steved1599968766

'Tis true I tell ya - & I still have nightmares about it almost a year on. I briefly saw it too as it was lurking in the shadows. It's definitely not a local beast - it had this weird Peruvian aura about it & I'm pretty sure it was coughing up a fur-ball or something?!?!?

^^ nice isn't it. The best thing I like is no more headstock squeak headaches.

^^ Hey Al, How's things? I'm not after making an indestructable buggy - just looking to add a bit of support to reduce the siderail/downtube and fork twisting that comes with jumping Flexi buggys. Also, like I mentioned, the siderail brace is mainly to stiffen up the buggy laterally to improve response/handling rather than stop it bending from vertical forces. With heavier landings the siderails will still absorb the forces and will no doubt sag over time. I'm also not putting a towel rail on my axle. At the moment I'm using one of the Peter Lynn composite jobs which flex nicely. The only comments I've had about the PL axle is the flex may cause 'bouncier' landings as the axle will rebound the force of landing. Like I say though, it's all down to nailing the landings and coming in nice & smooth. I've only just started getting airborne this last week and I'm concentrating on quality of landing rather than height. LH less gusty than PS! Really? I know it's got worse & I've not flown at LH for a looooong time but .......!

^^ LOL! - very true.

Cheers dude & yep, there does seem to be quite a lot of air in between my arse & the seat. LOL! Maybe I need a cushion! Got out for a little session last night on the 8.5BIV & the jumps are starting to come together a bit more consistently now. :-) I learned a hell of a lot over this weekend - it was worth every penny. It'll be great to go to the next one & see how everyone's progressed.

Yep - Hanks buggy was something else! LOL! & I think you're right, as long as it has 3 wheels, a seat and steers, I don't think it matters how twisted or saggy a freestyle buggy is. Basically I think Will was coming from the angle that the siderail brace is good as it generally stiffens up the buggy which improves handling/response, rather than promoting it as something to stop the inevitable twisting & sag that comes with jumping. It will obviously help reduce that too, which can only be a good thing to extend the life of my buggy seeing as Flexi aren't currently selling the stainless version. So I'm wanting to fit one for both reasons. I also want to get a front fork brace. But ultimately I think the best way to stop a bug bending (& the rider!) is to concentrate on redirecting properly and landing smoothly.

@Lynnlad - cheers, I've just PM'd you. @Phil - the siderail brace in the pic above looks like it's been set back a bit too far. From what I understand it should be much more forward; as close to the where the siderail bends as possible. When I sat in Wills bug at the weekend I couldn't feel it.

Cheers dude - I knew it was there somewhere.

I'm sure there are some pics of the Flexifoil buggy siderail bracing mod on here somewhere, but I've had a good search and can't find 'em. So has anyone got any pics of this mod they can post up or link me to please? Cheers, Steve.

Superb! - Ok, so after I've really nailed those jumps I need to concentrate on not gurning in front of the camera. LOL! Seriously though, cheers Hank for taking those & posting them up so quickly. I'm dead chuffed you got a couple of me getting properly airborne. @Phil - cracking sidewinder! @Bash - I got all 3 buggy wheels off the floor for the first time - that's made my year let alone my weekend.

More than most of us. & good to meet you at the weekend btw Phil. If ever your down my way then make sure you bring your gear & drop me a PM - it'd be good to catch up & have a fly.

^^ Yep, I second that - top weekend. Cheers to everyone involved but especially Bash for organising this & to Will & Hank for getting me airborne.

Hey Mark, I'm hoping to tip up just after midday on Friday for a sneaky Friday PM fly - where abouts should I park up & which field are we pitching tents in? Looking forward to this!

I see that Dakine do still do the Storm & Fusion seat harnesses. They're definitely the way to go for standard seat harnesses and will get you hooked in without any pratting about. As mentioned, the climbing harness option does have some advantages but is not as straight forward as they are obviously not designed for attaching kites, so there's more bits you need to get your head around and buy.

Personally I wouldn't, as it's a hybrid waist/seat harness. So even with the 'seat'/legs bit attached the spreader bar will be higher up your torso. When buggying you're generally flying with the kite out to the side of you (rather than more in front when landboarding or kite surfing) so with the spreader bar higher up it'll be twisting you and putting strain on your back. I buggied for a few hours with a waist harness once and it was not comfortable at all. I'm sure that over time it wouldn't be good for your back. Don't get me wrong, I've got a waist harness for landboarding which I love but they're not the way to go for buggying.

Ok, so for buggying you need to be looking at either seat or climbing harnesses. Don't even consider a waist harness as it'll do your back no good in a buggy and the pull from the kite will be too high meaning less stability. For standard seat harnesses the Dakine ones are pretty good - either a Storm or a Fusion (if they still do those models). The Fusion is a bit larger/comfier but I used to use a Storm and it was absolutely fine. The spreader bars are normally extra so make sure you check this when buying. A standard spreader bar will do just fine initially for your fixed bridles and will also mean you can unhook fairly easily if you need to in an emergency (just pull both handles towards you and the strop will just fall off the spreader bar) and you can let the kite flag out on your killers. This is probably the safest way to start hooking in. The only thing you have to watch for is if you don't let the harness take all the strain (i.e. if you take too much of the pull through your arms still) then the strop may go slack and fall off when you don't want it to. The standard spreader bar will also be absolutely fine if/when you move to depower and pretty much all depowers now have a top-hat type safety so again, flagging the kite out in an emergency will be easy. If you want to progress further with handles then you will probably want to use a pulley & quick release type system so the strop can't fall off the spreader bar. This usually involves using a wichard type quick release and a pulley or a block of some type. There are many threads on this - just do a search in the buggying section using words like 'pulley' or 'quick release' or 'wichard', etc. You will also reduce your results down if you also search for threads/posts posted by me (SteveD) as I posted a load of questions on this a while back, as did a poster called 'Frayz' so it's worth searching for his posts too. I'm now using a climbing harness (Petzl Calidris). The main advantage of climbing harnesses is that they don't crush your crown jewels, are nice and cool in the summer and also tend to bring the pulley/handles closer to you which generally gives a better feel of control. If you go down th climbing harness route then go for one designed for big wall climbing which generally means the straps are wider (40mm) and have better padding (e.g. Petzl Calidris or Corax. Black Diamond is another good make too). Whatever you do, do see if you can try it on before you buy to ensure you get the right size, and preferably see if the shop has a facility for you to hang off so you can feel what it's like when being pulled from different directions, etc. - most decent climbing & kiting shops do. Hope this helps.

^^ Yep - those are the ones. They also sometimes slip completely out of the clip. I might play with your idea of reducing them right down and knotting it to stop them slipping through. But I think ultimately I'll replace them with sewn in webbing instead. I agree - love my climbing harness too. This is only a minor niggle really as it so much better and more comfortable than my old seat nappy.

^^ Hey Pete, Yep - I'm doubling back the straps but they still seem to slip a bit during a resonably powered session of ground rotations. I'm looking at adding some additional buckles or something to reduce this. I'll try tightening the leg straps and wearing them a bit lower - I do maybe wear them a bit loose now I think about it. I think replacing the rear straps will help a fair bit though. I got some webbing on the way home tonight so I'll give it a go in the next couple of days. Cheers for the tips guys - I'll hopefully be in a position to post up how I get on after the weekend.

I presume you mean to replace the elastic straps that run between the leg straps and the waist band with non-elasicated ones? - yep, that could be worth a go.

Ok, my current setup is: Petzl Calidris climbing harness with bow sackle in place of the belay loop. Attached to the bow shackle is a Wichard QR and then a Petzl mini pulley. This all works really well but I do find that during a session the waist band of the harness rides up a bit (even though the leg straps are done up nice & tight). The main issues with this are: 1. this effectively makes my center of gravity higher so therefore a bit less stable. 2. means my handles end up further away which can obviously be an issue with reach. 3. makes it slightly uncomfortable. So, anyone got any climbing harness mods to counter this? I have heard that a few of the freestylers/buggy jumpers are using some sort of climbing harness mods developed by Rob Hills - anyone know about this? Also, I have tried having the shackle/wichard/pulley, etc, exiting from under my lapbelt rather than over it. This does help a lot with stopping the harness riding up and keeps everything nice and tight. Does anyone else do this? Are there any issues with doing this? I guess I have a slight concern that it may be putting too much strain on the lapbelt and it does make the lapbelt dig in to my belly slightly. But with a bit of padding over the lapbelt to assist with comfort this may be the solution. Any ideas?

^^ Just to add - one sleeve will not fit all headstocks. The internal diameter of each headstock does seem to vary slightly for some reason and isn't necessarily an even diameter all the way through either. So the 3 that I've had done have all had to have their sleeves machined specifically to fit and each headstock was shaved down slightly first to ensure an even diameter all the way through. I purchased one length of mild steel tube (ensure it's the rolled/seamless variety) which was then cut down into 3 pieces. Each of the 3 was then made to fit each specific headstock. I also couldn't find any tubing with exactly the correct internal diameter so each sleeve also had to be machined internally so the bearings were a nice press fit. It's all a bit fiddly but dead easy for anyone who has the right tools the skills to use them. Luckily I've got access to a machine shop and a nice bunch of friendly engineers at work.

For what it's worth I've recently done this bearing mod on 3 sets of headstocks/forks and used 2 x HK2520 and 1 x HK2526 for each one. These 3 bearings together come to 66mm. So including the 2 x bushings trimmed down to 7mm each = a total of 80mm which is perfect. The other thing to note was that one of the sets of forks was quite badly worn but still ran really smoothly in the bearings without any dressing or work to smooth them out. It's a really good mod this. Will save wear on forks and bushings, eliminates that really anoying squeak that always seems to develop with the standard Flexi headstock setup and I reckon it'll last for years. The only thing I found was it runs so freely and smoothly that it took a session or two to get completely used to it, as steering response is incredibly light now - especially reversing at speed. Cheers to everyone on this thread for sharing the idea and info, etc.

Hey Mark, Just dropped you a PM.

Hey Mark, I'll probably be up for 17th/18th for a buggy spot and will book in the next day or so, but just want to check a few more bits first ...... Do you have any idea of rough start & finish times yet? I presume it'll be turn up on the Saturday, pitch tent, etc, & get flying. Then finish on the Sunday when everyone has had enough? Cheers, Steve.

Hey Mark, Now I'm semi recovered from Wallop this is really appealing to me. I'll have a chat with the missus tonight and get back to you with which date, etc. Just one question though - I'd be looking to go for a buggy spot but would really like a short chat about my boarding skills too. Do you think that'd be possible? Cheers, Steve. P.S. Good to meet you at the weekend by the way & cheers for your help. Did the HQ guys enjoy themselves?