etc do you lot recommend for buggying? Finally got myself a Flexi Buggy and want to make sure I'm not going to (unwittingly) do myself a mischeif on my first attempt! Any links to relevent items, sites to get them from, etc, gratefully received

I'm interested in your buggy....whereabouts in Surrey are you?

Ah-Ha! penny has dropped... Now I know why I didn't think there was a kite shop (still) in Harris Arcade! I have seen your shop, but (fairly naturally) assumed it was a circus supplies/juggling store!

Yeah, tried as much brake as is possible with the current line set-up...as soon as there is a breath of wind I'll have a go at adjusting them as I think it may be flying with too much brake at present... However, I have NO intention of harnessing myself to this or any other kite just yet... Perhaps..just perhaps..at some point in the future after I have become proficient with the kite AND a buggy, I may try a harness...

Think the question may be academic if flying is banned at that park....However, AFAIK (what with it being on exactly the opposite side of Reading to me) the goalposts aren't removed at all...

I suppose it just takes a bit of getting used to, really... Maybe I need more practice, too

Cheers, chap... I'll try and pop in and see you, maybe on Saturday.... What is your shop called and do you have a website?

Cheers, Frakke... I think the field in question must be the one on the opposite side of the Bath Rd, next door to the Savacentre supermarket below where is marked "Sulham Valley" The field you marked is a farmers' field and is usually planted with crops, although it had cattle last year! The other one is a playing field....Unfortunately it has loads of goalposts at the bottom end and slopes up quite a bit away from the road.... But worth checking out.... I know of an airfield about 10miles away (with tarmac) that may well be available for use...

feckin miles.... not somewhere I can pop to after work

I'm a new convert to the kiting thing (disregarding the sport kiting) and, since Christmas, progresed from a Stacker 6 to a Rage 2.5 and now a Blade 3 4.9. I'm just getting the hang of flying it, but am already thinking about getting a buggy.... However, I live in the middle of the English Countryside (Reading) and, while there are plenty of places to go static kiting, there aren't many places I know of that would be suitable for buggying.... My nearest place (5 mins walk by the river) is flat enough, but there are too many people around and the less populated bit has long grass and uneven ground. The other place (local park, 10mins drive) has less people, enough space, but the ground is uneven and the grass is a bit long.... Is there a list of sites anywhere (that a learner is not likely to either assisinate an onlooker or hurtle uncontrolled into a large resevoir) that aren't a million miles away on the coast?

It's on handles... TBH, at 10-12mph or so (what I'd call a decent breeze), it was tugging me around a fair amount ... I realise the bigger the kite the slower it becomes, in general, but the Rage 2.5 isn't a huge amount slower to turn than the Stacker 6, despite being twice (or more) as big...The Blade 4.9 is again twice the size of the Rage 2.5 and is a whole lot slower to turn... It wasn't exactly scary, but I did find it hard to hang onto it when flying through the power zone without either getting pulled or running around like mad... Because it was a bit slow to respond to the controls, the power zone was a bit longer to hold than I was used to with the Rage, really... I'm gonna adjust the lines, I think, and try again.... All I know is that this is looking like a lot of fun and I am looking forward to getting a buggy, now

I recently purchased a s/h Blade 3 4.9 and went out today to give it a whirl... Wind was, I guess, about 10-12mph (but I'm no expert on that) I enjoyed it immensely, have to say, but it is really hard work compared to my Rage 2.5... Firstly, I found it pretty slow to turn, although it is very controllable at the lower edges of the window... I also found that it was easy to get the kite tied up in the bridles...Something that never happens with the Rage... It does have an amazing amount of pull though..and, in the right positions, lift also... Probably gonna have a go at altering the lengths of the brake lines as I think it was flying with a bit too much brake... Basically, just flew it straight out of the bag as the last user sent it to me...and it looks like the comparitive length of the leader to brake is a little short... Would that make for the above characteristics? My arms now feel like I've done a few sessions in the gym!!

Kites? Thought this thread was about PCs! But I've currently got: Flexifoil Blade 3 4.9m (grey/fluro yellow) that I've just acquired and had a first fly of today... Flexifoil Rage 2.5m (Rasta) Flexifoil Stacker 6 (grey/fluro yellow) Atelier Jibe Stunt Kite

You're mostly correct, however...the chipset is what talks to other peripherals and when you have embedded things like video etc, they all have to work in sync and if they dont have the right nuts and bolts holding it together then it will give you grief. Thats what happens when you use a chipset that is developed for vista and then attempt to run XP on it. Intel will tell you there is no driver for it and the laptop manufacturer should have a driver for there boards and when you check, its a patch that intel put out and they have modified it http://www.extremekites.com.au/forums/images/smilies/frown.gif Things might be improving now but the laptop manufacturers are still having a few problems. But you're missing the point.... Standard XP (ie non server/corporate editions) and Vista are essentially the same core code and are 32bit OS systems...Yes, I know there are 64 (and 128) bit versions, but they use the same 32bit core. That means that any CPU based on x86 architecture appears, to the OS as a single (or multiple in the case of dual or quad core) device with the same instruction set(s) as the original x86 CPUs of the 80s. When you build a Windows PC (an the type is immaterial) the installer chooses a form of the OS (drivers and libraries) to place on the disc that acknowledges the hardware of the board/chip/memory/cache and partly video... This is only one of 4 or 5 different ones and is in 75% of the time the same generic one, in any case... There are indeed some (especially) laptops from certain manufacturers that cut a few corners and made life hard for themselves.... It isn't a MS problem, though...They are *very* specific about which hardware they support...it is a manufacturer issue which some, less scrupulous of whom,, have tried to circumvent by writing new code and drivers to try to enable their cheaply made chipsets to work with the OS... Vista tightned up on the requirements...Basically MS made manufacturers pay lots to have their hardware certified...But that didn't either autmatically mean it was XP certified (if, for instance it only worked with 64bit code in Vista) or that an XP certificate would guarantee Vista compliance....

SPELL CHECK!!! AMD aren't about to disappear... They are engaged in a bit of cat-n-mouse with Intel and, currently, Intel have the upper hand...But don't forget it was only a couple of years ago when it looked like AMD were gonna whup Intels' arse over dual-core.

You are chatting bo**ox, dude... CPUs don't need (or indeed have) drivers per operating system... The Intel series of processors (along with AMD) are all based on x86 core architecture. Windows (all varieties) and DOS inherently knows the x86 machine code as this is ALL that it can talk to the computer hardware with... Windows cannot work on certain other types of architecture (Motorola 6000, SUN, etc), and certain other OS may have issues with x86, but in this case, The "code" of the Intel type (Core Duo, Quad, Santa Rosa, etc) is irrelevant... It is just internal to the CPU as to how it is configured and named by Intel during development.

I guess it is all about whether or not the extra features on the 450d are going to be of use to you, or not... Personally, I use a Nikon D70s...I bought it in preference to the Canon (300d) as it was, at the time, the best for me in terms of features vs cost and I have always used Nikon SLRs back to the old Nikon F. Don't disregard the Pentax ones, either...the latest K20D is a superb looking bit of kit and Pentax are one of the top optic manufacturers so the lense, at least, will be as good or better than Nikon and Canon...

I may agree that Vista is resource-hungry and saps the power of your machine... But I won't agree on the rest. There is nothing wrong with the latest Intel chipsets at all...in fact, currently , they are ahead of AMD although that does swap around from time to time... The motherboard northbridge and southbridge interfaces make a lot more difference to the apparant speed as does the amount of 2nd level cache. Also, before you totally disable your firewall(s) make sure you have some form of security enabled... The best (free) firewall is ZoneAlarm...download it and it is fairly intuative and learns itself what to block or, at the very least, asks before either blocking or allowing.

Possibly someting to do with the (a) firewall... I'm not much of an expert on Vista, but it is esentially similar to XPand it sounds very much as if your firewall is blocking or at least limiting access. The other thing is to ensure that you have simple file sharing enabled on both machines and that you actually share the folders and/or files and/or drives for all users with full permissions. Also make a drive mapping to the share and make it persistant. Although workgroups will and do work, there are limitations...If you are planning on doing this more seemlessly, it may be worth getting an old machine to run as a server (use 2003 server)... Then you can set up a domain, route all traffic via the server, at least internally, and the domain authentication will handle all the sharing issues.

Just bought a kite from SheffieldRichie...top transaction conducted speedily and efficiently... Thanks a lot, chap!

Hmm... I've put that bl**dy car into the garage three times to have the 'suspect suspension related clicking noise' investigated. Three times I've been palmed off with 'can't find anything wrong'. Guess what it failed on? You're right - broken coil on the rear suspension, and a faulty joint on the front... :mad: I fecking hate garages treating me like an idiot just because I'm a woman (and Spar, you can shurrup!) Replacing a broken spring...especially a rear one...is a hours' job at best... Similarly, I'm assuming it is a FWD car, the front "joint" is likely to be a CV (constant velocity) joint...That will be where the "clicking" has been coming from... Not a hard or long job (if a bit messy), but should take even a trainee only an hour and a half absolute maximum.... Really nothing to serious in either of those two fail points... Just so long as it is structurally sound you haven't much to worry about...

Nah, not even Tescos sell small children

Didn't realise he was the forum Troll...D'oh!

If your HDD is already dead then, expensive solutions aside, you're probably already fecked... However, assuming you have access and an alternate storeage (external HDD or the like), then I'd recommend Norton Ghost and a boot disc (CD or floppy) that boots the machine to an external device.