Slartibartfast

Zebras are great entry level buggies. The three buggies I've had are the PL, Zebra and Sysmic S1. My most common recommendations for newbies is to get started with a Zebra and when upgrade time comes to progress to the S2. To answer the question though, the Zebra is definitely easier to strip and re-build than the Sysmic, but not as easy as the PL. Unfortunately, there seems to be an inverse relation ship between the 'goodness' of a bug and the ease with which it is assembled Are you aware the Zebra is essentially a cheaper version of the Libre? If youR looking for an 'upgrade' buggy a Libre (such as a Vmax) could be a viable option. Libre do make very good buggies and before the Sysmics came onto the market the Libre's were the upgrade buggy of choice. Personally I think you get better bug for you buck with the Sysmics these days but that's not to rule out Libres completely. If the Vmax assembles much like the Zebra (which I suspect it would) it could well be the right bug for you. Another thing I've just realised you may not be aware of is that all the 'upgrade' buggies (including the Zebra) are significantly longer than the PL. In the PL you'll find the rear axle is just behind your back while the other bugs all have extended side rails which pushes the rear wheels further back, leaving you more centrally mounted. This makes a much nicer ride but does mean you need to find a little extra space when packing. Some models of Libre have optional extenders that you can add between your side rail and axle to lengthen the buggy by a foot or so. Possibly an 'extendable' Libre without the extenders might suit you. Hopefully John may be able to advise you on that.

I reckon you'll find stripping and rebuilding an S2 every time you go out will get old really quick! I've only ever built an S1 so can't comment with firsthand knowledge on the S2 but I can assure you building these beasts is not a trivial task. I don't know about you, but if I were required to assemble then disassemble my bug every time I took to the beach this would seriously impair my ability to get motivated. I'm not exactly sure what it is about the Sysmics that is so much harder to deal with than the PL buggies but they do require a lot more work. I guess there just that much heavier and the tolerances are so much tighter and so forth, so while it looks like there isn't that much more to them there ends up being a fair bit to it. For instance, it looks like that rear axle just has 2 bolts on each side rail so taking it off should be a easy job of just whipping off 4 bolts, but the bolts require spanners on both sides and when you take them out you've got 4 bolts and 4 nuts to drop in the sand, then those side rails actually fit fairly tight, and I really had to pull mine apart hard to get the axle in -and don't forget you've got that backrest holding the side rails together which you may need to loosen. Then the down tube/swan neck has 4 double sided bolts as well and two of them are mooshed in behind the side rail padding and... You get the idea. Now I love Sysmics and really think they represent great value for dosh, but if your seriously looking at stripping the beast down every session, man, if I were you I'd be opting for something a little more manageable. (If I were me however, I'd be opting for a different way to transport the Sysmic )

After a bit of deliberation I went for the SixSixOne Comp II Helmet myself: Note: "sixsixone" is one word. The main reason I opted for the SixSixOne is it is one of few helmets that fit my "Transcend" goggles. Transcend goggles are very particular about where they sit on your face and I found the SixSixOne let them sit exactly where they're required, so SixSixOne it was for me As for full/open, it really is much of a muchness... Any motorcyclist would be mad to race in anything other than a full face but one thing about racing bikes is when you come off you can expect to slide along pavement for quite a distance before finally coming to rest. For 'cruser' riders I've heard it said that open faces are actually preferable to full face because if you do impact the ground one is far more likely to break there neck if wearing a full face due to the chin protruding out such a long way -and unlike your jaw the 'chin' of a helmet has virtually no 'give' in it. So while your clearly much more likely to give your face a good mushing with an open faced helmet you are less likely to break your neck and given 'cruiser' riders aren't expecting to slide over asphalt like racers are prone to doing some say the face-grazing/neck-breaking trade off is in favor of open faces That being said, what you most concerned about is no doubt your melon and when it comes to mellon protection there is no substitute for padding. While were not talking about motorcycles on the highway here we are still talking about significant speed on relatively hard surfaces and unfortunately none of the 'extreme sport' helmets have anywhere near enough padding to be considered "safe". While there really is no compromise for a proper DOT rated helmet that much needed padding does make them surprisingly 'fat' on your head and even an open-faced helmet kind of leaves you feeling like a bit of a 'mushroom top' in the buggy Originally I got one of these helmets for buggying: I thought it would be really good because it had a propper amount of padding and I figured that swivel visor would come in handy but I scaresly ended up using it because it was just too 'fat' and my goggels where held off my face a little and just didn't work. Which brings us to the Protec: Loved by skateboarders, BASE jumpers and white water rafters alike this is probably the best actual protection you'll find in an 'extreme sports' helmet. 'Gath' is another common brand of helmet used primarily by surfers: But the only thing a Gath would be good for in kiting is something to mount your camera on Surfers use them as they are good for "spreadding the load" if you strike your head on a reef or get clobbered by your own board but they have scaresly any padding and would be next to useless if you pounded your head against the sand. Hope that helps. (:

.Joels status on Skype reads: Which (if you're a geek) essentially means someone accidentally re-formatted his hard-drive so to speak

I am confident this image is genuine: Here's a link to the article: http://www.whitesharktrust.org/pages/me ... dia25.html

Spectacular!

Very nice John. Very, very nice

I'm always keen I have also been championing the "Simpson Crossing Thread" if you haven't seen it. There was a bit of a discussion about the "Encounter Bay Run" in there too: That one appears to be the "Kingston" link I submitted before Is this the kind of thing you're thinking: http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=203 ... 310fa9146e It appears to be 180km-ish as well. All I'm really after is westerlies turning south throughout the weekend, and in fact we might have exactly that on our way now! Given perfect conditions it should be doable in a day but I like the adventure of camping out Last week down at Kingstone there was one day where the winds were almost perfect and I easily averaged 50km/h down to the Granities. At that rate the whole beach stretch could have been done in 4 hours! It is a fair drive (about 800km between us), but hell, I'd do the drive for such an adventure

Here are a couple of old ones:

Linkey??? I'm always up for an adventure!!! My current pet project is to do the "Encounter Bay Run" (from Kingston SE to Goolwa). It's 180km and I plan to take a few days to complete it. Would you be interested in this run? Also, have you seen this thread from a few years ago? It's only short but might give you something to chew on. Anyway, if you really are serious I'm proper keen for such an adventure :good:

Although the dust of Kingston has scarcely settled I can't help but notice a blast from the south looks due to hit Goolwa Saturday evening (and the tide should be way out all weekend). Anyone up for another session

Hehe, I was just typing an explanation when your question came through. It's a computer generated reproduction of M.C. Escher's "Möbius Strip II (Red Ants)" A Möbius strip is a shape that is famous for having only one surface It looks like there are two sides to that strip but if you were to pick a point on the strip and follow it around you would find that you would travel "half way" round and find yourself on the opposite side to where you began. If you were to continue following the surface you would eventually wind up back at you original starting location having traversed "both" "sides" but with out ever having "changed" sides. This is because although at first glance it appears to have "two sides" a Möbius Strip actually consists of a "single surface". So, it's a particularly geekey way of representing the number one; because a Möbius Strip is famous for having only one surface. Here is an example of Escher's original work:

Hmm, that is looking good. A lot better than it did a few days ago How does Kingston work with easterlies? Normally were after westerlies but the land is pretty flat so easterlies may well work fine, though I suspect an easterly is even more likely to swing south in the afternoon/evening.

Fortunatly don't seem to have such fears either, but if someone where to place a large cold beer in front of me boy do I jump! Wonder what the name for that condition is??

Apparently the most common way for people to be killed by spiders is by having them drop from the sun visor whilst driving So I guess you could say more people die of arachnophobia than spiders - so in tern, rather than being afraid of spiders people should be afraid of being afraid of spiders

Hehe, I like it. I was thinking of posting a Figure of 8 knot and was trying to think of a way to make an "8kn" reference but thought I'd leave it and see if anyone else came up with something. I like yours John

Rather than polluting the main forum with another thread I thought I'd tack on to this one

Before I asked if anyone would be interested in doing the 4x4 track between Robe and Beachport but haven't had any interest yet. Anyway, a fellow I was in contact with on a 4x4 forum drove to track over the Christmas/New Year period and spoke very highly of it. He also wrote a trip report here and attached a couple of very good documents if anyone is interested. I was thinking if any Victorians are up to it we could meet at Beachport and take the "back way" into Robe on the way to Kingston. The track should be easily doable in a day. Any takers? The other possibility would be to head off for a bash should we encounter a luck luster day at Kingston itself. As I said before I'd love to do this track but am reluctant to attempt it on my own