mecdave

And if you use left-hand drill bits with a reversable drill, the stub may screw itself out if the drill bit snags it, instead of screwing itself into the axle.

You got it Louise. Thank you and great job!

I like it! I like it alot! It's got good lively music instead of the usual droll hard rock. Then you sinc-ed the vid bits perfectly and told the rest of the story with the cool text. Two thumbs up! Mind if I feature it on my website? I can host it too if your bandwith gets sucked up.

Somebody mention camo? [/url] http://buggytexas.com/images/camo4.jpg

Speedos are acceptable for guy buggys, I guess. But I really prefer the gals wear thongs. (Etrex)

I received some good advice in this thread.

Using two wrenches tighten the nut and bolt together through the wheel hub first. Then thread the bolt into the axle and tighten until good and snug. Finally tighten the nut to the axle. To disassemble, loosen the nut first.

Yes, all Libres use a 12mm bolt up front. The Full Race (and the wider forks) also have a large hole if you want to use a 20mm bolt instead, though I believe it would need to be a custom machined bolt/stud. Edit: Post amended. There are actually four fork widths as pointed out in the post below mine. Standard, Midi, Bigfoot Lite, and Full Bigfoot 280mm. SavUK, yes, the flexi wide tires easily fit the Libre rims, though you will need the mid-width fork as mentioned in another post.

I have a Libre Full Race (which comes galvanized and powdercoated already) sandblasted, galvanized and powdercoated again. It rusted over in two years. I blame three factors. One, the company that sandblasted it wasn't the same company that did the rest of the work so it likely sat bare and unprotected for some undertermined time. Bare steel will start rusting instantly in damp weather. Two, I didn't specify a rust resistant powder coat paint. Apparently they aren't all created equal. Three, I didn't care for it as well as I should have. I buggy at the beach and tend to leave the buggy loaded in the trailer between trips without washing off or waxing. That sort of treatment hasn't affected my other full race, so I'm sure the above two factors had more to do with it, but had I rinsed and waxed it on occasion I probably would have gotten at least a couple more years out of it. My suggestion? Get it galvanized (it's actually part of the process) and powdercoated as soon as it's built by a reputable shop that deals with items that are regularly subjected to salty environments. In other words, find a shop near the coast. PS Cost was $170 USD for sandblasting and powdercoating 10 pieces. which was very cheap in my opinion. Powdercoating is an in-expensive method that usually yields the best results... provided you take the proper precautions as outlined above.

Great! I didn't think about DHL. They're fairly new in the US but their service has been excellent on the few items delivered here. Good winds!

Write to Onestop. Surely they would know. I've bought foils from Aus that were delivered by the regular mail service and was only slightly higher in postage than items mailed whithin the US. Does UPS deliver there? That would be your best bet for larger items like tires.

They won't answer. You need to go through a dealer. Give Jon Ellis a call at the Buggy Speed Shop. He has a close relationship with Skyline Wings, but if it's not in stock expect a month or longer (sometimes much longer) wait while it's shipped from Germany.

Sounds good on paper but it's not entirely accurate. See my other post above.

I had the same thing happen only it was a beautiful blonde in a bikini. Her and her boyfriend were sitting on a beach blanket when I went by the first time. On the return trip several minutes later I could see her boyfriend say something to her while looking at me, so she gets up and walks right in front of me! I yell at her to please stop, she does, and not being into threesomes I safely passed her on the downwind side and continued on. Thanks for the close-up though!

The reason a buggy doesn't handle well in reverse is due to the positive caster (rake) in the front fork. When going backwards it becomes negative caster and thus unstable. Same thing happens with a car in reverse. The stunt cars you see in movies driving fast in reverse have had their front end aligned to neutral or negative caster for stability in reverse. In the US you will see homebuilt 3 wheelers with a single rear wheel steering (classified as motorcycles thus not required to pass crash and emmisions laws). They are very stable going forward as their caster angle is set appropriately for rear wheel steering. Hope that helps. Just don't ask me how well it would work in a buggy.

Remind me to never take you fishing John.

Hey Sean, sorry for highjacking the thread, but did you make it down to Mexico yet? Find any good beaches there? Worth planning a group trip?

Oh here come the excuses. I thought sure you were going to use the one where Bison would have won had he not been startled into crashing his Plus by AJ running the race in reverse with an NPW. :D:D (gotta love the race scene in America!) Time to end this foolishness. I just ordered a 3.0 Vampir from the old man. Price and availability won out. You might want to check up on him though. He hasn't been heard from since he went out to the garage to check his stock. See ya on the beach!

So Bison had to give his +s to Peter Lynn after the circuit races? WOW! Why are you still talking? ROTFLMAO! PS My apologies to Kurt. I have only met him once and never seen him buggy. Didn't mean to imply he wasn't 'worthy'. Any given day...

Oh look there's one of those rabid + fliers now! John, I've been flying my Razors and RMs at SBBB/NABX quite well for the past two years thank you very much. Skill wasn't the factor, enjoyment was. The days when it was blowing out of the north and gusting I did fly the race foils some but I didn't enjoy having to keep constant watch over them. A good day for me on the playa is more than just what the max speed on the gps says. In fact I never even turned it on this year. Just looking for something smooth, newer tech, and more than just a beginners foil. Thanks for the suggestion of the Vampir, that might fit the bill. Now if you're talking about Jon pulling away from Kurt in a Yakuza, get back to me after he can say he did the same to an equally qualified pilot like Eli under varying conditions. Remember, on any given day...

Thanks for all the suggestions. It looks like I may be first on my block with a Gin Yos, Vio, or U-turn as those foils aren't readilly available over here, or maybe a Sami (wish they weren't so expensive). I'm not really interested in an arc type. I've seen how well they work, but to my way of thinking, 'letting go' to depower when in trouble is counter intuitive and a couple of bad crashes friends have had tends to back up those thoughts. I could be wrong though as I wasn't there when they happened. I found the comment about the RM+ having lost it's edge very interesting. The die hard + pilots over here are already taking potshot comments at the Yakuza, which tells me they're nervous that a Yak in the right hands might beat them. Agree time will tell, should be interesting. Thanks again all.

The first time I buggied Ivanpah was with a Quadrifoil XL (4.9m). The run several miles upwind from camp went smooth and quick. By the time I turned around though dust devils were starting to blow across the playa. The run back to camp went fast, too fast. When it came time to slow down I tried to scrub upwind and only went faster. Normally you would bring the foil up overhead slowly at this point but was afraid of getting yanked out... my roomie got ejected by a dust devil the first day, got a serious road rash, and had to go home. The only other thing I could think of doing was to bleed downwind. Fortunately I had plenty of room to do this, though I was already well past camp and would run out of lakebed if I didn't do something soon. I made a large enough turn downwind that the foil actually landed even though I was still going over 40mph. I found by adjusting my arc that I could keep the foil inflated and bouncing lightly on the playa as I continued to slow down. By the time I rolled to a stop I had done a complete 360 and the foil was parked and ready to launch directly downwind from me. Instead I rolled the XL up and set out a XM (3.5m). I had been warned that the afternoon winds would build so was glad I had brought a smaller foil along. Launched it and found I was still over powered! Twice more I had to do the 360 trick to slow down and catch my breath before making it back upwind to camp. It was then I checked the GPS max speed. It was only 45.4 but it sure seemed faster and is fast enough for this ol' fart. Been that fast since then on Ivanpah and nearly that fast on my home beach. Doing it on the beach is much less nerve wracking though. Softer landings.

I've been spoiled by smooth beach winds and found myself virtually sidelined at the past NABX event with my Razors and JOJOs on the gusty days. Time to round out the bag with a couple stable foils in the 2 to 3.5m range. Speed is not important as the hard surface of the dry lake beds guarantees anything will be fast enough. So, what is your favorite stable, higher wind foil? Extra points for quality.

Psst... Big John (JoJo1) is the messenger. Mike 'Lack-O-Slack' Dooley was the defendant. Excellent job Mike, you are the MAN!!!

Can't. Still got chores to finish out at the ranch so I'll have plenty of time to play this fall. Much more of this and you'll be able to call me a 'cedar chopper' without me taking offense.