khooke

glad you're ok... I like the way the guy who was filming just keeps on filming watching you get dragged for a ride...

Check out the Tuesday video from SOBB here for some clips from my ATC-2000 mounted on the back axle of my buggy. The video is ok, but not as good as you'd expect from a camcorder. But then you get what you pay for, plus there's no moving parts, not much to break, it's waterproof, shockproof etc, a pretty good deal I'd say: http://community.flexifoil.com/showthread.php?t=128452

Here's a few clips from 3 days at SOBB '07, Sunset Beach in Oregon: Monday - 7-10mph winds - not much action - did some cruising with my 12.5m Blaze: Tuesday morning - some clips from the camcorder and my helmet cam on my buggy, flying my Pansh Blaze 12.5m in 10-12mph winds: Wednesday - the best wind of the 3 days while we were there - this is a collection of a load of stuff - winds were 13-17mph:

I never personally buggy without my harness... I can't hang on to the kite for long enough without my arms pulling out of their sockets! Would I let a 7 yr old buggy with a harness? I'd start him with just handles and see how he gets on. You don't need a harness, but it's a nice luxury to have if you're going to be buggying for longer than you can hang onto the kite with just your arms. Knowing from all the OBE's I've had though, they've all been worsened significantly from being strapped in - if I was just on handles with no harness it would have been easy to just let go (doesn't mean I would of though... too stubborn) instead of dragged on my back through bushes etc. Even with just a strop looped round the hook on my harness (ie non-captive) it's still near impossible for me to get the strop off my harness hook when I've been dragged along the ground like a rag doll - something to bear in mind...

Here's a couple of clips buggying with the 12.5m Pansh Blaze, in about 8-12mph wind:

rear axle bolts on my 1997 std Flexi I know are 12mm. And if you're looking for bearings, they are '6201' preferably with '2RS' on the end of that number (2 rubber seals?) - dimensions are 12mmx32mmx10mm

They were impressive at the time! (compared with my std Flexi buggy anyway!)

would you get the same benefit from BF lites on the back but sticking with the std on the front? I might try out lites on the back and then depending how it goes fork out for a new fork for the front also?

That's the same that I just bought. Used it for 4 hours at the weekend and seemed pretty sterdy to me. Even under loading being dragged across the grass it was still tunring nice and smooth. Actually I was surprised how smooth it does turn - first time I've used a pulley in combo with my harness and was surprised at a new world of control that I've just discovered

Thanks for the offer. Their website mentions they used to sell the 6201 2RS bearings which are the same as the std Flexi wheels, so I'm assuming that's what they take.

If you wonder what I'm taking about, here's a link to the Spider website - not sure if they are still in busines or not, but their website is still up: http://www.spidertraction.ic24.net/public~1/Kart-e.htm

I picked up a Spider Buggy wheel as a replacement for one of my standard Flexifoil wheels a long time back (one of my bearings had completely seized while I was buggying at the Ho! and the whole bearing casing was rotating in the hub and melted the hub.... nice :-) Anyway, from eyballing the bearing casing (I haven't popped one out to check yet), it looks like the bearing casing is larger than the bearing rings I have in my standard Flexi barrow wheels - although is this because it has some sort of plastic seal on the front of the casing overlapping with the hub? Anyone know what I'm talking about? Also, I noticed recently that industrial supply places stock bearings and from the pictures they look identical to what I currently have in my Flexifoil barrow wheels (KBC bearings). Are the exact dimensions for std Flexi wheel bearings 32x12x10 (not sure what order these should be in, but 12mm diameter for the bolt, 32mm total diameter across and 10mm wide)?

I just tried out a Ronstan Series 40 block this weekend and was really please with it. It's not a snap block like the HA, but I was really pleased with how freely it rotated even under load. It's also much cheaper than the HA.

The standard wheels are fine on the hardpacked sand close to where the tide has gone out. For the rest of the beach where the sand has dried or above the high tide mark, you'll need something like BFs otherwise you'll just get stuck. Been eyeing up BF lites recently, and wonder myself how much of a difference they make?

What are the dimensions on the Duro bigfoot lites you are using? I've found a couple of garden supply type stores that carry Duro tyres, but if I ask them for tyres to fit my kite buggy wheels they're obviously not going to have a clue what I'm talking about :-)

aha - cool! Ok, so do you need to put a special (wider?) inner tube in a BFL to fill the wider space in the tyre?

do BFLs fit on standard barrow rims?

My 40 was my first 4line traction kite back in 1997 - still use it today, and it flies just as good as it did when I first bought it - it's definitely my 'old realiable' - very predicatble and no surprises. I have a Hi60 as well that doesn't get as much flight as it used to. It's made with the lightweight polyester 'Icarex' that I haven't seen another kite made with since. It's very light and thin.. flies in the lightest of winds. If you can feel the wind this thing will fly. Pull for buggying starts around 6mph. Funny thing is originally I bought it online from the US (from WindPowerSports I think) and paid the customs to have it imported to the UK, and at the time still worked out cheaper than buying it in the UK, and now I'm living in California (still, the savings was in the pound to dollar conversion rate).

I've seen a couple of vids around somewhere where the camera is attached either to the the kite or the kite line which gives some great action shots when buggying. I just got a Oregon Scientific ATC-2k and I'm wondering what is the best way to attach it to one of my 4lines to get similar action shots. It seems to make sense that the normal 'cradle' type contraption used for kite aerial photography is not going to work since you don't want the camera swinging around up there while you're looping you kite etc. I was thinking of tightly wrapping something like a sheet of foam round one of the lines to make a bulky attachment point, and then strap the camera mounting around this. Seems like it will work - going to try it out later. Anyone else done this or have any ideas?

Here's a short clip of me going 34mph at NABX 07 this year, using a 2m Quadrifoil Q2002 in 30mph wind on an original Flexifoil buggy... I tried putting up my Skytiger 40 in this wind and was well overpowered, so my 2m was the next smallest I have. If I had a 3m I think I could have gone much faster... there were plenty of other people out in this wind doing much faster than I was... good times :-)

ok guys, so what's the final verdict, is it worth to keep waiting for a Combat to appear, look for a Century to be had for a bargain, or consider something else that's more easily available right now (dare I say it, a Yak?) ?? PS. G - doesn't your custom colour scheme resemble the colours the original Preds came in (can't see if that's red or orange on my screen, but looks pretty impressive either way ) Cheers, Kev

Simon - thanks for the info. If the Combat is anything like the Century then I'm sure it's going to be an awesome kite Anyone flown both a Combat and a Yak? How do the two compare?

Sorry to dig up an old thread, but when on earth are the Combats ever going to be sold to the general public? And for that matter, I heard a Century II was on the way - any idea when that will come out? Seems like PKD sponsored riders have had Combats for about 2 years now, but still not on sale? Are they still being refined, or are they never going to be sold? Ozone seem to be cranking out new kites (and damn good ones as well) every year, whereas PKD seem to be stuck back in early 2000s with still nothing new coming out. Their main website hasn't been updated for ages, neither have their UK or US distributor websites. Are PKD about to disappear, or are they still in business? Not sure if the original poster of this thread got their Century or not, but I've had a 4.5 Century for about 6 months now, and it is a truely awesome kite - it's power amazes me every time I fly it. My only complaint is that it's usable wind window seems pretty narrow about 15mph seems to be it's sweet spot for me. Any more and it whips my butt, any less and it doesn't give enough pull for buggying. That said, if the wind is in this sweetspot it really is an awesome kite for cruising along in the buggy. Cheers, Kev

The seat on my original Flexi buggy lasted since '97 when I bought it until last year when I replaced it. The webbing staps lasted and one of the plastic buckles was jammed, but that was fine since I never removed it. I only replaced it last year because my harness had rubbed and worn a hole through one side just beneath the webbing strap. I 'spose I could have tried to have stitched it back together, but there wasn't much to stick the thread through where it had worn thin. I replaced it with a Peter Lynn webbing seat which just about fits but is not as good as the original flexi (doesn't fit quite right). I shopped around for ages on and off looking for a replacement tried a bunch of online stores and couldn't get the same replacement anywhere - just fyi so you know... (can probably get replacements for the newer style flexi bug since they are still available)

I'm stilll shopping around for a large low wind kite, something that will get me rolling in say 5-6mph. Anyone have any experience buggying with a 8.5m or 10m Pants Blaze in low wind? Is it any good? The low price is just too attractive compared with anything else in this size range.