High speed buggying. How?

[anc]

um. the subject tells the story, I'm interested in High Speed buggying. been buggying for a few years. 2 or 3. I want to know how exactly do you ride so fast? what kind of moves do you do with your kite? figure 8's? just keep it still? keep the kite high? keep it low? do you go downwind? upwind? with the wind from your side? how?

[Aussiewalrus1599968582]

Going downwind is the trick (or at least the first thing you should be doing). The big limiter with buggying is as you get faster the apparent wind (ie the wind as you and the kite feel it while you are moving) moves around so you are flying closer and closer to the wind. Eventually you are as close as you can get and you wont go any faster.

 

This is a bit basic and i'm sure others will explain it better.

 

I find that (if you have a big space to buggy in) you get close to the wind first, and then slowly turn downwind to keep the apparent wind at bay. Or you can initially turn downwind, and then work the kite until the speed kicks in. There will be a point where you are at the perfect angle to the wind, and that's the fastest you will go.

 

hope that makes sense and im sure people can explain it better than me

[Tom183]

Higher winds help too - if you can cruise at 2-3x windspeed with the kite at a good angle, then a 10mph wind = 20-30mph buggy speed, 20mph wind = 40-60mph buggy speed.

 

Some kites are better than others - I've gotten 28mph from the Razor 6.8 in about 7 1/2mph winds.

[dunx2022]

I tend to buggy "across" the wind with buggy at 90 to the wind, kite 45 from the ground and 45 to the wind, buggying like this you should lose no ground and won't end up with a big walk back!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Of course you won't get the speed you would from a down wind run but no walk back............what do you prefer?

The offer downer with downwind riding is you catch up the kite and de-power it and then run over your lines wrapping them round your wheels 60,000 times

If you get the angle right you still fly!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Muttley]

the equipment u use will have a big impact on how fast u can go

 

the high side rails & huge axle on my cameleon enable me to fly a much larger kite than i could handle in any other buggy (click on sig for photo)

 

harnessed to a large race kite means it can be simply parked quite low in the wind window, dabbing the brake lines occasionally to prevent it from overflying. if the winds drops slightly, it can be flown in a sine wave motion to keep momentum going. if the wind picks up slightly, the worst that can happen is the buggy will slide sideways slowing me down and so flying the optimum kite for any given wind conditions is critical

 

also disk wheels make a huge difference on compact sand and grass, but are useless in the soft stuff

 

imho, the more expensive the kit bag... the faster u will go

[dunx2022]

Wow, that's some buggy ya got there, Muttley

[Tom183]

Skill comes first, but yeah, then equipment starts to pay off - was buggying today with a more experienced guy, but he had a C-Quad 2.2 and a Peter Lynn, I had a Bullet 3.5 and my Flexi buggy with the wide tires and extra wide/long rear axel. On downwind runs he was topping out around 36mph with some sideways dragging, I made it to 41.4mph (new personal best) and might have gone faster with fewer pedestrians around and smoother sand (beach was a little rough in places - which you really start to notice at 35mph+ ). (upwind I had a definite edge, but still had to pay attention to stay ahead of that C-Quad.)

 

The more sideforce your buggy can hold, the more power you can use and the higher your top speed - downside is, all that extra power pulls you out easier...

 

Speed is pretty cool, passing other buggiers is even cooler, but avoiding major injuries is the best - not likely I'll go much bigger than what I've got right now.

[Tom183]

P.S.: Dunx - definitely had that stupid grin in my bag today, maybe thats all you really need:D.

[anc]

Muttley very cool buggy ! nice! homemade? I don't get the riding downwind thingy. ok I can ride downwind, zigzag but I don't get much speed cos I have to turn very sharply. I got the best speeds yesterday on an old soviet airfield(just imagine the paradise, 2miles of concrete, 150feet wide) with my kite pretty low and directly on my side. this was downwind, but not directly downwind. the kite low on my side works well cos it doesn't have to have a strong pull to pull me.

 

so an extra wide back axel helps a lot? hmm, thats not hard to make.

 

 

The offer downer with downwind riding is you catch up the kite and de-power it and then run over your lines wrapping them round your wheels 60,000 times

now thats what happened to me yesterday a lot.

[Aussiewalrus1599968582]

by downwind we mean an angle slightly bigger than 90 degrees to the wind, and upwind is slightly less than 90 degrees. Buggying with the wind directly behind you doesnt work very well, cos any forward buggy speed will cancel out the wind speed and you wont go very fast (as I'm sure you have realised)

 

The whole concrete thing sounds a bit scarey to me. Can you imagine comming off at the sort of speeds buggys can get up to? Plus no powersliding

[anc]

who said no powersliding? um, they are possible. did a few yesterday, the concrete was wet from rain. with big tires like mine they are possible.

[Aussiewalrus1599968582]

much more fun on sand tho'

[anc]

I agree:) but is my method any good? low and on my side.

[Aussiewalrus1599968582]

bloody hell, that was a quick reply! Yeah sounds right, low and on the side.

[anc]

but any idea what to do when (the kite is low and on the side) and starts to sink to the ground? turn away go get some wind for the kite? stop and run it up again? what?

[Aussiewalrus1599968582]

I always find that keeping tension in the lines is the important thing, so I'd turn away from the kite to stop it collapsing. Once you get up to a decent speed (assuming the wind is not behind you) you shouldnt have this problem, but until you get that speed, you will need to work the kite up and down to stop it overflying the buggy and collapsing.

 

hope that make sense

[windjammer1599968715]

some good reading here

[Jerry_R]

Interesting but you will only probably get up to twice the wind speed as theoretical max is about 2.6.

[johnk]

Anc,

 

If the kite is losing power and dropping then you need to turn slightly towards the wind. As you turn you get more tension in the lines and the kite will power up again.

 

The trick is to keep making small adjustments towards the wind until you find the angle to the wind where the kite is fully powered up and you still have grip... just. it should feel like your back wheels are constantly trying to slide, but not quite managing it. At this point the kite will be lowish and to your side.

 

You'll probably find this is at an angle which is slightly downwind.

 

You don't mention what kind if kite you fly but most kites will develop a little more power if you tweak the breaks slightly when they're powered up, otherwise a good move is to keep the kite as low as possible and work it up and down like a wave. Depends on the conditions though.

 

Having the kite low and to your side is the right way to go about it, but basically the further in front of you you can get the kite while it's fully powered up the better.

 

Hope that all makes sense!

 

JK

[jeffrington]

Johnk, i think you'll find that Anc last logged in 3 years ago, he may be past caring

[Sand-Yeti]

Johnk, i think you'll find that Anc last logged in 3 years ago, he may be past caring

 

I noticed that as well. anc's question does indeed go back a few years.

 

It looks like Windjammer somehow picked up on that and opened the thread again.

[johnk]

AH.... I seeeee

 

 

Still, interesting thread though.